Jake Hughes

Jake John Hughes (born 30 May 1994) is a British racing driver currently competing in Formula E with McLaren.

He is the winner of the inaugural BRDC Formula 4 Championship and has won multiple races at Formula 3.

Hughes started his racing career in karting in 2010 at the age of sixteen, finishing eleventh in the Junior Class of the Easykart UK Championship.

In 2011, he finished fifth in the Super 1 National Formula KGP Championship.

He stayed in the same championship for 2012, improving to fourth in the series standings, whilst also winning the Easykart UK Championship in the Light category.

Hughes made his single-seaters debut in 2012 at Silverstone in the Formula Renault BARC Championship with Antel Motorsport and contested in the Rockingham round of the Formula Renault BARC Winter Series.

For 2013, he decided to move in the newly created BRDC Formula 4 Championship, joining Lanan Racing to partner Daniel Headlam.

He took four wins with another six podiums to clinch the championship title, beating Seb Morris by 35 points.

As a reward for his title, Hughes tested a Dallara F308 for Carlin at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo, which he called "one of the best experiences in [his] life".

Hughes returned in the Formula Renault machinery with Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup switch in 2014.

He had only one podium, finishing third at Silverstone on his route to the eighth in the series standings.

Also in 2014 he had part-time campaigns in Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 and Formula Renault 2.0 Alps.

For 2015 he signed with Koiranen GP to contest full-time both in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 and Formula Renault 2.0 Alps.

He was victorious only in the second race at Spa and had another four podiums, finishing sixth in the championship.

Though in the Alps championship he was more successful, winning races at Spa, Monza and Misano and taking the lead of the championship before the final round.

However, due to two finishes outside of the podium places in that final event Hughes lost out on the title to Jack Aitken by just five points.

In a podcast with Dan Ticktum six years later, Hughes revealed that he had competed in the final round with a cracked chassis, which had cost him performance throughout the weekend.

Hughes graduated to the GP3 Series in 2016, joining newcomers DAMS.

He earned his first GP3 victory in the sprint race at Hockenheim.

At the final round of the season in Abu Dhabi, Hughes experienced a technical failure in qualifying and was forced to start from the pitlane in the feature race.

Having climbed up to seventh by the end of race 1, the Brit won the second race of the weekend, which he later described as "one of [his] best [race] weekends".

For 2017, Hughes made the switch from the GP3 Series to the FIA Formula 3 European Championship, having competed in the final round of the 2016 season.

He contested the season with the Hitech GP team.

He claimed his first and only win at the second race in Nürburgring and finished the season 5th in the driver's championship.

Hughes continued in the third tier of single-seater racing, as the GP3 Series rebranded to become the FIA Formula 3 Championship.

Hughes joined the new HWA Racelab outfit alongside Keyvan Andres and Bent Viscaal.

Hughes claimed his only win of the year in a fortuitous sprint race at the Red Bull Ring, as race leaders Robert Shwartzman and Marcus Armstrong collided on the final lap.

Shwartzman crossed the line first, but was given a penalty for causing the collision, handing the win to Hughes.

Hughes claimed a double podium finish at the Hungaroring, finishing both races in third place.

Hughes scored 90 of his team's 100 points over the season, placing him seventh in the drivers' championship.

Hughes returned to the GP3 Series for 2018, after a one-year absence which he spent in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship.

He raced for ART Grand Prix alongside Nikita Mazepin and his friends Callum Ilott and Anthoine Hubert.

He claimed his first and only win of the year in the second race at the Red Bull Ring and ended up eighth in the standings, whilst his teammates locked out the first three positions in the standings.

Hughes was retained by HWA Racelab for the 2020 season and was joined by Ferrari junior Enzo Fittipaldi and Red Bull junior Jack Doohan.

Hughes experienced a poor start to the season, collecting only half a point from the first six races.

He was on course for a top-two finish in the sprint race at the second Red Bull Ring round, but collided with Liam Lawson and suffered race-ending damage.

He took his first podium of the year in the feature race at the second Silverstone round, followed by his first Formula 3 feature race victory in Barcelona the following week.

Hughes claimed his second win of the year at the Monza sprint race.

He ended the season seventh in the championship for a second consecutive year, scoring 111.5 of his team's 138.5 points.

Shortly prior to the final round of the 2020 championship, Hughes announced that he would leave the series at the end of the year, having spent five years racing at Formula 3 level.