“Closing this year out the right way!”: Jack Aitken confirmed to drive the Williams in Abu Dhabi 4 months after horrific crash

Jack Aitken took to social media to announce that he will be driving the Williams in FP1 at the Abu Dhabi GP. 

Jack Aitken will be returning to the Williams cockpit in the first Free Practice session in Abu Dhabi at the season-ender this year. 

This will happen four months after Aitken was involved in a horrific four-car pile-up in this year’s Spa 24 Hours. The last time Aitken got to drive for Williams was last season at the Sakhir Grand Prix. 

The 26-year old Briton made his debut in Formula One for Williams when he stepped in for George Russell who had been deputised by Mercedes to fill-in for a COVID-Positive Lewis Hamilton. Aitken finished 16th in that race.

“Looking forward to closing this year out the right way!”

-Jack Aitken

Aitken back to racing after freak accident

The late July crash in Spa which happened at the infamous Eau Rouge left the British-Korean driver hospitalised with vertebra and collarbone fractures. 

Doctors told him it would be ‘a couple months’ before he could get back into a race car.

“I’ve been in situations before where I’ve broken bones, and because we’re athletes and young, you can recover a lot quicker than what the doctor is suggesting most of the time. But it didn’t turn out to be the case,” the Briton said to The Race.

“In the end, I had to have surgery and put a plate in because the bone had fractured into five or so pieces, needed a lot more help to recover. Two months turned out to be quite accurate.”

Simulators were used to help Aitken transition back onto a real-world circuit. The team turned off the physical settings of the simulation to help his body recover.

Aitken stepped back into a competitive car in GT World Challenge on 10th October.