Jack Aitken: “We’ll be right up there”

Jack Aitken loves a laugh. From his meme-peppered Twitter feed to his jokey, playful off-track demeanour, the ART Grand Prix ace seems incredibly at ease with himself, relishing his life as a racing driver. He’s just here to have fun, isn’t he?

Yet on track, that’s not what you’ll find; as a driver, he’s a much stronger, steelier Jack Aitken. Proving quite a tough and uncompromising racer, Aitken gave no quarter in his GP3 days in some scintillating scraps and, despite a tough Formula 2 debut weekend in Bahrain, the Anglo-Korean showed flashes of the same determination as he sought to climb through the pack.

Is there a bit of a disconnect between Track Jack and the man we see joking around in his media appearances? Aitken is keen to point out that, if he is to succeed on track, that it’s a necessity to separate them.

“My personality changes,” ponders Aitken. “Well, it’s not that it changes, but it’s a different part of me when I go racing; it’s a different part of my life. I like to have fun off the track and when the helmet’s not on, but obviously when you’re in competition you find a completely different aspect to yourself.

“That’s not saying that you have to be a stone-faced killer, but you have to be really focused and zone in on what you want to achieve. In that respect, you have to have quite a single-minded approach. So it can be quite different. There’s always two sides to it, but there’s no reason not to have a smile off the track.

Eloquently, Aitken addresses the process he goes through before each race to get himself prepared. Maintaining focus and keeping the distractions away from the track, the run up to each race ensures that by the time he’s strapped into the car, he’s aware of the significance of each round and feels ready from the get-go.

“I’ve been racing for quite a few years now, so it comes naturally. A lot of the drivers have their own pre-race routine, but it starts already when you get to race week, or the weekend before. You’re thinking about it and then you’re getting ready to travel. You get to the track and bed yourself into your surroundings, and prepare yourself for practice and quali and racing.

“So before you get in the car you know what’s coming up and you automatically go into that state of mind where you’re quite nervous and quite energised. If you’re in the right place, you feel good about what’s coming up and you feel prepared and you just want to get out there.”

It’s not often that a driver will freely admit to feeling nervous before a race, but Aitken believes that being slightly on edge helps rather than hinders him behind the wheel.

“You have to tap into that nervous energy,” he explains. “If you’re not nervous before a race…the times I haven’t been, it’s gone quite badly, you feel like you don’t have that energy and therefore you’re not up for it. Most of the time, it’s good to feel like that.”

On his promotion to Formula 2, Aitken has wasted little time in preparing himself for the season ahead. Making the jump from GP3, in which he finished second overall last year, he feels that adapting to a more powerful car has been a relatively smooth process thus far.

“It’s all been fairly manageable, most drivers will agree with me that getting used to a quicker car is never difficult – the first time you go out of the pits, sure, it blows your mind a little bit, because you’re just going that little bit quicker compared to what you expect, but a few laps in you’re completely used to it. The first few laps might be a bit of an experience, but after that you settle in really quickly.

“The speed isn’t something you need to get used to, it’s all the quirks of the car you need to learn. The F2 car’s got the turbo, so if we ever find ourselves in really cold, wet conditions – maybe Silverstone! – it’s going to be really difficult to get the power down compared to last year.

“There are new elements involved and get used to with things like strategy and pit stops, and there’s a whole raft of things that go with that so it’s more of the details that you have to think about rather than just the car being quicker. I’m looking forward to seeing how things go.”

At the start of the year, Aitken was named as the Renault Sport Formula One Team’s official Reserve driver, an expanded role from his previous position in the Renault Sport Academy. As well as helping the team out in its pursuit of car development, he also benefits from having use of the simulator and the engineers to continue his growth as a driver.

“The thing that’s changed is that the F1 team are involving me more in things like day-to-day work at the track, so on a race weekend they expect me to come in, watch and learn as much as possible without hindering my F2 responsibilities. It’s getting involved in the driver briefings, talking to the engineers about things, watching Nico [Hülkenberg] and Carlos [Sainz] to see how they operate, and generally being ready in case I am needed. It’s always unlikely, but it’s a possibility so I have to be ready to jump in at a moment’s notice.

“For some of the tracks this year, they’ve let me use the simulator. Not just to help the team, which is what I’m usually doing and helping to develop the car, but they’ve let me use it for track acclimatisation and getting to know those places. The forty-five minute F2 practice session is not long, so I speak with the engineers quite a lot and they’re more than happy to talk it through with me.”

So how is Aitken getting on in his new role?

“I’m picking up bits here and there, there’s no magic bullets, but it’s interesting to watch the way that they work, particularly the way how Nico and Carlos handle speaking with the engineers, how they handle dealing with that many people – it’s quite different to F2 in that respect. It helps as well to be in that environment and the garage if I want to get used to it.”

Returning to F2, his primary focus, Aitken makes no secret of his ambition to challenge for the title in his first season. To do so, he’ll have to beat teammate and compatriot George Russell, with whom he raced against last year – also as teammates – at ART in GP3. Russell won out in that battle, clinching the Series title, but Aitken’s not willing to entertain a repeat of that in F2.

“I know George fairly well now, he’s obviously a very decent driver. But, last year didn’t go according to my plans, and there were a few things that weren’t quite right and in quite a close battle that can make a difference. In the end, this year I’m much more comfortable with the car and where I’m at, and I’m pretty confident that I can go out there and succeed.

“To be honest, it’s not even about George, I’m against the whole grid. It’s a really strong field this year, so I’m quite confident that I can go out and be the best of all on my good days, and even on the bad days we’ll be right up there. There are drivers who have come up from last year, other drivers who have been there for four or five years, so some people have obviously got a wealth of knowledge which will help.”

That being said, all eyes will be on the ART intra-team battle, and beating Russell is undoubtedly key to Aitken’s season. Has he identified any key areas in order to win out over the Mercedes reserve driver? His mantra is disarmingly simple.

“I just have to go quicker than him!” he laughs.

You can’t argue with that.