Sharon Scolari

Sharon Scolari is a Swiss driver who races in the Formula 3 Regional European Championship.

Most of her racing career has been in the Lotus Cup in Europe.

She began her career in Legends in Italy, in 2011. As there is no legal petrol-powered motorsport in Switzerland and Sharon is an Italian speaker, this was a logical choice. She was fifteen years old, and won the Rookie class. Legends would be her racing home for three seasons. Her best finish in the overall championship was fourth.

Between 2014 and 2017, she raced a Lotus Elise, initially in the Italian Lotus championship. She was fifth overall. After a year’s break, she stepped up to the European Cup, and was thirteenth overall, third in the Open class. Her best results were three seconds and a third, and she secured her first class win in the last round at Le Mans. This was the end product of a difficult learning year that began with a non-classified finish at Hockenheim, through a first top-ten at Paul Ricard, a penalty at Brands Hatch for an incorrect start behind a safety car and her first class victory in the last race of the season.

In 2017, she raced in the Lotus Cup again, and was ninth, second in the Open class. She came close to an Open class championship, winning nine times, but had to settle for second behind David Harvey.

She raced in the Formula Renault Northern European Cup in 2018, for a part-season, and managed a best finish of second at the Nurburgring. She was eleventh in the championship; her results were better in the second part of her season. The year was interrupted by a crash at Spa, which put her out of the second Spa race and the Hungaroring rounds. It does not seem to have deterred her in any way and she came back stronger. Her team, ScoRace, was run by her family and was described by an onlooker as “her and a mechanic”.

At the end of 2018, Sharon applied to take part in the all-female W Series and was selected for the first assessments in January 2019. She did not progress beyond the initial stages and expressed her frustration on social media, claiming that she had been one of the fastest drivers on the final “Race of Champions” test and had not gone through. She also claimed that participants were prevented from knowing or sharing the reasons for their rejection.

Not long after, she put her W Series woes behind her and signed up for the Formula Regional European Championship, which uses the same Tatuus Formula 3 car. Her ScoRace team was partnered by the Italian Viola Formula organisation.

It was a tough learning experience, but Sharon posted her first top-ten finish at Paul Ricard, the first round. Her best finish, sixth, was also achieved at Paul Ricard. A couple of races sat out due to car damage did not help, but she remained hopeful and determined. She was 18th overall.

Due to both the coronavirus crisis and funding problems, she was not able to race in 2020.

(Image copyright Sharon Scolari)