Who is Jak Crawford? Aston Martin's F1 star ready to replace Stroll or Alonso

Aston Martin

Who is Jak Crawford? Aston Martin's F1 star ready to replace Stroll or Alonso

Jak Crawford could be called upon to replace either Fernando Alonso or Lance Stroll

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Monday 23 March 2026 15:19 Updated: 10:50

American racer Jak Crawford will be seen on the F1 track this weekend during FP1 at the Japanese Grand Prix with Aston Martin.

Crawford was confirmed as Aston Martin's third driver at the end of last year, with the 20-year-old having made his F1 session debut last year during FP1 at the Mexican Grand Prix, before also stepping in the car at the Abu Dhabi GP.

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Crawford replaced Felipe Drugovich in the role, the 2022 F2 champion who had previously been Aston Martin's reserve driver for the last four seasons.

He will now be replacing Fernando Alonso during Friday's first practice session at Suzuka.

But Crawford may have more opportunities to drive Aston Martin's F1 car, with the team's current struggles providing challenges for their full-time driver pairing of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso.

44-year-old Alonso had to retire from the Chinese GP after vibrations coming from his AMR26 became too much for him to deal with. The Spaniard could even be seen during the race taking his hands off the steering wheel.

Stroll has also been struggling with the vibrations, and there is genuine concern for the two drivers' health unless Aston Martin can get to the bottom of their issues.

The job of a reserve driver is to step in for full-time drivers if they suffer illness or injury, as well as helping the team with their car development throughout the season.

So, who is Crawford? And what credentials does he have to be able to step onto the F1 grid in the future?

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Early life and career

Crawford was born in Charlotte, North Carolina on May 2 2005, and was just six years of age when he began his karting career in 2011.

Having claimed a plethora of karting titles, Crawford made the jump up into a full-time single seater series in 2018, taking part in the NACAM Formula 4 Championship.

He claimed six victories in this series during the 2018-19 season, and finished second in the championship.

Crawford then went on to race in the Italian F4 Championship in 2020, and it was this season in which he was first signed to become a Red Bull junior driver, a position he held until 2024.

The season which really cemented him as a future F1 prospect, however, was the 2022 F3 season when, at the age of just 16, Crawford claimed a race win and four additional podiums in the series on his way to seventh in the championship.

He was snapped up by Hitech Pulse-Eight for the 2023 F2 season, the series in which he would spend the next three years.

Jak Crawford's F2 record

Across three seasons in F2, Crawford claimed six race victories, including one in that first year as a Hitech Pulse-Eight driver.

The 2024 and 2025 seasons were spent with DAMS Lucas Oil and, away from F2, this was also when Crawford was let go from the Red Bull driver pool and instead snapped up by Aston Martin, who started immediately providing him with tests as part of the testing of previous cars (TPC) programme.

In the 2025 F2 season, Crawford finished second in the championship, behind victor Leonardo Fornaroli. He won four races and picked up two pole positions throughout the year, leading to Aston Martin announcing the young American as their third driver for the 2026 F1 season.

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Written by

Sam Cook - Digital Journalist

Sam Cook is a talented young sports journalist and social media professional who now specialises in Formula 1, having previously worked as a football journalist and a local news reporter for a variety of different brands.

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