Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
GB4 race-winner Megan Gilkes has joined the Aston Martin Formula 1 team as a trackside support engineer for the rest of this season.
The 21-year-old Canadian, a W Series race-winner in 2019 and runner-up in the Toyo Tires F1600 championship in 2020, has raced in the United Kingdom for the past two years.
In 2021 she raced in the BRSCC National Formula Ford 1600 championship and came 10th in the standings, then started a second season in the championship this year before switching to the new Formula 4-spec GB4 series where she has won two races with Hillspeed and currently lies fifth in the points.
“First day of work… and I couldn’t imagine a better place to be working! Aston Martin F1, as a trackside support engineer for my placement year out of university,” Gilkes wrote in an Instagram post on Tuesday.
“Since I first was involved in motorsport I had the goal of someday working in F1, and that day is here! What an awesome team to be a part of.”
The next GB4 round clashes with F1’s Italian Grand Prix on September 9-11.
Elsewhere in the GB4 paddock, 18-year-old karter Louis Harvey has won a free test with Scorpio Motorsport, a team which is planning to race in GB4 next year with multiple cars under its own name after collaborating with Rossoverde Racing this season.
Harvey is the recipient of the prize due to winning the Ultimate Karting Championship title for Rotax Senior karts earlier this month, and has passed his ARDS test too prior to his first taste of a single-seater car. In his karting campaign, which featured four wins and eight other podium finishes, he was run by the Argenti Motorsport team that also races in British F4.