American Jak Crawford Is All In on His Formula 1 Goals

American Jak Crawford Is All In on His F1 Goals NurPhoto - Getty Images Colton Herta may be making headlines as he makes his Formula 1 practice debut this weekend, but he's not the only American with a shot at getting on an F1 grid. Aston Martin reserve driver Jak Crawford is on a similar testing program and has hopes to move up the ladder, but with one big difference. Having done three full seasons of F2, Crawford has opted out of racing to focus solely on his F1 test and reserve role with Aston Martin.

In fact, the Charlotte native is already a step ahead of Herta, having experienced his first public F1 outing in FP1 at Suzuka last month. NurPhoto - Getty Images It’s not usually a track where teams deploy Friday rookies—a 17-year-old Max Verstappen at Toro Rosso back in 2014 was a rare exception—but circumstances created an opportunity for an early debut. With Fernando Alonso’s partner expecting their child that week, the team gave the Spaniard some extra leeway for a late start to his Japanese GP weekend by calling upon Crawford.

The first practice session was, in any case, devoted to routine setup work and trying new parts, with an aero rig attached at one point, and thus it wasn’t a big sacrifice for Alonso. The bonus was that it gave Crawford an unexpectedly early taste of the AMR26, allowing him to go back to his regular work in the factory simulator at Silverstone with a new understanding of the correlation with the real car. “It was a good experience,” he tells Road & Track in an exclusive chat.

“I really enjoyed the circuit. And yeah, it was great to get a good understanding of this 2026 car, with everything going on with energy management and everything. I was quite comfortable, and up to speed quickly.