British
Jake Hughes (born 30 May 1994) is a British racing driver whose long climb through the single-seater ladder eventually carried him into Formula E, where he became a front-running qualifier for McLaren and Maserati.
Junior career
Hughes started karting relatively late, in 2010, and built his reputation in British junior formulae. He won the inaugural BRDC Formula 4 Championship in 2013, a result that marked him out as a genuine prospect, before spending several seasons in GP3 and the European F3 ranks.
Formula 3
When the FIA Formula 3 Championship launched in 2019, Hughes joined the newcomer outfit HWA Racelab, where he was credited with helping establish the squad in the category. He scored a sprint-race win at the Red Bull Ring that year and finished seventh in the standings. He stayed with HWA for 2020, took two further wins and again placed seventh overall. In 2021 he made a brief one-off return to F3 as a substitute for the injured Kaylen Frederick at Carlin for the Hungaroring rounds.
Formula 2
Hughes graduated to Formula 2 in 2022 with Van Amersfoort Racing, the team that had absorbed much of the former HWA structure. His campaign was disrupted when he missed the French and Hungarian rounds after testing positive for COVID-19, yet he still finished 16th in the championship and outscored his full-season teammate Amaury Cordeel.
After F2/F3
In late 2022 Hughes signed with McLaren for its return to Formula E, partnering Rene Rast. Across two seasons he took four pole positions and a podium, before moving to Maserati MSG Racing for 2024-25. He has also served as McLaren's Formula 1 simulator driver and a Formula E reserve, and more recently moved into endurance racing in the European Le Mans Series.