Belen Garcia

 

Belen Garcia is a Spanish single-seater driver who has raced in both F3 and F4 machinery.

She became the first Spanish woman to win a single-seater race when she claimed the second round of the 2019 Spanish Formula 4 championship at Navarra. A large number of her competitors were excluded from the race for not responding quickly enough to a red flag, gifting Belen the win. She was 15th in the first race. 

2019 was her first full season in cars, after some rounds of the 2018 Toyota Aygo Kobe Cup and karting. She was part of Team Spain for the inaugural FIA Motorsport Games, racing in the F4 Cup and finishing sixth and twelfth in her two races. 

In Spanish F4 that year, her win was something of a one-off. Navarra was her best circuit and she scored her second-best finish there, a seventh place. This was repeated at Algarve. She was fourteenth in the championship with ten top-tens from 21 races. 

After testing a car, she was due to compete in the 2020 W Series but the championship was cancelled due to coronavirus. A planned part-season in the Formula Renault Eurocup was also shelved.

She raced in W Series in 2021, alongside some rounds of the Formula Regional European Championship, which uses the same chassis.

Her year in W Series started well with a fourth place at the Red Bull Ring, but she was unable to keep up the momentum and dipped in and out of the top ten for the rest of the season. As tenth-placed championship finisher, she was not invited back automatically for 2022.

FREC was an even tougher challenge. Driving for the Swiss team G4 Racing, she did ten races from the 20-round calendar. She managed to finish all of them but her best finish was only 22nd place, achieved at Imola. She did out-score her team-mate Axel Gnos on a couple of occasions.

She retained her place in W Series for 2022. The season was shortened due to financial worries. Belen was fifth overall after a somewhat inconsistent season, with a high point being a second place at Paul Ricard. 

Single-seaters have been her focus so far, but in 2020 she did some GT racing at Aragon, entering the last round of the Spanish GT Championship with her father Jose Luis. Their car was a Ginetta G55 and they won their class in their first race. 

She returned to sportscars in 2022, entering the Michelin Le Mans Cup at Portimao in October. She drove a Ligier LMP3 car and was 17th in class after an incident-hit race. She set the CD Sport team's fastest lap of the weekend.

Sportscars became her chief focus in 2023. She raced for different teams in Europe and Asia, using a Ligier LMP3 car for both the Le Mans Cup and the Asian Le Mans Series. Driving for Graff Racing, she was ninth in the LMP3 class of the Asian championship, usually as part of a three-driver team with Sebastien Page and Eric Trouillet. They finished three races, with a best result of seventh at Yas Marina.

The European Le Mans Cup was less satisfying. Sharing the car with Mark Richards or James Dayson, her best results were two fifth places at Spa and Portimao, but it took until the end of the season to get to that level.

Mid-season, she tried out a Duqueine D-08 in the German Prototype Cup and earned a second and a tenth place at the Norisring. 

As well as motor racing, she competes in athletics, specialising in the pole vault.

(Image copyright Belen Garcia)