Sneha Sharma

 

Sneha Sharma is a single-seater racer from India.

She has done most of her racing in Formula 4 in India, as part of the JK Tyres Racing Championship. This is not the same as FIA F4 and race results are therefore harder to find. 

She began her single-seater career in 2013, after several years of karting, which gave her several notable wins. She also did a part-season in the 2010 Volkswagen Polo one-make cup. Her early attempts to get a foothold in the Indian motorsport scene were manufacturer-sponsored one-make series where she tried to win sponsored drives. She tried to get onto the Toyota Etios programme and did at least an exhibition race in the car in 2012. At around the same time, she got into the final five of a Mercedes young driver programme, setting a speed record. 

In 2016, she continued in the JK Tyres series, and was tenth in the championship. It was based around the Kari circuit at Coimbatore and she had one of her more successful years, picking up fifth and sixth places. 

Sneha has also raced in the VW Polo Cup and the Toyota Etios one-make championship, and got into the final twelve of a Mercedes driver development challenge in India. 

In 2019, she attempted to qualify for the women-only W Series, but did not get past the first round. She intended to spend the season moving between the Formula RGB India championship and Southeast Asian Formula 4, although she does not appear to have entered the Indian series. She was tenth in the F4 series for Meritus GP, with a best finish of fifth at Sepang. Of the four female drivers entered that year, she was the best by quite a long way.

Her F4 top ten was not her only race in Malaysia; she entered the first rounds of the Proton Saga Cup for DV Motorsports. 

Her activities in 2020 were limited by the worldwide coronavirus crisis, although she did keep her hand in with some karting.

She has worked as an airline pilot since 2012, when she was 22. Her training was undertaken in Malaysia and the USA. She started at age 17 and took a break from karting to do so.  

(Image from Makers India)

Esmee Hawkey

 

Esmée Hawkey is a versatile British driver who has had her best results in the Porsche Carrera Cup.

Her motorsport career started early. After several seasons of karting she raced in Ginetta Juniors in 2014, after becoming a finalist in the Ginetta Junior Scholarship at the end of 2013. This led to a development deal with AmDTuning. As well as karting, she raced in the last three Ginetta Junior rounds of 2014, at Rockingham, Silverstone and Brands Hatch. Her best results were two 15th places, at Rockingham and Brands Hatch. She was 22nd overall. 

She also tested an AmDTuning BTCC car, driving the team’s Honda Civic during a tyre test at Snetterton.

In 2015, she drove for JHR Developments in Ginetta Juniors. Her best overall finishes were two fourteenth places, at Oulton Park, but she did well among the Rookie drivers. She was 25th in the championship. 

2016 was the year she graduated to senior competition in the form of the GT Cup, racing a Porsche Cayman for the GT Marques team.  She was runner-up in the GTA class and had a best overall finish of eighth at Donington. 

In 2017, she was nominated for the Carrera Cup GB Junior Scholarship and continued to race in the GT Cup.

She did her first full season of the Carrera Cup in 2018, still  with GT Marques, earning two podium finishes in the Pro-Am class at Monza and Brands Hatch. 

In 2019, the Carrera Cup was combined with a season in the all-female W Series, where she was fifteenth in the championship. She did better in the Carrera Cup, with three wins in the Pro-Am class at Thruxton and Oulton Park and a third on the class leaderboard. 

Her final position in the W Series standings was fifteenth and she was let go by the championship, which was cancelled in 2020 anyway. This proved to be a very minor setback in her career, as she signed with Team Parker Racing for the Carrera Cup and was instantly the Pro-Am class driver to beat. She won the class in her first four races and picked up a further five class victories later in the season. The only time she was off the Pro-Am podium was when she did not finish at Oulton. Her best overall finishes were two third places, at Donington and Brands Hatch. These were her first series podiums.

At the end of the 2019 season she was named as a test driver for the MB Motorsport BTCC team. She had her first test in the Honda Civic at Snetterton in July 2020.

At the beginning of 2021, she was announced as a driver for the Iron Dames team, but she was quickly withdrawn after her manager was found to have made an incorrect declaration regarding her FIA driver categorisation. Fortunately for her, she was quickly snapped up for a DTM race seat, driving a Lamborghini Huracan for T3 Motorsport. It was a difficult learning year, but she did manage an eleventh place at Assen and the Nurburgring, getting her first points on the DTM computer. She was 20th in the championship.

A planned second season in the DTM was limited to the first four races, as the T3 team pulled out of the championship. Her best result was an 18th place at Lausitz.

(Image copyright Esmee Hawkey)

Isabella Bignardi

 

Isabella Bignardi is a driver and co-driver from Italy who has competed since 1978. She was Italian ladies’ rally champion in 1980 and 1981.

Born in Piacenza but growing up in Turin, Isabella’s family were motorsport fans and she grew up around rallies and the drivers who were among her family friends.

During the early part of her career she was an on-off member of the all-female Team Aseptogyl. Her first major outing as a driver was the 1979 Rally della Lana, as part of a three-car Fiat 127 team with Maurizia Baresi and Betty Tognana. She finished 62nd, the first Aseptogyl car home. Earlier that year, she had joined the team as navigator to Maurizia. 

1980 was devoted to driving rather than co-driving. Isabella’s father had helped her to buy an Opel Kadett, which was run by the Astigiana Corse team. It was in this car that she scored her first top-ten, finishing seventh in the Valli Piacentine Rally on her way to her first national womens’ title.

The Kadett was exchanged for a powerful Lancia Stratos in 1981. Her best result in this car was a fifth place in the Rally di Alba e delle Langhi. The car was run by Brunik Squadra, which was enjoying some success in Italy at the time. Isabella’s second Italian ladies’ championship was a welcome addition. 

The same car tackled the Italian championship again in 1982, with the same crew of Isabella and Luisa Zumelli, although it was now being run by Tre Gazzelle. The Stratos was generally a somewhat fragile car and Isabella’s showed little reliability throughout the year, only finishing four rallies. The only notable result was a 19th place in the Rally 4 Regioni. 

Unsurprisingly, the Stratos was changed for an Alfa Romeo Alfasud in 1983. The year started with the last gasp of Team Aseptogyl, which entered Isabella into the Monte Carlo Rally with a large group of other female crews representing several European countries. She was one of the few to qualify for the rally proper and the third to finish, in 60th place. The rest of the year was spent in the Italian championship, with a best finish of fourteenth with a class win in the Rally Valli Vesimesi.

After 1983, Isabella competed less, only taking part in a few rallies per year. First she used an Opel Manta, scoring a sixth place in the 1984 Citta di Sassari event, then she moved on to a Renault 5 which she drove between 1985 and 1989. This car gave her another top ten finish: fifth in the 4 Regioni Rally. 

Aside from a single 1993 outing in a Lancia Delta Integrale and a co-driving slot the following year, she did not appear on the stages again until 2011. That year, she resurfaced in historic competition, driving first an Opel Kadett and then a Porsche 911 for Biella Corse. Her second rally back, the Rally Lana Historico, led to a seventh in the Kadett. It took slightly longer for her to get results from the Porsche, but in 2012 she was third in the Targa Florio Historic.

After a full season of historic competition she settled into occasional outings again. She remained competitive, as shown by results such as her sixth place in the Historic Rally 4 Stagioni in 2016, driving the Porsche. She was nint in the same event in 2017, driving the Porsche this time. 

2018 featured a move back to contemporary rallying, using the unlikely choice of a BMW 318. As of 2020, she is still rallying this car in Italy. 

Away from rallying, she studied veterinary medicine. 

(Image from ilquotidianodaybyday.eu)