after inking Mark Burdett Motorsport deal for 2011

Following his superb Winter Series performance for the team, it was perhaps always only a formality that Jack Hawksworth would elect to re-sign with Mark Burdett Motorsport for the 2011 Formula Renault UK Championship – his maiden full campaign in car racing – and having now done so, the highly-rated young Bradford star has set his sights as high as they can possibly be.

A complete car racing novice but with an impressive karting pedigree built upon many years of top-level national and international success, Jack fairly stunned observers during the Winter Series, a toe-in-the-water exercise of sorts ahead of the serious business next year. Up against a fiercely-competitive field of rivals – the majority with far more experience in cars than he has – the Cullingworth-based hotshot secured four pole positions and two podium finishes from only six starts, and wound up an outstanding third in the final standings.

If that alone was not enough to give his adversaries cause for concern, then the confirmation that the 19-year-old will remain with Burdett into 2011 surely will. Palpably happy inside the team and having established an excellent relationship with his race engineer Andy Miller – a man with a wealth of experience from F1, GP2 and F3 – to say that Jack is revved up for the challenge ahead would be rather an understatement.

“To be able to work closely with someone who has such vast experience in the sport and is so knowledgeable in his field as Andy gives me an advantage over the other drivers, I feel,” he affirmed. “The driver/engineer relationship is probably the most important one there is – you need to have respect for each other’s ability. I trust that Andy will give me the best car possible, and he needs to believe I’m capable of getting the maximum out of it.

“It’s the same thing with the team’s driver coach, Robbie Kerr; he and Andy have both proved themselves at an extremely high level, and to be able to learn from them is a huge benefit for me. Everyone works really well together, and there’s a really good atmosphere and bond inside the team. Everybody shares the same goal of wanting to win and gives 120 per cent – I really can’t see why I would want to be anywhere else!”

Another significant boon is the fact that being in what is likely to be just a two-car outfit, Jack will receive far more attention than he would in a larger operation where the focus is more split, and he has already asserted that ‘it might not be the biggest team in the paddock, but that doesn’t mean it’s not the best’.

With the effective in-season testing ban meaning winter running is key, the Yorkshire speed demon has been making the most of every opportunity to get out on-track in recent weeks, and has also joined forces with Conquest Management as he endeavours to drum up some much-needed sponsorship to help to boost his British title bid next year.

Assuring that he is far more comfortable inside the cockpit now and joking that he might have ‘got a few people worried’, if he produced the kind of form that he did during the Winter Series without feeling fully comfortable, his fellow drivers would be right to be worried indeed. For Jack Hawksworth in 2011, there is, clearly, just one target.

“The Winter Series gave me a real foothold in the car racing business,” mused the former Margutti Trophy and Kartmasters Champion. “It was good to pick up the experience and work with Mark’s team so that we don’t go into next season blind as it were. The testing since then has been really beneficial, too, and has done me the world of good. I needed the extra mileage without the pressure of having to be fast at the same time – rather than chasing lap times, I’ve been able to concentrate on getting more used to the car.

“During the Winter Series, since we’d had only very limited testing beforehand, I never really felt fully comfortable; it was still all a bit alien to me, whereas every time I get in the car now, I feel increasingly comfortable. I’m starting to get the same feeling that I used to have in karting, being able to just jump in and it feels normal. I’m a lot stronger now than I was in the Winter Series.

“Over the winter, I will be concentrating on my fitness and on finding more sponsorship, and then the plan is to get as much testing in as possible in the New Year to really hit the ground running when the season starts at Brands Hatch. In motorsport, there are so many variables that you can never be 100 per cent sure about anything, of course, but we will have prepared as much as we can do, and after that the rest of it will come down to other things.

“It will obviously be tough because this category is the breeding ground to go on to higher levels, but I think I’m in the best team I can be and that we will be better-prepared than anyone else, so I’m feeling pretty confident. I’ve only got one goal now, and that’s to win as many races as possible – and in doing that, win the championship.”