Jeff Gordon had spent a day testing the NASCAR Cup Series sixth-generation car on the Charlotte Roval in October. The four-time champion was accompanied by Aston Martin’s F1 ambassador, Jessica Hawkins. The track outing ended with Gordon reminiscing about the first time he drove an F1 car and how advanced he had felt it was compared to the Cup Series cars.
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“I drove an F1 car many many years ago and the one thing that immediately stood out to me with an F1 car is that when the car has grip it tells you in the steering wheel,” Gordon told motorsport.com.
“It just immediately gives you that sensation of, ‘Oh yeah, it’s stuck’. These [Cup Series cars], you never know whether you’re stuck or not, and so you just have to drive almost as if you’re drifting it constantly.”
Gordon’s experience driving a Formula 1 car came in 2003, ahead of the Indianapolis 500. He had traded his stock car with Juan Pablo Montoya’s Williams FW 24 for speed demonstration laps. He was over the cloud at the time. “One of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced,” he had said.
This year, Gordon got behind the wheel of a NASCAR car after ages. His last full season in the Cup Series was in 2015. So he needed some simulator time to get reacquainted with the machine. Once he got up to speed, the old Gordon was back. He was also driving on the Charlotte Roval for the first time. But that did not stop him from ensuring Hawkins had a good time learning about the car.
Hawkins impressed with the sixth-gen Cup Series car
Hawkins was pleased with how the NASCAR car performed. “Getting the opportunity to drive a NASCAR race car was incredible from start to finish. The car itself was so different from anything I’ve driven before — it’s heavy and has so much power,” she said.
The 29-year-old uses her position as Aston Martin’s ambassador to promote diversity and inclusion in the sport. Notably, she was the first woman in the world to drive the latest generation of the F1 car, at Budapest in 2023. She was also part of the stunt crew that worked on the James Bond film, No Time to Die.
