Aston Martin driver Crawford reveals biggest inspiration behind early F1 journey

This season, Crawford is active as Aston Martin’s third and reserve driver - having featured in FP1 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 appears to have played an important role in his development as a driver in the junior categories. Crawford says that in his early years, he looked up to the Red Bull Racing driver, as he was considered the benchmark at the time.

"Yeah, definitely. I think when I was starting to get into Formula One, during my first couple of years in Formula 3 and Formula 2, Max was definitely someone I looked up to. He was the benchmark for a driver for quite a while. Max was driving at the highest level when I first started, so he was definitely someone I looked up to," he says, speaking highly of the Dutchman.

Although Crawford and Verstappen now encounter each other regularly in the Formula 1 paddock, a genuine conversation hasn’t happened yet. The Aston Martin driver says he hasn’t received any specific advice from the Dutchman so far, but that they always greet each other.

"No, I don't think I've really even spoken to him properly. He's always been super nice to me, always saying hello and all that, but we've never really had a proper conversation. So no, nothing specific," Crawford concluded.