Female Single-Seater Drivers Around the World: Argentina

Maria Jose Lorenzati in 2013

In the past ten years, a number of female drivers have come through the junior single-seater ranks in Argentina. Some remain in open-wheel racing, whilst others moved into saloon-based competition. This post consists mainly of material split from the Single-Seater Drivers of the Americas post. Julia Ballario now has her own post.

Maria Abbate - Argentine driver who started in motorsport in 2007, at the age of 27. She contested two races of the Argentine Formula 4 (Formula Renault) championship. In 2008, she entered more races with the Casalins team, and was 17th in the final standings. The following year, she continued with Formula 4, driving for Scuderia Ramini, but could only manage 28th after a disastrous season with one finish. She also guested in the GT2000 Championship, driving a Scorpion, and scored her first career podium, a second at Olavarria. For 2010, she switched to saloon competition in the Top Race Junior series, and scored a best finish of twelfth at Salta, in her Ford Mondeo. She returned to GT2000 in 2011, in a Honda, but only appears to have driven a part-season, scoring no points. Her activities since 2010 have been curtailed by an injury she picked up during the Top Race season, and she has apparently retired.

Lucila Diaz – races in Formula Renault in Argentina. She made her debut in the Formula Renault Plus series in 2015, making two guest appearances at Río Cuarto. Her best finish was a thirteenth place. This seems to have been her first season of racing as a senior; from at least 2012, when she was sixteen, she was active in karting in Argentina. In 2016, she was 31st in the Formula Renault championship, after contesting six races. The best of these was at Cordoba, where she was eighth. She earned praise in 2016 for her improvement. She returned to karting in 2017.

Dahiana Jaciura - Argentine driver who appears to have started her major career racing in the 2017 Formula 4 Nueva Generacion championship. She entered the La Plata rounds and had a best finish of 23rd. She did not do any more races for personal reasons until 2018, when she returned to the APAC 1.4 Series, a Renault-powered prototype series she had raced in since at least 2014. More recently, she has been working as an engineer for the Vitarti Girls all-female team in Top Race.

Maria Jose Lorenzati - Argentine driver who has competed in Formula Renault since 2008. She began in the Interprovencial series, and was thirteenth overall, after some visits to the top ten. In 2009, she improved her finishing position to sixth. She maintained this position for the 2010 season, as well as stepping up to the more competitive Formula Renault Plus. In this championship, she was eighth. In 2011, she only managed to enter five races, and her final position suffered badly. She switched to touring cars in 2012, driving in the Argentine Turismo Nacional series in a Renault Clio. After six races, she was 32nd in the championship, with a best finish of fourteenth. As well as this, she had one guest run in Formula Renault Plus, although she did not finish. In 2013, she ran a limited schedule, with two races in TC2000 in a Peugeot 308. She also took part in one Mini Cooper Challenge race. The following year, she returned to TC2000, in a Fiat Linea. Her best finish was ninth, at Parana, and she was 24th overall. In 2015, she raced a Renault Fluence in TC2000, for a part-season, and was 28th overall. She was recently described as Argentina's most successful female driver. Language barriers have prevented more detailed investigation of her career. 

Ana Paula Morales – raced in Formula 4 in Argentina in 2011, when she was eighteen. She took part in eight rounds of the series, and had a best finish of thirteenth, at La Plata, towards the end of the season. She was 41^st in the championship, the first woman to race in Formula 4. Since then, she does not appear to have competed in circuit racing, although she may have done some karting.

Maria Jimena Oviedo – raced in Formula Renault in Argentina, in 2013 and 2014. Both times, she did part-seasons, driving for the Barovero Racing Team. Out of both seasons, her best finish was eleventh, in 2013, at Cordoba. In 2014, she managed a best of fourteenth, at La Rioja, and was 29^th in the championship. She started karting in 2006, and did some saloon racing in a Fiat 128 before moving into single-seaters, in 2013.

(Image from http://www.diaadia.com.ar/)