From Karting Paddocks to F1 Garage: How David Brabham Shapes Jessica Hawkins’ Next Chapter

In a sport where careers rarely run in straight lines, Jessica Hawkins has turned detours into momentum. The Aston Martin F1 Driver Ambassador formalised a long-standing relationship in 2025 by appointing David Brabham, Le Mans winner and scion of one of Australia’s most iconic racing families, as her manager. For Hawkins, the move isn’t branding; it’s personal.

Jess Hawkins in 2025. Image: XPB Images

Building a Strong Connection

“He’s great,” Hawkins says. “I think David’s one of the ones that has believed in me since a very young age.” The pair’s connection stretches back nearly two decades to European karting, where Hawkins first met Brabham while racing against his son, Sam. She recalls a moment in Genk: an overheated engine in qualifying, Brabham’s simple question, “Are you going to win?” and then she did. Since then, he’s offered both blunt motivation and real care: “He gives me a kick up the ass when I need it. He’s also a shoulder to cry on when I need that.”

A Multifaceted Career Path

That duality mirrors Hawkins’ own path. After climbing through UK karting and Formula 4, budget constraints forced her out of single-seaters. She pivoted into tin-tops, then into the spectacle of stunt driving for Fast & Furious Live, before returning to competition in the W Series in 2019. In 2021 she joined Aston Martin as Driver Ambassador, blending marketing, demo duties, and coaching; roles that matured into her appointment as Aston Martin’s Head of Racing in F1 Academy in 2024. Her mentorship approach is hands-on and situational: a supportive shoulder one day, a firm nudge the next. “Each driver needs something different,” she notes, cognisant of the harsh two-year window F1 Academy drivers face to prove themselves.

Challenges in Racing

Yet mentoring hasn’t meant stepping away from driving. Hawkins tackled her rookie GT World Challenge Europe season in 2025 with Comtoyou Racing, sharing the #270 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 in the Bronze Cup. It was a year of tough breaks and teachable moments; despite incidents beyond her control, she impressed with pace, awareness, and racecraft; capping the season with a strong run in Barcelona and P12 in class. “Mentally, probably more than anything,” she admits of the year’s difficulty. “But there’s always next year… You take the rough with the smooth.”

Breaking New Ground

Her résumé also includes a milestone that reframed expectations. In 2023, Hawkins became the first woman in nearly five years to drive an F1 car, testing the Aston Martin AMR21 at the Hungaroring. The performance turned heads, among them 2016 F1 world champion Nico Rosberg, and led to further F1 machinery opportunities. Still, Hawkins rejects spectacle for spectacle’s sake. “I don’t think I should be driving a Formula 1 car for the sake of driving a Formula 1 car. There needs to be a purpose… I wouldn’t want to be the token.” For her, F1 driving must be grounded—in demo work, testing, correlation runs—rather than box-ticking.

Beyond the Track

Outside the circuit, Hawkins has kept her horizons wide, contributing stunt work to the James Bond film No Time To Die. The appetite is there to revisit those opportunities (time permitting), but racing commitments come first.

The Brabham Partnership

The Brabham partnership crystallises what has long been true about Hawkins: she thrives where belief meets accountability. David and Lisa Brabham are “more than just my manager” and that matters in a profession that asks for resilience as much as lap time. In an era of high-profile ambassadorships and content-driven visibility, Hawkins is building something sturdier; purposeful driving, targeted mentoring, and a trusted voice in her ear. The path is unconventional. The trajectory is unmistakable.