{"id":413060,"date":"2026-01-14T20:33:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T20:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/413060\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T20:33:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T20:33:10","slug":"2027-is-my-best-shot-to-reach-f1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/413060\/","title":{"rendered":"\u20182027 is my best shot to reach F1\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>2025 Formula 2 runner-up <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autosport.com\/driver\/jak-crawford\/864016\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jak Crawford<\/a> says the 2027 season will be his best shot at securing a seat in Formula 1.<\/p>\n<p>A former Red Bull junior, Crawford has been a test driver for Aston Martin for the past two years but has failed to get a chance in the world championship, as the team retained its line-up of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autosport.com\/driver\/fernando-alonso\/829156\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Fernando Alonso<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autosport.com\/driver\/lance-stroll\/840484\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Lance Stroll<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Texan also held talks with Cadillac, but never really stood a chance against veterans <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autosport.com\/driver\/sergio-perez\/829668\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Sergio Perez<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autosport.com\/driver\/valtteri-bottas\/829609\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Valtteri Bottas<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Like many successful youngsters before him, Crawford is therefore embarking on a racing-less season as a reserve driver, still at Aston Martin. He\u2019s hoping to emulate the likes of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autosport.com\/driver\/oscar-piastri\/869530\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Oscar Piastri<\/a>, who spent 2022 on the sidelines after winning the F2 title but was coveted by multiple teams for his F1 debut in 2023 and made a high-profile move from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autosport.com\/team\/alpine\/39174\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Alpine<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autosport.com\/team\/mclaren\/36473\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">McLaren<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Read Also:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think \u201827 is, of course, my closest shot,\u201d Crawford said at last year\u2019s Las Vegas Grand Prix. \u201cI&#8217;ll be hopefully still relevant then, after only a year out racing in F2, ending that well, and being in the paddock at all the races next year. I feel like it&#8217;s good to be around the paddock, it keeps your name on people&#8217;s mouths, people see you. So I think \u201827 is my best opportunity for a race seat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, not every third driver has gone on to race in Formula 1, far from it \u2013 as shown by former Aston Martin reserve <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autosport.com\/driver\/felipe-drugovich\/863837\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Felipe Drugovich<\/a>, who recently departed the team to make a full-time switch to Formula E, after biding his time in that role for three years.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/jak-crawford-aston-martin-f1-t.jpg\" alt=\"Jak Crawford, Aston Martin F1 Team\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"title\">Jak Crawford, Aston Martin F1 Team<\/p>\n<p class=\"photographer\">Photo by: Guido De Bortoli \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course, there&#8217;s always a bit of worry that you can&#8217;t get a seat in Formula 1 because it&#8217;s everyone&#8217;s dream,\u201d Crawford admitted. \u201cAll the drivers that are here being reserve drivers, they all want to race full-time in F1. So, of course, you&#8217;re not there yet, so you&#8217;re still trying to work for that, and you also have to earn it, of course.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;m not worried. I feel like if I do a good job in my role, then there will be opportunities in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As far as the lack of a racing programme is concerned, Crawford is adamant that this won\u2019t hurt his prospects in the long run\u00a0\u2013 particularly as he has already completed many F1 tests at Aston, with more on the table this year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don&#8217;t have to also focus on Formula 2 and Formula E, which I&#8217;ve done a bit this year,\u201d the former Andretti Formula E reserve driver pointed out. \u201cFull focus [is] on the F1 programme, so it&#8217;ll be good to be fully focused on that, and I think that prepares me the best.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel like I&#8217;m at a good level, especially in my racing, so that anything after that I just need to kind of learn and be around the Formula 1 team \u2013 and I feel like anything I need to learn in Formula 1, besides obviously racing in Formula 1, I can do with track time, with simulator time, with being at the races.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>            We want to hear from you!<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-auto\">Let us know what you would like to see from us in the future.<\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"#\" class=\"ms-link text-link font-bold\">Take our survey<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-1 text-body\">&#8211; The Autosport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2025 Formula 2 runner-up Jak Crawford says the 2027 season will be his best shot at securing a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[8541,64,63,218238,813,30512,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-413060","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-aston-martin-racing","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-crawford-u20182027-is-my-best-shot-to-reach-f1u2019","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-jak-crawford","14":"tag-motor","15":"tag-motor-sports","16":"tag-motosport","17":"tag-motosports","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}