Aitken: Renault F1 test “more” than I expected 

Jack Aitken admits he was blown away by his first experience driving current Formula 1 machinery at an official test session for Renault. 

The Briton, who was named Renault’s official test driver ahead of the current season, was handed his first outing in an F1 car by the French manufacturer on the final day of the first in-season test of 2018 at Barcelona on Wednesday. Aitken ended up sixth in the timings and racked up 120 laps for Renault.

When asked if his first taste of driving current F1 machinery was as he expected, Aitken replied: “No it was more. I’ve driven an F1 car before but not in the hybrid era and not in an official F1 test session. 

“Just being a part of that was pretty amazing. I got over it fairly quickly because we have a job to get on with but at the same time it was super cool to be on the same track as all these guys and being in the current car as well. 

“We got through a busy programme and the guys trusted me to get through a lot of the work that’s needed for the next few races and I just tried to do the best job I can. I think they were pretty happy and I got up to speed as quickly as possible. It was all pretty good.”

The ART Grand Prix driver has endured a mixed start to the 2018 Formula 2 campaign and occupies sixth place in the standings after stalling in three of the opening four races, but he bounced back in Spain to claim his maiden F2 win with a commanding drive in the sprint race. 

Aitken said he felt he had done enough to prove to Renault he is ready for a second test opportunity if the chance came about. 

“The benefit of being around here for quite a while is that I know faces and I’ve spoken to them a lot before and watched Carlos [Sainz] and Nico [Hulkenberg] deal with them so it wasn’t too much of a shock to jump into that environment. 

“I think they were pretty happy, they seemed happy - they told me they were happy. I have to wait and see and get on with my job in F2.”