British driver Jake Hughes has been concentrating on a career in single seaters and, after winning the British F4 title in 2013, he progressed up the ranks to the FIA Formula 2 championship and landed a role as a test driver for the McLaren Mastercard F1 Team in 2022.
After spending the past three seasons competing in the FIA Formula E World Championship, the 30-year-old from Birmingham has decided to switch to endurance racing, competing with Tristan Vautier and Matthias Kaiser in the no25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca-Gibson this year.
We caught up with Jake as he prepares to make his debut in the 4 Hours of Barcelona.
Q1. Welcome to the ELMS and the world of endurance racing. How are you settling in with your new teammates at Algarve Pro Racing?
Jake Hughes: “I couldn’t have asked for better because everybody within Algarve Pro Racing has been so welcoming, helping me get up-to-speed and acclimatise to endurance racing. This will be my maiden endurance racing campaign and the transition to this point has been seamless, but I’ll still have to get used to racing among multiple classes and sharing a car with teammates while getting to know how to put together a good weekend. I’ll learn quickly with Tristan (Vautier) and Matthias (Kaiser) alongside me.”
Q2. What was behind the decision to switch from single seaters to endurance?
JH: “The stars aligned at the right time. Anybody with knowledge of my career will know I anticipated staying in Formula E for some time, but political and financial factors took me out of the driver merry-go-round for a moment. I’ve been looking at endurance racing from afar and one of my best friends, Nick Yelloly, has been encouraging me to get involved for some time. Not being on the Formula E grid has given me the freedom to pursue this and I’m relishing the opportunity. Nick won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2025 and he will be my rival this year, which will be particularly fun!”
Q3. You will be familiar with most of the tracks we will be visiting in 2026. What are your thoughts on the ELMS calendar and which are you looking forward to racing on the most?
JH: “Formula E is very challenging and niche, and it has its own nuances. The calendar doesn’t take you to the tracks you grow up on in junior categories, so I’ve missed the likes of Silverstone, Imola and Spa. Doing qualifying laps on circuits like those is where I got the bug and decided to make a career out of car racing, and a personal 2026 highlight will be returning to Silverstone for the first time in four or five years. I feel very lucky to be going back there.”
Q4. What are the main differences between the Oreca 07-Gibson you will be racing this season and the cars you’ve raced before?
JH: “I have driven a wide array of cars in my career and I found the ORECA 07-Gibson LMP2 to be very different from Formula E cars. I was surprised when I got into the car for the first time in Abu Dhabi. The noise and vibrations from the screaming Gibson V8 added a lot of drama and made it feel as though I was going double the speed, which makes driving intense and a serious, adrenaline-fuelled event. I was also very impressed with the cornering speeds; it’s a pretty big car in terms of its dimensions and doesn’t look like it should be capable of pulling 3G through turns – that’s comparable to Formula 2. I love that you’re flat-out from the moment you step into the cockpit. It’s a car that encourages you to push to extract lap time, which racing drivers want.”
Q5. The LMP2 category is extremely competitive, what are your thoughts for the season ahead?
JH: “I’m very much expecting a very competitive 2026 ELMS season. The grid is stacked with good teams and driver crews, and we’re going to have one hell of a fight. We will have to be at the top of our game to win races and championship titles, and that’s exactly what we want. We get into racing to be pushed hard. Come the end of the season, I hope we see that we had a lot of fun and success along the way.”
Q6. Tell us a bit more about Jake Hughes. What do you like to do when not racing? Do you take part in any other sports? Do you have any hobbies or interests outside of motorsport?
JH: “I find talking about myself difficult because I don’t like to be the centre of attention. To use a well-worn cliché, I like to do my talking on the track. A lot of people aren’t aware that I started racing late. I played football as a kid and only found karting by accident, entering my first race aged 16. It meant I had to accelerate my learning and, in my first Formula 4 season at the age of 19, I knew I had to win races and championships to succeed because we were heavily reliant on sponsors and you only get support if you achieve results.
“Those times have stood me in good stead for the rest of my career because I have had to earn everything, and that’s also reflected in who I am off the track. I’m fully focused on my racing, while also working as a reserve driver in Formula E and holding a simulator and test role with current F1 World Champions, McLaren. I still find time to cycle, play golf and football. In fact, football is my main interest – it goes back to childhood, as my family are passionate supporters of Aston Villa.”
ELMS Live Streaming on FIAWEC+
A proving ground for teams and drivers with Le Mans in their sights, the European Le Mans Series is live for free on FIAWEC+, the official home of ELMS coverage, with full race broadcasts, replays and highlights throughout the season. Stream every ELMS race for free with a FIAWEC+ account on https://plus.fiawec.com/en/european-le-mans-series
