Jake Hughes has driven a range of cars, from many junior single-seaters throughout his career to Formula E, so here’s everything you need to know about the British driver.
Hughes battled multiple drivers during his career in junior series who went on to be competitive and win races in Formula 1, including Alex Albon and Charles Leclerc.
Yet despite being competitive on the road to F1, Hughes never started a Grand Prix before making his Formula E debut.
He started his first race in the series in the 2022-23 season with McLaren after a stint in the junior categories, as a simulator driver in Formula 1 and as a development driver in the all-electric series.
Jake Hughes scored his first Formula E podium in 2024
Hughes made his Formula E debut for the McLaren Formula E Team in the 2022-23 season alongside German driver Rene Rast, who switched from Audi.
The British driver had been a critical figure in the paddock after spending two years as a reserve and development driver for Mercedes and Venturi.
He had balanced his commitments in Formula E while racing for half a season in FIA Formula 2 with Van Amersfoort.
During his debut season alongside Rast at McLaren, Hughes showed moments of brilliance but was unable to score a podium finish and he suffered a couple of retirements.
The season began superbly with a fifth place in Mexico City, banking critical points for the team as Rast failed to finish the season-opener.
More points followed in Saudi Arabia, a difficult doubleheader in the second round of the campaign on the streets of Diriyah.
Hughes finished eighth in the weekend’s first race before improving to fifth place in the second event on an excellent weekend for McLaren, as Rast took third place at the end of the weekend.
The British driver would score points on five more occasions during the 2022-23 season, acclimatising to a brand new style of racing after competing in the high-downforce single-seaters of Formula 2 and FIA F3.
A new season began with Hughes staying at McLaren for the 2023-24 campaign, being joined by Sam Bird and Taylor Barnard over the season as teammates.
The season was another challenging experience for the driver born in Birmingham; he suffered a lacklustre middle part of the year with consecutive race finishes outside the points.
A strong start at the Mexico City ePrix with a seventh-place finish, just behind former Formula 1 driver Jean-Eric Vergne, was followed by a mixed weekend in Saudi Arabia. The doubleheader in Diriyah culminated in a fourth-place finish in the weekend’s second race.
After the opening two rounds, Hughes scored points on just one occasion, taking P8 in Misano before China. His second Formula E season proved to be a test for Hughes until the championship arrived in Shanghai.
The series raced at the Shanghai International Circuit for a doubleheader, using part of the layout also used by Formula 1 for the Chinese Grand Prix.
A 16th-place finish represented a lacklustre start for Hughes before taking pole position for the second race of the weekend.
The McLaren driver was blistering fast, usurping 2021-22 series champion Stoffel Vandoorne in the qualifying duels final by a mere 0.001 of a second to start at the front of the field.
But despite starting on pole position, Hughes lost the lead at the start to Vandoorne before finishing second. Antonio Felix da Costa took victory after a brilliantly tense end to the race as Hughes led a queue of cars challenging the Portuguese driver.
Just after the 2023-24 Formula E season ended, Hughes announced he would join Maserati MSG Racing for the following campaign, partnering former Formula 1 driver Vandoorne.
Jake Hughes battled multiple future Formula 1 drivers in his junior career
Before competing at an incredibly high level in Formula E, Hughes raced in multiple junior categories on the road to Formula 1, competing against household names who have gone on to race at the highest level.
The British driver won the BRDC Formula 4 title in 2013, driving against Pietro Fittipaldi for most of the campaign. Fittipaldi made his F1 debut at the Sakhir Grand Prix in 2020 for Haas, replacing the injured Romain Grosjean.
After his title-winning campaign in F4 and multiple years in various Formula Renault categories, Hughes stepped up to the GP3 Series with DAMS in 2016.
The field was highly talented and included Leclerc, Albon and Nyck de Vries, who have enjoyed varying levels of success in Formula 1.
Hughes partnered Kevin Jorg and American driver Santino Ferrucci at the French team in one of the championships that shadowed F1.
GP3 in 2016 kicked off relatively late in May at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain, with the usual Sprint Race and longer Feature Race.
Hughes took pole position in qualifying and immediately laid down a marker for the rest of the field from the outset.
The DAMS driver drove to second place in the opening race of the weekend before finishing in P9 in the Sprint Race.
More points followed next time out at the Red Bull Ring with a couple of top-10 finishes before a slump at Silverstone and in Hungary.
Hughes failed to score a point throughout those two rounds, a bad run which was compounded by a retirement during the first race at his home event in Britain.
Hockenheim provided the platform for a better weekend, taking victory in the Sprint Race, his first triumph in GP3 sharing the podium with Jack Aitken and Leclerc.
The final four rounds were hugely inconsistent, including a double retirement at Spa-Francorchamps and a drive to third place at Monza in the Feature Race.
Malaysia and Abu Dhabi held the season’s closing two rounds and were the only GP3 events that year outside of Europe.
Hughes scored no points in Malaysia before a superb end to the season at the Yas Marina Circuit, finishing in seventh place to kick off the weekend before winning the Sprint Race to end the year.
So, with that in mind, Full Oversteer looks at everything you need to know about Hughes…
How old is Jake Hughes? Where was he born?
Hughes is 30 years old and was born on the 30th of May 1994 in Birmingham, England.
Jake Hughes’ net worth
Through Jake Hughes Racing LTD, the company which looks after Hughes’ career, he has a net worth as of July 2024 of negative £500,000.
While the company has a current asset value of £144,000, Jake Hughes Racing LTD ended the 2023/24 financial year with liabilities of £672,500.
How tall is Jake Hughes? What is his height in feet?
Hughes is 175cm tall, which measures at 5’7 in feet.
Jake Hughes’ Formula E career stats
As of the end of the 2024 Formula E season, Hughes remains without a win to his name but closed out the Briton’s final season with McLaren by scoring a debut podium finish.
Formula E titles: 0
Formula E race entries: 31
Formula E wins: 0
Formula E poles: 4
Formula E podiums: 1