‘Still a long road ahead’ for ambitious Aston Martin

Henry Valantine
Aston Martin driver ambassador, Jessica Hawkins, 2022.

Jessica Hawkins, Aston Martin driver ambassador and W Series driver, pictured in 2022.

Aston Martin driver ambassador Jessica Hawkins was pleased to see the team score their first points of the season last time out, but added it is a “long road ahead” for them to achieve their ultimate goals.

Having raced towards the back of the field in the early rounds of the season, both Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll earned points finishes at Imola, making the most of mixed conditions to get off the mark for the year.

Team owner Lawrence Stroll has made no secret of his plan to get the team to the front of the field within the next few seasons, but they are yet to make the progress they had hoped for – and Hawkins hopes to see the team “move forward” from here.

Hawkins told PlanetF1: “I think it was nice to get both cars in the points, but we know we’ve got a long road ahead of us and, to be honest, that’s still not where we want to be, so we’ll move forward. But it’s definitely a good step in the right direction.”

The team has had significant investment pumped into it under Stroll’s ownership, with the staff being expanded and the construction of a new factory now under way.

They are not resting on their laurels this season either, with team principal Mike Krack recently revealing the team aim to bring at least one upgrade to every race for the remainder of 2022.

Hawkins, whose W Series season will be getting under way at the weekend in Miami, added the team’s eventual goal is a simple one and they have ideas of how to get there – but they will just have to be patient for now.

“We are here to win races and we are here to win World Championships,” she stated. “I think that’s the only goal we want, but that doesn’t happen overnight.

“We know we’ve got work to do but we have strategies in place to make that happen – it’s just not going to happen overnight, unfortunately.”

We are also pleased to announce Jessica is this week’s special guest on PlanetF1’s show Torquing Point, where we discuss all things W Series ahead of their season beginning in Florida, looking ahead with Aston Martin and her own F1 Firsts – finding out the origins of her love of motorsport.

 

Keep your eyes on PlanetF1.com and our social media channels for when our latest episode is released, and you can watch or listen to our interview in full.

If you missed our most recent episode, you can catch up on Torquing Point as we analyse your comments on the last race in our post-Imola episode here.