Jake Hughes’ Formula E debut campaign in season nine was dubbed as one of the best by a rookie in the championship’s history, with him now targeting to build on from having survived what is a “sink or swim” situation for many.
The British driver heads into his second season with the NEOM McLaren Formula E Team having shown excellent pace over one-lap in particular last campaign, as proven by him claiming pole position on two occasions.
Making his debut with McLaren was fitting in many ways, given that season nine was technically the outfit’s first in Formula E, having replaced the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team. It meant that season nine was a year of discovery for both Hughes and McLaren.
Unlike his rookie season, Hughes has had considerable time to prepare for his sophomore campaign, as there’s been a couple of months either side of pre-season testing to “mentally and physically reset”.
With it now being just under a month until the Mexico City season-opener and having completed a strong 245 laps in the official test in Valencia, Hughes is now focused on “kicking on” and using what he learnt in 2023 “like a leapfrog into future success”.
“I mean, off-season has felt very different to last year,” Hughes exclusively told Motorsport Week. “I mean, in some ways, I’ve had a similar amount of time off between when I cut my F2 season short last year and between season nine and season 10.
“But obviously, the vibe is very much different between sort of knowing I’m going into my rookie season in one of the hardest championships in the world, to now fast-forward a year later where I felt like I had a personal standpoint, quite a successful rookie season, and sort of going into season 10, knowing that I’ve got my years’ experience under my belt, and I feel like I’ve arrived now, so to speak, in Formula E.
“Now it’s about kicking on and trying to use what I did last year as a leapfrog into future success. But I feel really good. I felt like I really needed the off-season just sort of to mentally and physically reset. There was a lot going on last year, knowing I was getting the nod to race in FE and then actually the season starting. So, it’s been nice to sort of spend some time with family and friends and prepare on the simulator.”
Hughes was thrown into his rookie year like a ragdoll, it’s fair to say, as there was so little time between testing – season nine testing took place in December 2022 – and his debut in Mexico City in January 2023. In many ways, this was a positive for him, as it restricted how much time he had to “think”.
However, ahead of his second Formula E season, having so much time off has been welcomed by the Briton, who admits that he’s been able to “reset” for the first time since he competed in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship back in 2016 and 2017.
“In some ways, I see both sides of it,” Hughes admitted, when asked if he prefers having considerable time off before Mexico City. “I think last year, probably my rookie year, it probably was a good thing that I was thrown straight into it. I didn’t have so much time to think between Valencia and Mexico. I think building up to Valencia last year, there was a lot of unknowns from all sides, really.
“Not just from my side, but from every team in the paddock standpoint with the new car and the Gen3 cars and how that was going to go. And I think probably having a new car was a nice distraction in some ways from my side. We had a lot to focus on with that, and it sort of channelled all my energy into trying to understand what we had.
“And then, as you say, the gap between Valencia and Mexico was so short that you come back from Valencia straight into Christmas, and that’s a nice distraction. And then first week of January on the simulator and five days later you’re on the plane. So, I didn’t have any time to think, really. Whereas this year, not really had much private testing to do.
“And Valencia being in October, it’s been sort of like two and a half months or two months off since London to Valencia and then another two months off since Valencia to Mexico. Fast-forward a year to now. I feel like, actually, I preferred this side of things. It was a lot last year.
“A lot of energy went into last season, and I think everyone needed a bit of a break. And from my side, it’s the same. It’s probably the first time I can think of since 2016, 2017 time when I was in my F3 days where I felt like I’ve had a chance to mentally and physically reset, sort of knowing I had a contract, knowing I had a race programme going into next year and had the time off to sort of let everything come back down. So, it’s been nice in that respect.”
The official pre-season test mid-October at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Valencia, was the only time that Hughes has driven McLaren’s car a reasonable distance, as he’s had minimal private testing to complete, as mentioned.
Whilst the lap times aren’t relevant, Hughes set the 11th quickest time during the test, although it was the amount of data he collected which was impressive. With the hardware being under homologation until season 11, all the teams have put in hours of work refining their software.
With the teams now having a full season of using the Gen3 machinery under their belts, progress is expected to be made thanks to the software improvements. It’s no different for McLaren, as explained by Hughes.
“Yes and no. I mean, Valencia is obviously such a specific track in Formula E terms, it’s very different to what we’ll drive on,” Hughes noted, when asked if McLaren’s package has improved. “Although that being said, with the calendar for next year, we’ll have a little bit more normal racetracks, what with Misano and Shanghai, for example.
“So, it’s not to say that it’s pointless testing at Valencia. I think we could actually take a lot from what we learnt there into some of those tracks later on in the season, but it is different. And obviously, the fact that the test was two months earlier than last year, we did notice a difference in terms of how the tyres were behaving, therefore how the setup needed to be.
“So, the car felt different, but still the same in many respects. Because of the homologation period, we haven’t had much opportunity to push forward the hardware with Nissan. Obviously, software has moved on quite a lot since last year, and that’s probably the area that we noticed a lot of difference. But in some respects, it was just very much the same in regard to the progress made on the software.”
As the software has improved throughout the paddock and with everyone having a greater understanding of how to extract the maximum performance out of the tyres and their respective package, the general expectation is that the 2024 Mexico City E-Prix will be faster than almost 12 months ago.
Mexico was an odd affair in season nine as still so much was unknown about the Gen3 machinery, making the result somewhat irrelevant in many ways. Similarly, to what Maximilian Günther recently told Motorsport Week, Hughes is expecting lap times at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez to potentially be “four or five-tenths” quicker.
“It’s difficult to put a number on it,” said Hughes. “Obviously, we very rarely just go back-to-back in off-season to sort of see that, but I would be surprised if we’re not sort of closer to sort of four or five-tenths, maybe quicker.
“I could be very much proven wrong with that, but it’s just my expectation from the car definitely not feeling any worse than last year and definitely not any slower. And you would think with what you can improve in FE with software updates, that lap times would naturally come down. So, I would sort of expect that.”
Mexico last season was a real high for Hughes, as he qualified third on his debut before going on to finish in a stellar P5. At the following event in Diriyah, the 29-year-old made it to the final of the duels in both races in Saudi Arabia, with the second having been where he claimed his maiden pole position. Another P5 finish followed his pole position.
Hughes was a regular in the duels and in the points throughout the first half of the season, with his second pole position having come at the ninth round in Monaco. Unfortunately, things were significantly more difficult for Hughes and McLaren in general from the Circuit de Monaco onwards.
Top-10 finishes were a rarity for the British team in the final seven rounds, one of which Hughes failed to start following a massive shunt in Rome. It by no means overshadowed the driver’s excellent start to season nine, but it did give the team much to think about.
Looking ahead to season 10, Hughes is mildly confident that McLaren have understood what caused their poor run of results in the closing rounds of 2023, with some of their woes having been caused by Hankook’s iON tyres being “very peaky”.
“Yes, definitely,” answered Hughes. “We’ve learned those lessons, I feel like, and from what the working groups with the engineers, the answers have come back out of that would suggest we’ve learned. Obviously, the proof will be in the pudding when we get on track. And that’s what we’re obviously mindful of at the moment.
“I think it’s also worth pointing out that from our side or from an external part, it quite easily looks like we lost a lot of pace in the second half of last year. In fact, it wasn’t really the case. It was just a consistency point of view. Let’s say we had a lot of things go on between sort of Jakarta to London, where we just felt like we couldn’t put quali and race together on the same day.
“And obviously, because the event is always on the same day, pretty much qualifying and the race, that if you have a bad one, it almost looks like you’ve lost all performance or vice versa. It can look like you’ve had a bad qualifying and then a good race and it looks like you’ve got the pace back. But actually, we felt like from a lap-time point of view, we were always competitive, especially in qualifying, even towards the end of the season.
“We just struggled with in the 12-minute sessions in the quali group, sometimes to extract the lap-time out of both sets of tyres. The tyre that we have is very peaky and it’s very difficult sometimes to understand. And in a 12-minute session, you can quite easily get two outcomes between the two sets of tyres. And that’s what we were suffering with towards the end in the second half of the season.
“That’s what we feel like all our energy has been going into understanding in the off-season, and I feel like that’s what we have done. So, I think if we do that, then our natural performance that we had in the first half of the season will have a chance to shine through in the races a bit more.”
Something which has helped McLaren learn from their lessons and make strides in the right direction is the addition of Sam Bird, who joined the team not long after the end of season nine. McLaren opted to sign Bird to replace René Rast, someone Hughes grew very close to.
Like Rast, Bird is a very experienced driver. In fact, when it comes to Formula E, very few are more experienced. The former Jaguar driver has competed in all but four Formula E races ever (season eight Seoul double-header, Cape Town season nine and the second of two races in Jakarta this year), with Hughes admitting that what Bird “doesn’t know about the championship is really not worth knowing”.
Whilst Hughes “got on like a house on fire” with Rast and learnt a considerable amount from the German both on and off the circuit, he’s fully intent on picking Bird’s “brain at every opportunity”.
“I mean, I consider myself lucky in many ways that I’ve had René,” revealed Hughes. “Last year, me and René got on like a house on fire to be honest. Can I even say that he’s my favourite teammate? That’s a bit of a statement, but I learnt so much from him, honestly, and he’s a great guy, first and foremost, but especially at the racetrack.
“And on the racetrack, he was something special and something to behold for me. Being a rookie, to be able to be a sponge and learn from him was like, yeah, I count myself very lucky to be able to do that. I think when you look at Sam’s history in Formula E, I mean, he’s pretty much done every single race. And what he doesn’t know about the championship is really not worth knowing.
“So, in that aspect, he’s very much in the René mould of very experienced racing driver who has been there and done it. And even though I’m not technically classed as a rookie, we’re always learning. And especially someone in their second season in Formula E will always be learning. So, I’ll be making sure I pick his brain at every opportunity. Our relationship looks really good already. Honestly, we’re sharing a lot of information.
“I think we’ve already found some performance in the car, some of which has come from Sam’s advice from previous teams and experience that he’s had. So that’s been great. And then, obviously, on track and performance wise, I think he’ll be very strong as well. So hopefully, if it continues the way it does now, I have absolutely full expectation that it will, then it will be mutually advantageous for both me, him and the team.”
McLaren’s disappointing run of results towards the end of season nine saw them tumble down to eighth in the Teams’ Championship, having been on the brink of the top-five for the bulk of the campaign.
Whilst adding to Rast’s Diriyah podium and Hughes’ two pole positions is a “loose” goal, the team are keener on focusing on their general performance rather than on the results they manage. Hughes points out that McLaren aren’t a side who are results driven but are instead “process driven”.
“We’re not really a team, and I would put myself in this mould as well sometimes. We try not to focus on the end result too much,” said Hughes. “I know it sounds like a proper cliché but we’re very much a process-driven team, and we focus on the performance rather than the result.
“The result is always a consequence of the two, really. And I think that’s what has brought us a lot of success in the past, and I think that’s what will bring us success in the future as well. I think the very minimum we want to improve on from a finishing standpoint, from a championship standpoint, is to improve from last year.
“To be fighting for race wins, which we already were doing a lot last year, but obviously, to try and make that last little jump, to get over the line, to get a race win, to get on the podium more often, is what we’re aiming for from a loose standpoint. But in terms of, like, an actual finishing position, just to improve on last year.”
From a personal standpoint, Hughes has done exceptionally well to make it to a second Formula E season, as so many rookies in the series over recent years have failed to be retained or offered a deal elsewhere.
As the driver puts it himself, Formula E, unlike Formula 1 or IndyCar, is very much a championship where you must “sink or swim”. Hughes believes there is nothing that can prepare you for what the all-electric series is like, bringing with it pressure to perform. In his opinion, though, “pressure is a privilege” as he loves what he does.
On the one hand, he does feel more pressure ahead of his second season in Formula E, but on the other hand, he admits that there is always pressure every year. Hughes explained how, during every off-season, the feeling of the following campaign being the “most important” never disappears.
“Yes and no. It feels like ever since I won Formula 4 back in 2013, actually, I feel like this time, every single year, the next year is going to be your most important year in your career ever. And it feels like that never goes away,” Hughes explained.
“Honestly, it feels like every year is the most important year. And in some ways, it is very much true, actually. I think pressure is a privilege. That’s another cliché, so you can add that one to the list, but it is really, there’s nothing I’d rather be doing in my life. I fell in love with the sport a long time ago now.
“And to the fact that I’m even here in Formula E racing in a world championship for NEOM McLaren is, I consider myself an extremely lucky, extremely lucky boy. So, I just want to enjoy every single moment of it. And when I enjoy it, I always perform the best. So, I like having pressure from that standpoint. It’s a sink or swim situation in your rookie year in Formula E.
“Being a rookie in Formula 1 or IndyCar or something, like that, I mean, I can’t speak from experience, but they’re very much if you’ve gone through the junior categories of Formula 4, Formula 3, Formula 2, you’re not going to be absolutely shocked by what you find I imagine when you jump into those other top categories.
“Whereas Formula E, you can do as much junior categories and Le Mans racing and whatever you want, really, sports car racing, you jump into Formula E, you’re an absolute rookie. So, it is sink or swim. So, I’m glad I got through that and performed very well in my first year.
“But it’s not to say that I’m resting on my laurels now just because I’ve done that and now I’m a bona fide Formula E driver. I need to kick on and I need to get results. That’s always the case.”
As touched on by Hughes earlier in the interview, Formula E season 10 will feature more purpose-built circuits than ever before. To be exact, 41 per cent of the 2024 calendar will consist of traditional permanent circuits, something which has been met with a mixed reception from fans and drivers.
In Hughes’ opinion, Formula E must ensure that it’s “not missing out on any opportunity” to grow, but that it’s critical it doesn’t “lose sight” of its “DNA”. Formula E was born on the streets, somewhere Hughes thinks will suit McLaren better in season 10 than the likes of Misano, Portland and Shanghai.
“From a championship point of view first, I think it’s kind of up in the air in some respects, actually. You know, the DNA of the championship has obviously, so far, always been street tracks and, you know, bumpy concrete walls defining track limits. And I think we should always look to keep an element of that for sure,” urged Hughes.
“You know, it’s such a cool championship in that aspect, the fact that you get to go and race on these sometimes quite quirky tracks, but most of the time extremely cool, to be honest. To go and race in New York, in Tokyo, in the ExCeL in London, in Paris before next to the… I can’t remember the river’s name [Seine].
“But, you know what other championship gets to do that, really? And I think we shouldn’t lose sight of that. And obviously, we’re about city racing, so I think we have to be careful not to lose too much of that. But at the same time, the championship will grow, will continue to grow into whatever it needs to grow into and morph into.
“It needs to move with the times and make sure that we’re not missing out on any opportunity, really. I think the cars are, obviously, every generation of car is getting faster and more efficient, and it might be that the cars start to suit a bit more of an open flowing track, but I don’t know if it’s the time for it now in terms of, say, we need one or the other black or white.
“I think a mixture of both makes sense right now. And I think from a McLaren standpoint, NEOM McLaren’s standpoint and my standpoint, I think it’s fair to say we probably, on average, performed better on the normal tracks last year. A bit more medium to high speed flowing tracks, even Diriyah, but I would count Mexico as well.
“So, I don’t think it’s to say that we would definitely still perform better on those because the other teams would have caught up. But I think we would like to think that we would be competitive on those tracks as a minimum, looking at last year. But then, obviously, we want to improve on the other side of the calendar as well.”
With 2023 rapidly drawing to a close, Hughes is pleased to reflect on the year and think about “memories I’ll always remember”. McLaren faced their challenges in season nine, but Hughes faced them all without any doubt.
Claiming pole position in Monaco and Diriyah were particular high points of the past 12 months, which he described as the “most fun, challenging year of his career”. His debut in Mexico City already feels like an eternity ago, with him having been given the most brutal of Formula E introductions.
It was after the season-opener that Hughes went semi-viral on social media, after a clip of him being absolutely exhausted got around, much to the amusement of the other drivers in the video. He vividly remembers how stressful his first Formula E race was, with him having learnt the hard way “what Formula E is”.
“When I just look back, it’s been memories I’ll always remember forever, to be honest,” admitted Hughes. “Especially like pole position in Monaco and Diriyah and fighting for podiums in quite a lot of races. It’s been the most fun, challenging year of my career. I’ve loved every minute of it.
“The thing I learnt the most, I always remember being at the start of the race in Mexico, and I’d done a lot of simulator practice over the last few years, and that’s what the team prepared me so well in on that side. And I was running P3 from the start, and we had a Safety Car. And I remember the Safety Car restart thinking, ‘What the hell?’ this is nothing like a simulator race that I’ve done.
“The car tells you when to lift and when to pull the regen paddle, and when to do all sorts of things. Really, the engineers are helping you all the time. And I got so used to it on the simulator, a sort of flat race, as we would call it. No external elements of 21 other cars trying to do their own race around you and that affecting your race, that on the simulator, I felt like I’d cracked it. I knew what Formula E was.
“And then the Safety car restart in Mexico after, like, four laps of my Formula E career. And everyone’s flat out. Everyone is flat out into the corners. I’m like, ‘What we like, are we saving energy? Are we pushing? Is it a normal race? Is it an energy saving?’. I didn’t know because the car’s telling me, almost screaming at me to do one thing, and I’m like, ‘but I can’t because I’ll get overtaken by five cars’.
“And I think the clip after the race that went a bit viral, where I sort of, like, looked a bit stressed and sort of said, ‘Is that what Formula E is?’ to some of the other boys on the sofa. And I did mean it, because I’d never been in a race like it. It’s easy to go flat out in Formula E like any other race and qualifying is obviously something that I got on well with quite quickly.
“But the race is unlike any other because it’s about getting to the finish line as quickly as possible while saving the most amount of energy as possible. And those two things are not mutual. They don’t come mutually together very easily.
“And when you’ve got 21 other drivers with a different strategy to you and different elements, so that their race might look different to you, and how their race affects your race, and therefore how you have to migrate to suit the race that you’re in, is something that you can never prepare for.
“And you just have to go through the learning side of it, really. And that is what’s so difficult for a rookie. And it’s like a game of chess, really. So that’s why I took from last year.”
For those who don’t follow Hughes on social media, the McLaren driver is a big Aston Villa fan, although ‘big’ is an understatement! He’s been loving seeing his team performing so well in the Premier League and marching towards the top of the table, something few expected.
Given his love for Aston Villa, would he rather see his boyhood club win the Premier League in 2024 or become the season 10 World Champion?
“I would win the Drivers’ Championship, and that’s saying a lot as well,” Hughes joked. “I think the other night I probably sent about three or four tweets too many. I was a bit excited, but, yeah, I mean, football was my first love, but racing is my new first love.
“It’s my hobby, it’s my dream, it’s my passion. So, I couldn’t think of anything better than winning the Drivers’ Championship next year. Actually, I could win the Drivers’ and the Constructors’.”