Aston Martin driver Crawford reveals biggest inspiration behind early F1 journey In his early years in Formula 3 and Formula 2, Jak Crawford has revealed he mainly looked up to Max Verstappen. Aston Martin’s third driver calls the four-time world champion his biggest role model from that period in an interview with GPblog. This season, Crawford is active as Aston Martin’s third and reserve driver - having featured inFP1 sessions in Japan, Austria and Belgium - while also spending a lot of time in the simulator. Outside of his duties for the British Formula 1 team, the American also regularly gets behind the virtual wheel. Like Verstappen, he is a big fan of the sim racing game iRacing, although the paths of the two drivers rarely cross online these days. "Yes, I do a lot of simulator work at the factory, of course. Even at home I have a simulator and I drive quite a lot on iRacing, so it's something I really enjoy," Crawford tells GPblog. "Of course, I have to do it as part of my job, but there you're not racing against anybody. So to get that competitive feeling, I like to go home and race against other people." When asked whether he ever comes up against Verstappen, it turns out that hasn’t been the case for years. "No, I raced against Max a long time ago, during COVID, but not recently." During that time, there were lockdowns worldwide and there was a period without physical F1 racing, which led to searches for digital alternatives. "There were a lot of those fun online races, everyone was racing together... now it's a bit more difficult" Crawford adds. Verstappen as a major role model Photo: Race Pictures Verstappen appears to have played an important role in his development as