Jak Crawford has changed two teams during the off-season, leaving both Hitech GP and the Red Bull Junior Team. With the Bahrain race weekend hours away, Crawford spoke to selected media, including Feeder Series, on the eve of a round which will see him debut with DAMS in FIA Formula 2. 

By Martin Lloyd

Crawford spent four years within the Red Bull setup, and he raced at Hitech in F2 last year alongside fellow junior Isack Hadjar. For 2024, the 18-year-old moves to DAMS and is pleased with his choice of team.

“For me, DAMS stood out because they have a lot of experience in the championship. Hitech are a very good team, but they’re very new, so the best place for me was DAMS,” he said.

The right team for his style

Surrounding himself with experience could help to solve the consistency issues that Crawford faced last year. He took pole in Zandvoort and converted it into a feature race podium, while a maiden win arrived in the sprint race in Austria. However, the American only scored points in ten out of the 26 races in 2023, only managing 14th in the final standings. 

However, the American feels that a switch to Charles Pic’s French squad could help his chances of a better finish in his second year. Indeed, Crawford feels that the new team could better suit his driving techniques, and the pre-season results matched this.

“I really like the way engineers work, it fits my style, and after having a meeting with them, I was very intrigued. It seemed like the direction I wanted to go in, so far it’s turned out to be the right choice, and all testing has been positive so far.”

Crawford also moved on from Red Bull in the off-season. He joins 2022 F2 champion Felipe Drugovich in the Aston Martin Young Driver Development programme and has enjoyed his first few weeks in green. 

“It’s been going really well, I know my role in helping on the F1 side, as well, so I’ve been doing lots of sim work.”

Crawford spoke to Feeder Series in January and described how he felt he was moving up the single-seater ladder too quickly with Red Bull. Speaking at the roundtable on Thursday, he outlined how he felt more comfortable in his new setup at Aston Martin.

“It’s been brilliant to learn from all the engineers and to be in the sim doing laps and also learning about the F1 car. It’s been quite a good experience so far, and I’m definitely happy with where I am.”

Backed by a new driver academy and a team which he feels suits his style, Jak Crawford is hoping for a stronger 2024. With a year of experience under his belt, Crawford and DAMS could be a potentially fruitful partnership.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency