2013 BRDC Formula 4 champion Jake Hughes has set his sights firmly on stepping up to European Formula Renault 2.0 competition next season after completing a number of test days with some of Europe’s top teams in the formula.
The 19 year old, who has recently been selected for the MSA Academy and BRDC Rising Stars programmes, has already packed eight days of Formula Renault testing in since the conclusion of the F4 championship as he prepares for 2014.
The McLaren Autosport BRDC Award finalist has tested across the UK and continental Europe with Fortec Motorsport and Prema Powerteam, the title-winning teams in Formula Renault NEC and Formula Renault ALPS respectively, as well as Mark Burdett Motorsport.
“It’s been going really well. The Formula Renault is a difficult car to learn – not to drive, but in learning how to be quick,” said Hughes. “There are a lot of subtleties to master, things that you can get away with in F4, and it’s almost like starting again from scratch.
“Fortec and Prema are both very big teams and have a great pedigree, with good resources and excellent people. But Mark Burdett’s team is really underrated and they have a great engineer, Andy Miller, and a terrific driver coach in Robbie Kerr.
“We’re hoping to decide soon where we go for next year, but I would say it’s going to be Formula Renault, either in the Eurocup, the NEC or the ALPS. We just need to sort out the plusses and minuses of each one.”
Hughes will be back on track soon for his F4 title-winning prize test, a run in an FIA Formula 3 European Championship car with Carlin in Spain.
