Guest Column: Jack Aitken

Jack Aitken is the next driver to take control of our Guest Column and give you a look behind the scenes - one good point, one bad point and everything in between.

The Campos racer gives you a peak behind the curtains of Round 11. He discusses his drive from 12th to seventh in the Feature Race and lets out his frustrations from the Sprint Race. The Briton also teases his plans for the break between now and Round 12 at Yas Marina.

One Good Point – Making Moves

I’d say that the best part of the weekend on track was coming through to P7 in the Feature Race, which I think was a decent result after a very difficult Qualifying session.

Quali got off to a bad start after a knock with Giuliano Alesi, which meant that I had to dive back into the pits for a new front wing. The team worked really hard to get me back out there with time left to fight, but it meant that I was already a bit behind. We tried to do what we could, but frustratingly, we only managed P12 on the day.

That left us with a lot to do on Saturday to make up some places and get some good points on the board. It was really good fun slicing through the field and making some good moves on the day, but I really had to manage the tyres at the end, which made it difficult to get any higher up. I am pleased with P7 though!

One Bad Point – Sprint Race Woe

That none of those overtakes from Saturday were shown on TV! I thought I’d made some great moves, but somehow, none of them made the cut Laughs.

More so though, was the unfortunate incident at the start of Race 2. I am really pleased that both Nobu Matsushita and Nikita Mazepin got out okay and were not seriously injured, as it was a nasty crash at the start.

It was also frustrating for me personally, because it cost me a chance to fight for the lead off the line. I thought that’d I’d started well and was in a good position to challenge Nikita for the race win. Obviously, we got sent wide at the second turn and then he caught the front of me, which caused the collision. That meant that I was chucked right to the back of the field and gave us a bigger mountain to climb than on Saturday.

I think that we done pretty well to get as high as 11th on the day, but obviously it wasn’t in the points, which is frustrating for us because I felt that we should have come away with a lot more this weekend.

You May Have Missed – Helmet Tribute for Anthoine Hubert

I think that it was really nice for the whole of the Renault Driver Academy - both across F2 and F3 - to wear helmets using Anthoine’s design. It was something that we all really, really wanted to do, as a tribute to him. I thought that it was amazing to see the design throughout the field, with me and Guanyu Zhou in F2 and the three lads in F3.

We managed to get some brilliant shots of the helmets on Thursday as well, which are definitely worth checking out. I was very proud to wear Anthoine’s design and it was very emotional for us all.

Although, I would be very surprised if you missed this!

Next up – The gap to Round 12

I’ll still be keeping busy over the period between now and Abu Dhabi. First of all, it will be very important to keep fit and to continue training, I will be doing a lot of work to ensure that I am as strong as ever for the final round of the season.

On top of that, I’ll be doing some work with Renault in the simulator, and don’t worry, you’ll still be able to catch me on F1 weekends, as I will be travelling to some of the races as a reserve for Renault.

So no need to panic, you’ll still be seeing plenty of me! I’ll be popping up at a few of the races, running around making a nuisance of myself as always! So, come and say hi if you see me about.

See you soon,

Jack AItken