Fresh from blasting down the streets of Riyadh in AMR22, Team Ambassador and Head of Racing for F1 Academy Jessica Hawkins reflects on becoming the first woman to drive the latest generation of F1 car, our start to the season, and working with Tina Hausmann.

How do you reflect on the first Grand Prix of the season and what has the team learnt from the opening round? 

There are a number of positives to take from Bahrain. The car performed in line with our expectations and, as the weekend progressed, we extracted more performance from the car and continued to understand it better.  

We executed the weekend well and we now have a race weekend's worth of data to study to continue improving AMR24.  

Double points is a solid start to the season, and no mean feat after Lance was spun around at the first corner. He showed real determination and good pace to recover.

The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix is up next. What are the main challenges presented by the Jeddah Corniche Circuit? 

As a driver, one of the biggest challenges is the layout of the circuit. It's a street track, so you're never far away from the walls, but then you factor in the high-speed nature of the circuit and that gives you a really tough combination to contend with.  

A lap of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit is a real rollercoaster ride but the circuit flows nicely and when you hook up a lap around here and get in a rhythm, it feels great.  

With much of the lap spent at full throttle, the engine is put under a lot of stress and that's something teams need to keep a close eye on. Another big challenge at this circuit is finding an optimum balance between low drag on the straights and having enough downforce through the high-speed corners.   

You've just become the first woman to drive the latest generation of F1 car – along the Riyadh Boulevard, no less! Tell us about what it was like to be behind the wheel and the importance of this moment.  

It was brilliant. It is a spectacular environment and certainly a unique place to drive an F1 car. To be the first person to drive a modern-era F1 car on the streets of Riyadh is something I'm very proud of. It was a thrilling experience, blasting down the Boulevard at night with everything lit up and people watching on. 

It's a great way to celebrate our title partnership with Aramco and a fantastic opportunity to inspire others, especially young women and girls to take up motorsport. Together with Aramco, we're breaking down barriers to the sport and before I got behind the wheel of the AMR22, we launched a new Aramco-supported STEM initiative to give young people a chance to get involved in motorsport in Saudi Arabia and beyond. 

Aston Martin Aramco F1 Academy driver Tina Hausmann will be racing on the streets of Jeddah this weekend as she makes her F1 Academy debut. What can we expect this year and how have you found working with Tina, helping her to prepare for her maiden campaign in the all-female single-seater series? 

It's going to be a really exciting year for F1 Academy. The inaugural season last year was a positive one, with some great racing and some really talented drivers starting to establish themselves, but I think this coming season is set to raise the bar again and build on the foundations of 2023. To have all the F1 teams involved in the series with drivers and liveries is a huge statement of intent. 

We can expect some great racing and I think we'll see ever-increasing interest in the series given it's part of the Formula One support package. All seven rounds of the F1 Academy will support Grands Prix and the extra exposure that brings can only be a positive as we look to break down barriers and shine a light on women competing in motorsport. 

I'm really enjoying working with Tina. She's bright, talented, and determined to succeed. She is very excited about this opportunity and she's grabbing it with both hands. She's worked extremely hard over the winter in preparation for this season. There is a lot for her to learn, but the journey ahead is a very exciting one.   

How important is a series like F1 Academy for inspiring the next generation of young women wanting to break into motorsport? 

I can't stress enough how important a series like F1 Academy is. One of the obstacles for women in motorsport has been the lack of visibility. If young girls can't see women racing, then they're likely to think that it's not something they can do. 

F1 Academy helps combat that, because it provides far more visibility for women in motorsport than ever before, and it also provides an invaluable platform for female racers to hone their skills behind the wheel in preparation for the next steps on the motorsport ladder.