James Jakes

James Jakes
Born	(1987-08-04) August 4, 1987 Leeds, West Yorkshire, England
Occupation	Racing driver
Years active	2002–present

James Jakes (born 4 August 1987 in Leeds, West Yorkshire) is a British professional race car driver. His career includes participation in the IndyCar Series, GP2 Series, and British Formula 3 Championship.

T-Cars

Jakes launched his motorsport journey in 2002 by entering five rounds of the T-Car Championship, ultimately securing second place overall in the 2003 season.

Formula Renault

In 2004, he progressed to the British Formula Renault Championship driving for Team AKA. By the following year, Jakes was consistently competing for victories and concluded the championship in third position. His strong results led to a nomination for the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award and recognition as a BRDC Rising Star.

Formula Three

Jakes made a single appearance in the 2005 British Formula 3 Championship National Class before committing full-time in 2006 with Hitech Racing, where he finished eighth overall and achieved sixth place at the Macau Grand Prix.

In 2007, he competed in the Formula Three Euroseries with Manor Motorsport, finishing fifth in the championship and securing a win at Magny-Cours. The next year, Jakes joined ART Grand Prix, teaming up with drivers such as Briton Jon Lancaster, Frenchman Jules Bianchi, and German Nico Hülkenberg. Despite an early fifth-place standing and a victory at the Pau street race, he concluded the season thirteenth overall.

GP2 Series

Jakes participated in the 2008–09 GP2 Asia Series season representing Super Nova Racing. After a break during summer 2009, he returned to Super Nova for the 2009–10 GP2 Asia Series season, matching his best result with a third-place finish in Abu Dhabi’s opening race. He was subsequently replaced by the team’s main series driver for 2010, Marcus Ericsson, for the second round. Later, Jakes made his debut in the final round of the 2010 GP2 Series season, taking over from Álvaro Parente at Scuderia Coloni.

GP3 Series

For the inaugural 2010 campaign, Jakes signed with Manor Motorsport. Despite missing two events, he earned three podium finishes and ended up eighth in the drivers’ standings.

IndyCar Series

Initially contracted to compete in the 2011 GP2 Asia Series with Coloni, Jakes tested an IndyCar Series vehicle for Dale Coyne Racing at Barber Motorsports Park in March 2011. Replaced by Luca Filippi at Coloni, he joined Coyne’s IndyCar team for the 2011 season. In his rookie IndyCar year, he finished 22nd overall without entering the top-10. The following year, Jakes recorded tenth place at Texas Motor Speedway and eighth at Toronto, again finishing 22nd in the championship.

In 2013, Jakes switched to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, achieving a runner-up finish in Detroit’s second race and sixth place at Houston’s first event, concluding 19th overall. After taking a year off, he joined Schmidt Peterson Motorsports in 2015 and secured a podium by finishing third in New Orleans.

Complete Formula 3 Euro Series results

(key) (Bold indicates pole position) (Italics signify fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	DC	Points
2006	Hitech Racing	Dallara F305/037	Mercedes	HOC 1 9	HOC 2 8	LAU 1	LAU 2	OSC 1	OSC 2	BRH 1 5	BRH 2 4	NOR 1	NOR 2	NÜR 1	NÜR 2	ZAN 1	ZAN 2	CAT 1	CAT 2	LMS 1	LMS 2	HOC 1	HOC 2	16th	7
2007	Manor Motorsport	Dallara F305/020	Mercedes	HOC 1 11	HOC 2 5	BRH 1 2	BRH 2 8	NOR 1 6	NOR 2 5	MAG 1 6	MAG 2 1	MUG 1 4	MUG 2 Ret	ZAN 1 8	ZAN 2 6	NÜR 1 4	NÜR 2 7	CAT 1 4	CAT 2 7	NOG 1 18	NOG 2 Ret	HOC 1 21†	style = "background: #EFCFFF;"   ;[[Hockenheimring  ;	;HOC  ;<br />;2 ;	;Ret ;}} ;small ;}} ;	5th	42

Full GP2 Series results

(key) (Races shown in bold denote pole position) (Races in italics signify fastest lap)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	Final Position	Points Scored
2010	Scuderia Coloni	ESP FEA	ESP SPR	MON FEA	MON SPR	TUR FEA	TUR SPR	VAL FEA	VAL SPR	GBR FEA	GBR SPR	GER FEA	GER SPR	HUN FEA	HUN SPR	BEL FEA	BEL SPR	ITA FEA	ITA SPR	ABU FEA 15	ABU SPR 18	31st	0

Full GP2 Asia Series results

(key) (Pole positions are in bold, fastest laps appear in italics)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final Standing	Points Earned
2008–09	Super Nova Racing	SHI FEA Ret	SHI SPR 11	DUB FEA 12	DUB SPR C	BHR1 FEA 22	BHR1 SPR Ret	LSL FEA 9	LSL SPR 9	SEP FEA 3	SEP SPR Ret	BHR2 FEA 10	BHR2 SPR 14	16th	7
2009–10	Super Nova Racing	YMC1 FEA 3	YMC1 SPR 10	YMC2 FEA	YMC2 SPR	BHR1 FEA	BHR1 SPR	BHR2 FEA	BHR2 SPR					14th	6
2011	Scuderia Coloni	YMC FEA 17	YMC SPR 13	IMO FEA	IMO SPR									24th	0

Full GP3 Series Results

(key) (Entries in bold denote pole positions) (Entries in italics represent fastest laps)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Final Position	Points Scored
2010	Manor Racing	CAT FEA 9th	CAT SPR 7th	IST FEA 2nd	IST SPR 8th	VAL FEA 8th	VAL SPR 3rd	SIL FEA Retired	SIL SPR 11th	HOC FEA 2nd	HOC SPR Retired	HUN FEA	HUN SPR	SPA FEA	SPA SPR	MNZ FEA 13th	MNZ SPR Retired	8th overall	21 points

IndyCar Series

(key)

Year	Team	Chassis Model	Car Number	Engine Manufacturer	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Final Ranking	Points Total

2011	Dale Coyne Racing	Dallara	18	Honda	style="background:#CFCFFF;" |STP 15th	style="background:#EFCFFF;" |ALA 25th	style="background:#CFCFFF;" |LBH 15th	style="background:#CFCFFF;" |SAO 15th	style="background:#FFCFCF;" |INDY Did Not Qualify	style="background:#CFCFFF;" |TXS 25th	style="background:#CFCFFF;" |TXS 28th	style="background:#CFCFFF;" |MIL 15th	style="background:#EFCFFF;" |IOW 25th	style="background:#CFCFFF;" |TOR 18th	style="background:#CFCFFF;" |EDM 18th	style="background:#CFCFFF;" |MDO 23rd	style="background:#EFCFFF;" |NHM 18th	style="background:#CFCFFF;" |SNM 19th	style="background:#EFCFFF;" |BAL 27th	style="background:#CFCFFF;" |MOT 13th	style="background:#CFCFFF;" |KTY 21st	style="background:#FFFFFF;" | LVS^1 Cancelled |	22nd place |	189 points |
2012		rowspan=3 nowrap | Dallara DW12	19 |		26 |	16 |	11 |	15 |	15 |	23 |	10 |	21 |	13 |	8 |	25 |	19 |	12 |	24 |	12 | colspan=4 |	22nd position |	232 points |
2013	nowrap | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	16 |	15 | 23 |		12 |	17 |	20 |	10 |	2 |	12 |	18 |	12 |	23 |	13 |	25 |	23 |	6 |	17 |	22 |	19th place |	294 points |
2015	nowrap | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	7 |	22 |		3* |	19 |	22 |	18 |	18 |	12 |	15 |	9* |	21 |	7* |	23* |	15* | colspan=3 | 16th overall | 257 points |

^1 The Las Vegas IndyCar World Championship was halted following a fatal accident involving Dan Wheldon on lap eleven.

Seasons	Teams Represented	Total Races	Pole Positions	Victories	Podiums*	Top Ten Finishes**	Indianapolis 500 Wins	Championships Won
4	3	65	0	0	2	7	0	-

* Podiums refer to finishes in either second or third place.

** Top ten finishes include placements from fourth through tenth.

Indianapolis 500

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish	Team
2011	Dallara	Honda	DNQ		Dale Coyne Racing
2012	Dallara	Honda	17	15	Dale Coyne Racing
2013	Dallara	Honda	20	20	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
2015	Dallara	Honda	20	18	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports

Full FIA World Endurance Championship results

Year	Entrant	Class	Vehicle	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Position	Points Earned
2016	Manor Motorsport	LMP2	Oreca 05	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	SIL Retired	SPA 8th	LMS	NÜR	MEX	COA	FUJ	SHA	BHR	31st	4

Complete GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup outcomes

(key) (bold denotes pole position; italics indicates fastest lap)

Year	Team Name	Vehicle Model	Category	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7	Round 8	Round 9	Round 10	Final Standing	Total Points
2024	Comtoyou Racing	Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo	Gold	BRH 1 23rd	BRH 2 24th	MIS 1 28th	MIS 2 31st	HOC 1 28th	HOC 2 Retired	MAG 1 32nd†	MAG 2 15th	CAT 1 Retired	CAT 2 Retired	6th	42

^† Classified despite not finishing due to completing over 90% of the race distance.

External links

• Official website for GP2 Racing Team
• IndyCar Driver Profile
• ART Grand Prix official site
• Manor Motorsport homepage
• Former Team AKA website