F1 News
Aitken on his single F1 Grand Prix: 'Taking me to my grave'
- GPblog.com
Jack Aitken drove just one race in Formula 1, but that experience has stayed with him forever. In 2020, Aitken replaced George Russell at Williams, who, in turn, replaced the coronavirus-stricken Lewis Hamilton. The Sakhir Grand Prix did not go great for Aitken, as the British-Korean racing driver crashed.
Yet that Grand Prix for Aitken meant much more than just the result. The driver completed an FP1 session ahead of the Styrian Grand Prix. His run away from F1 came to an end at the end of the 2020 Formula 1 season when Aitken stepped into the Williams.
Aitken's only Formula One race
"That memory of being part of the 20 or 22 drivers in the world that get to do that, even if it's just once, that's something I can take to... take to my grave, basically, and be happy that I did that," Aitken told The Race.
Still, Aitken was a little disappointed after the race. "At the time I was massively frustrated with my experience because it looked like I might get a second grand prix in Abu Dhabi because Lewis was still not sure if he'd be recovered in time. I didn't get that, the one race I did I had the accident and that really frustrated me as a driver, just a guy who wants to show what he can do. With the benefit of time and hindsight, I look back and I was like 'actually, all the other stuff that I did, whether it was in practice, in qualy, the rest of the race, I did as good a job as I could've done'."