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At 16 years old, Jake Hughes was a late starter in racing terms, but it’s never held him back.

The majority of Jake’s rivals will have first driven a go-kart in some form or another before they’d turned 10, and many much younger than that. Jake’s first time was at 15 with his friends at a local track in Birmingham, but he was a natural.

Still just 30, Jake overcame the odds to climb up the junior single-seater ladder and arrive at the NEOM McLaren Formula E Team, out-racing drivers younger than him, but with much more experience.

As part of a trajectory unlike any other, there have been many highs and lows along the way and all manner of key moments, but we asked Jake to pick out his defining three. In his own words, these are the moments that made him…

First steps

I would go all the way back to the start for the first one. In mid to late 2009, I went to a local arrive-and-drive go-karting centre in Birmingham for some fun with some friends. After watching me on the circuit, the owner of the track assumed that I had done it before. I told him I hadn’t, and he suggested I look into it based on what he had seen.

I may have found karting through another route at some point, but had I never met that person, I might never have started motorsport in the first place. I look back on that moment and feel that it was pretty key. I was around 15 at the time and then had my first race when I was 16.

Getting serious

I won the BRDC Formula 4 title in 2013. So, I started karting at 16, then won my first title in cars when I was 19. Now, you might look at that and think that, age-wise, I was a teenager becoming an adult, but at the same time, it was such a new world to me. At that point, I didn't have any idea how good I was, and there were so many new things to take on board that it was all such a whirlwind.

Until I won Formula 4, I didn’t really know that I was going to keep racing. Karting was definitely more of a hobby, but we decided to do one year of car racing to see how it went. If I hadn’t won British Formula 4 that year, it could quite easily have been the last year I ever raced, but because I did win it, me, my dad and the rest of my family sat down, talked about it and decided that we needed to take it seriously.

From that point onwards, I never looked back. Before that, I don’t think I really knew why I was quick, I was just doing what came naturally. I also don’t think I had really believed in myself as a racing driver before then, but from that moment onwards, it has been my priority.

A key meeting

I started most years unsure of whether I would be racing or not, but something usually came up. This was the case in February 2019. I had just finished eighth in GP3 with ART Grand Prix and didn’t really think I wanted to do another year at that level.

I was going to do a rookie test in Formula E, and I met Ulrich Fritz, who was the boss of HWA Racelab at the time. HWA were entering Formula 3 and needed to fill their third seat. He convinced me to take it, explaining that he was able to link me up with the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team, as they and HWA were linked. Because of this, I decided to take him up on that offer and race for HWA in Formula 3.

From there, he helped me to become the Mercedes-EQ Simulator Driver, and that is what has led me to the NEOM McLaren Formula E Team.