She did not understand why she loved it. She just wanted to keep doing it. When Jordyn Martin started racing, she was looking for something that challenged her and gave her a sense of freedom. Each type of racing was a different problem to solve, and she wanted to get better at all of them. She raced Bandoleros once, enjoyed it, and ended up in open-wheel racing. The younger version of her had no idea where it could lead. She only wanted another chance to go out and race.
That part of her is still there. What has changed is everything around it. Moving from karting into open-wheel racing, and working with different teams in different countries, means she is always learning. Sometimes that means asking questions, admitting she does not understand something, and starting again. It is uncomfortable. It has also taught her to speak up and take responsibility for her own development.
The part she wants to protect is her family. Racing started with them at the track: barbecuing, cheering, helping with her karts. As things get more serious, she wants to keep that closeness and keep sharing the experience with them. Those moments, she says, are a big part of why racing means so much to her.
She is competitive, so results matter. They are not the only thing she counts. After a race, she asks other questions. Did she understand the car better? Was she more consistent? Did she use what she learned from the last race? Finishing as the highest-placed female driver in GB4 and winning the £50,000 prize meant a lot, and so did taking part in the F1 Academy Rookie Test. Those moments gave her confidence. The difficult weekends showed her where she still needs to improve. Success, for her, is progress she can see and performances she can repeat.
Difficult weekends come with their own routine. Her first reaction after a bad race is frustration, especially when she knows she could have done something better. There is a lot of work behind every weekend, and it is hard when the result does not reflect it. So she gives herself a moment before trying to analyse anything, then talks through what happened with the team and separates what she could control from what she could not. If she made a mistake, she wants to understand it and have a clear plan for the next session. Self belief, as she puts it, does not mean being happy with every performance. It means trusting that she can learn from a bad one. Back in the car, her attention has to be on the next corner, not the last race.
Then there is Jeddah. She says her weekend at Jeddah Corniche Circuit was the best she has had at a racing event. The hospitality and the staff made it feel like a Formula 1 race. Reading about a country is one thing. Meeting people gave her a more personal understanding of Saudi Arabia, and people took an interest in her racing and made her family feel welcome. Driving a circuit she had only seen through Formula 1 felt special. Once she is in the car, though, the focus is the same as anywhere: learn the track, improve. What stayed with her is how much enthusiasm there is around motorsport here, and how racing can connect people from very different backgrounds.
She also knows what people see when they look at her. Jordyn is proud to be a young woman in motorsport, and she understands why that matters. If another girl sees her racing and feels she could try it too, she would be happy to have played a part in that. At the same time, she wants people to look closely at her driving: how she is developing, how she responds to challenges and what she can achieve. There is a lot of work behind it, and she wants that work to be seen. She would love to earn a place in F1 Academy. What she wants most is to be a driver a team believes in because of her ability, her commitment and her potential.
Ask her where she hopes to be, and the answer comes in two parts. In the car, a more complete driver: quicker, more consistent, better at understanding what the car needs, and more confident in her own judgement, because that comes with experience. Outside it, a life she enjoys alongside racing, more places discovered, more friendships, and moments her family can look back on with pride after everything they have put in. Whatever category she is in, she hopes she still feels excited to get in the car. She wants to know she has worked hard, treated people well and kept choosing this because she loves it. That, she says, would make her feel connected to the girl who started.
