Jade Jacquet concedes she ‘made some mistakes’ after Shanghai Race 2 crash but insists she’ll learn from them

Jade Jacquet faced her fair share of challenges throughout her debut F1 ACADEMY weekend in Shanghai, one of which ended up earning her a grid penalty for the next round.

Qualifying in 13th place, the Williams driver was unable to improve by the time the chequered flag fell in Race 1, leaving her eager to make up positions and progress towards the points in Sunday’s race.

This determination went a step too far and her day came to an early end as she locked up on Lap 6 while following LEGO Racing’s Esmee Kosterman. Unable to take evasive action, Jacquet drove straight into the rear of the #32 car, forcing them both into retirement.

“I learned a lot,” she admitted. “Yesterday I made some mistakes and I know how to avoid them. Today of course the race was tricky. It’s a shame, the crash into Esmee – it was a little mistake and I couldn’t avoid the crash.

“I know how to manage the next race and I learned a lot. My starts are better now and I made improvements on my warm-up and my racing strategy. My first lap of Race 2 was pretty good. I overtook two cars on the outside of Turn 6 so it was good.”

Although the Stewards recognised that it was unintentional, the incident led to Jacquet receiving a five-place grid drop for the next round she participates in, which is scheduled to be Montreal.

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Identifying exactly what she wants to work on, she said: “Don’t overpush on the entry and think more about the exit, because when you feel like you’re a bit slow, you don’t have to overpush. That’s worse and you make mistakes.”

Looking ahead to the next round, the 16-year-old added that she feels “really excited” about racing in Canada despite never competing on a street circuit before, concluding: “Montreal is a very nice place so let’s see what we can do at this track.”