As Jak Crawford lined up his Formula 2 car at the start of the 2025 British Grand Prix, he quickly learned that torrential rain had turned Silverstone into an ice rink.

In the paddock, the American driver’s father Tim Crawford was riddled with nerves. “It was excruciating,” Tim tells me the night after the race. Partly due to the weather, but also because his son was third on the grid, so he could easily be consumed by the pack if he didn’t get the perfect launch.

He needn’t have worried. Crawford had a scintillating start. He sliced his way past McLaren’s Alex Dunne and pole-sitter Victor Martins in his ART to lead going into Abbey, the first corner of the track. Crawford held onto first place for the remaining 29 laps to claim victory, catapulting himself back into the F2 championship race in the process. “It was a fun one,” Crawford says over Zoom two days after the race. “But it was insanely hard. You’re trusting your intuition and experience.”

Relaxed on his sofa in sweatpants and a casual sweater, Crawford’s mop of curly hair and hint of stubble makes him look more like the boy next door than the All- American athlete. The 20-year-old’s indistinct American accent has lost its Texas twang and, occasionally, is flecked with European intonations — unsurprising since he’s lived and worked across the continent for the last seven years. The bare walls behind him suggest he’s had no time to make his home. He’s been too busy racing and planning for his future.

At the start of the 2025 season Crawford was forced to do plenty of ruminating there, too, after he failed to score points in the opening two races in Melbourne and Bahrain. “My ambition was to win the championship so it was tough. But the tougher the experience, the more I learned.” His voice remains flat, never rising too high or falling too low throughout our conversation. Always in control. Everything he’s gone through in his racing journey so far — from the euphoria of victory to the depression of crashing out — has helped him get to this place.

Next year, though, Cadillac, based in Indiana, are adding two more seats to the Formula 1 grid. Rumors are rife that Crawford — who currently serves as a reserve driver for Aston Martin Formula 1 — could be in line for one of the spots. It doesn’t take a motorsport expert to understand that putting an American driver in an American car will help to increase the sport’s popularity in the country. But if you’re not the son of a billionaire or a retired driver, reaching the zenith of racing is nearly impossible. It has proven especially tough for Americans. The last time an American won a Formula 1 race was in 1978. This century, only Alexander Rossi, Scott Speed, and Logan Sargeant have represented the U.S. on the grid, and all lasted less than two seasons.

Unlike other drivers, Crawford didn’t come from a family obsessed with Formula 1. In fact, his father Tim tells me he’s not even sure “how much Americans care about having an American driver”; for the Crawfords and their friends in Houston, Texas, grands prix paled in comparison to stock car racing. “NASCAR was close by. I’d always watch the races with my dad,” Jak tells me. “That’s what we shared together. It turned into the thing we love.” Tim acknowledges that they barely knew Formula 1 existed, as the television coverage was so sparse. As Jak’s speed increased in the local, then state, and finally nationwide karting scenes, Tim explored the paths for him to become a NASCAR or IndyCar driver.

It was initially through his Xbox that a nine-year-old Jak became fascinated by Formula 1. “One of my first games was the F1 game,” he says through a smile. “I bought it every year after that.” And Crawford’s continued karting success caught the attention of Formula 1 teams; Ferrari and Red Bull soon contacted the father-and-son pair about Jak joining their junior driver programs. Even though that opportunity is the dream of many kids worldwide, Crawford admits to being torn. “For a couple of years I had a bit of an identity crisis. I was racing go-karts, oval circuits, and Formula 4,” he tells me. “But I also still loved NASCAR.”

The allure of potentially racing in Formula 1 won out. “I finally understood that this is where the best drivers are. The best teams in the world. It was a worldwide championship,” he says. “That’s when I decided to properly pursue it.” So, in January 2020, 14-year-old Crawford moved from Houston to the Netherlands, joining the Red Bull junior team to drive in the ADAC and Italian Formula 4 with Van Amersfoort Racing. When the COVID-19 pandemic began a few weeks later, a teenage Crawford found himself stuck in a new country thousands of miles from home. “It was crazy,” recalls Tim. “It took us nine months before we could get out there to see him because of COVID.”

Once quarantine was over, Crawford’s daily routine was to bike to Van Amersfoort’s workshop to run simulation, then return home to attend school online. Tim’s one rule for his son was that he had to call his parents every night. “We didn’t have too many other rules,” Tim says, grinning. “That one rule helped to keep our sanity during that time.” Those years were particularly tough for Jak. Tim watched as his son sacrificed relationships and friendships for his future. “His life has been total upheaval since we decided to make this happen.”

But towards the end of 2023, Crawford was dropped by Red Bull. Looking back, Crawford wishes he’d been a “little bit older” when he began his Formula 1 journey. “I took it seriously, but I wish I had focused a little more. I wasn’t mature enough to take it seriously in the right way,” he tells me. “I don’t regret any of it, though.” A few months later, in February 2024, Aston Martin signed him to their junior program.

Jak and Tim immediately set out to assemble a team that could set him up for his goal of racing Formula 1. At Red Bull, they hadn’t been allowed to hire their own management, coaches, and sports psychologists. Now, they custom-built a team laser-focused on Jak. “We didn’t know any better when we were at Red Bull,” says Tim. “It takes a village to raise a modern day racing car driver.”  

Especially since Crawford’s schedule isn’t just jam-packed with Formula 2. He drives for the Andretti Formula E team, and fulfills his commitments as a reserve, test, and simulation driver for Aston Martin, all while keeping up with his own physical program. “He’s basically got three jobs,” says Tim. “The kid’s calendar is insane.”

Still, the main priority is Formula 2. After finishing his debut season for DAMS in fifth place, Crawford went into the 2025 campaign with the goal of improving his consistency. Following his poor start, Jak says it would have been easy to just “dig himself into a hole for being too ambitious.” Instead, Crawford used everything he has learned in his career so far to put the blip behind him. “I just went back to the mindset of making sure I score over and over,” he says.

While Tim says he and Jak’s management team are patiently waiting for a well-suited Formula 1 seat — one that “nurtures his potential and talent, doesn’t throw him out after his first mistake, and sets him up for a 10-year, not 10-month, career” — Crawford’s focus is only on the immediate road ahead and the next race.

“I had a mantra going into this year: ‘If it goes right, amazing. If it goes wrong, it’s fine,’” Jak says, staring down the lens. “I don’t want to crack under pressure. I just want to make the most out of every situation I get.”