Celia Martin

Celia Martin is a French driver who raced in the 2019 Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy, competing alongside Formula E.

Prior to her first race in the electric Jaguar at ad-Diriyah in Saudi, her motorsport experience was confined to the Nurburgring, and mostly in a testing role. 

Celia moved to Germany from her home in France in 2017 in order to pursue a career in motor racing, despite not being from a traditional motorsport background. Unusually, she moved from team management to racing herself, having run a Peugeot team in the Creventic 24 Hour Series before her relocation to Adenau. 

The Ring had been her goal since first driving round it in 2014. She did try out a few races in France, but set her mind to racing in Germany and learnt German in preparation for this, as well as studying law and business.

She picked up a role as a test driver and high-speed “Ring Taxi” chauffeur with Jaguar Land-Rover. As well as giving demo rides to visiting VIPs, she worked on the Jaguar XE SUV project in a testing capacity.

Her first race in Germany was not in a Jaguar but it was at the Nurburgring. In 2017, she did one round of the RCN, which is run as a time trial rather than a wheel-to-wheel race. Results for this are elusive but she may have been driving a Peugeot for the RACECOP team.

Her first wheel-to-wheel experience on the Ring was when she entered one round of the 2018 VLN series with the Mathol team, driving a BMW M235i. 

Her Jaguar connections helped to get her a race seat in the I-Pace eTrophy at the end of 2018. She raced for the Viessmann Jaguar Germany team in the Pro-Am class. The first few rounds were something of a trial for her and the team did not attend the Sanya race in China, but she came back an improved driver. She had her best overall result in Paris, sixth, and this was followed by eighth places in Monaco and Berlin. She was fourth in the Pro-Am class.

Celia did not return to the electric series the following season and went back to her first racing love, the Nurburgring, in late 2019. She joined Luxembourgish drivers Max Lamesch and Sebastien Carcone in their Renault Megane for the fifth round, then was drafted into the “Giti Angels” all-female team led by Carrie Schreiner. The “Girls Only” car was a VW Golf and Celia shared it with Carrie and Laura Kraihamer. Celia was eighth in the SP3T class at the end of the season, despite only having raced twice but scoring one class win and one second place.

The 2020 VLN (now renamed NLS) had a delayed start due to the coronavirus epidemic. Celia and Carrie did some of its esports equivalent together before teaming up again in June and finishing second in class. They then secured two further fourth places and one sixth in SP3T, along with Laura Kraihamer.

The team encountered a long series of car troubles during the Nurburgring 24 Hours, which was red-flagged during the night due to extremely heavy rain. Despite several lengthy pitstops, Celia and her team-mates managed to finish the race in 72nd place.

Away from the Girls Only team, Celia also made a guest appearance in one VLN round for the Hanger Zero team, double-driving with Girls Only. She and her team-mates Phil Hill and Kaj Schubert were third in class.

As part of another Girls Only team, this time in an Audi R8, she won her class in the Nurburgring 24 Hours, assisted by Pippa Mann, Carrie Schreiner and Christina Nielsen. They were 45th, despite problems during the race itself. Celia also joined the team for the first round of the NLS, helping Carrie Schreiner to a class win. In a different car, a BMW M4, she helped Christina Nielsen and Phil Hill to two class second places.

She had another run with Girls Only in the Nurburgring 24 Hours, this time driving an M4. The team - Celia, Pippa Mann. Carrie Schreiner and Fabienne Wohlwend - were third in class. This was her only Nurburgring race of the year.

Late in the season, she joined the Speed Demons Delhi team for the Indian Racing League, in which four-driver teams raced motorbike-engined single-seaters on Indian street circuits. The first round was cancelled due to a string of reliability issues and crashes in practice, then Celia herself crashed hard in the second round at Madras. The season didn't really get any better for her and she did not finish any more races.

Most of 2023 was spent in the ADAC GT4 series, driving an Aston Martin Vantage with Fabienne Wohlwend. They were not hugely competitive and finished 34th in the championship. Driving the same car, they had more luck in the NLS, scoring one third place in the SP10 class. This year's Girls Only team - Celia, Fabienne, Pippa Mann and Beitske Visser - finished the Nurburgring 24 Hours, second in their class and 81st overall.

She was part of the Iron Dames second squad for 2024, racing a Lamborghini Huracan in the Michelin Le Mans Cup with Karen Gaillard. Her best race was at Paul Ricard; she and Karen qualified on pole and finished second. They were also fifth at Mugello, and sixth overall in the championship.

With ProSport this time, Celia also shared an Aston Martin Vantage with three other drivers for one round of the VLN.

(Image from auto360.de)

Women in Formula E

Thanks to the 2018 in-season test day that featured nine female drivers, Formula E has become somewhat associated with women racers. Carmen Jorda’s continuing association with the series, particularly the Nissan team, has helped this perception, even if her comments that Formula E cars are easier to drive for women than other single-seaters annoyed many.

The sad fact is that no female driver has competed in a Formula E race itself since 2016, when Simona de Silvestro picked up a few points for the Andretti team. This looked set to change at one point, with Tatiana Calderon impressing in the in-season rookie tests and Jamie Chadwick building up a strong relationship with the NIO team, but no new female drivers got on-track.

Another all-female test was held in 2024, moved to Jarama after flooding in Valencia. Abbi Pulling was the quickest, driving a Nissan.

2014-15 season

Simona de Silvestro (Andretti Autosport) - 27th (2 races)

Michela Cerruti (Trulli) - 29th (4 races)

Katherine Legge (Amlin Aguri) - 34th (2 races)

2015-16 season

Simona de Silvestro (Andretti Autosport) - 18th (10 races)

Test drivers:

Simona de Silvestro (Venturi 2018-19, official test driver)

Tatiana Calderon (completed 2019 rookie tests for Techeetah)

Jamie Chadwick (completed 2019 rookie tests for NIO)
Simona de Silvestro (Porsche 2019-20, official test driver)

Alice Powell (Envision Racing 2021-, official test driver)

2018 Ad-Diriyah “female drivers” test:

Simona de Silvestro (Venturi)

Tatiana Calderon (Techeetah)

Jamie Chadwick (NIO)

Carmen Jorda (Nissan eDAMS)

Carrie Schreiner (HWA)

Amna al-Qubaisi (Virgin)

Pippa Mann (Dragon)

Beitske Visser (BMW)

Katherine Legge (Mahindra)

2024 Women's Test, Jarama

Abbi Pulling (Nissan)

Jamie Chadwick (Jaguar TCS Racing)

Bianca Bustamante (McLaren)

Miki Koyama (Lola)

Lena Buhler (Mahindra)

Beitske Visser (DS Penske)

Ella Lloyd (McLaren)

Marta Garcia (Porsche)

Carrie Schreiner (Maserati)

Tatiana Calderon (Maserati)

Jessica Edgar (DS Penske)

Alice Powell (Envision)

Nerea Marti (Andretti)

Gabriela Jilkova (Porsche)

Chloe Chambers (Andretti)

Alisha Palmowski (Envision)

Simona de Silvestro (Kiro)

Lilou Wadoux (Jaguar TCS Racing)

(Image copyright Envision)

Carrie Schreiner

Carrie Schreiner started racing GT cars in 2017, after some years of single-seater racing. She won the Pro-Am class of the Middle East Lamborghini Super Trofeo in early 2018.

Carrie is a former karter with two German championships under her belt. She took her first steps in senior motorsport when she tested a Formula 4 car in the UK at the end of 2014, with a view to competing in the Winter Series. She did not take up the drive.

In 2015, she raced in the German ADAC Formula 4 championship. Her best results were two 15th places, at Hockenheim and Oschersleben. She was 44th in the championship, and was the best of the three female drivers taking part this year.

She managed to race in both British and German F4 in 2016, performing much better in the UK. She managed one fourth place, at Thruxton, and two other top-tens, leaving her 17th in the championship. Her team in the UK was Double R Racing.

She struggled in the German series. She only managed to get in the top twenty at Hockenheim, in the last meeting of the season, and was unplaced in the championship.

In 2017, she switched from small single-seaters to big sportscars, spending much of the year racing a Lamborghini Huracan in the European and Asian Super Trofeo. She was second in the Pro division of the Middle East championship, driving for the FFF Lamborghini Squadra Corse with Richard Goddard. Their best overall finishes were two fifth places at Chang.

In the European Trofeo, she drove for Konrad Motorsport, competing in both the Pro and Am classes at different times. Her Pro drives were at Silverstone and yielded a sixth and seventh place. Later, she drove as an amateur in the Nürburgring and Spa rounds, scoring a fifth place in each.

She drove for FFF in the World Finals, and finished ninth and eighth in the Am class, with one fastest lap.

Back home, she also tried out an Audi R8 LMS in the DMV Gran Turismo Touring Car Cup. She was third in her second race at Hockenheim.

For 2018, she switched to the Konrad team for the Middle East Lamborghini Trofeo, driving with Axcil Jeffries who had been her rival in 2017. It was a good partnership; Carrie ended the winter season as the Pro-Am champion, with three wins and two second places. Her best overall results were two second places, at Dubai and Yas Marina. Pro-Am is the biggest class in the championship.

She also returned the Audi R8 and the DMV Cup, racing in Class 1. The first two rounds at Hockenheim gave her a third and her first win in the series. The second races of the season were held at Dijon and she scored another win and a second place with co-driver Kevin Arnold. Her wins came from pole positions and she set fastest laps in the process.

In 2018, she was also announced as an official member of the Lamborghini junior racing squad. She contested the 2018 European Super Trofeo with Konrad, picking up a best finish of fourth at Vallelunga. Earlier in the year, she had entered the Middle East Trofeo, winning the Pro-Am class three times on the way to a class championship.

Despite her Lamborghini involvement, much of 2018 was spent in the DMV Gran Turismo Touring Car Cup, based in Germany. Carrie drove an Audi R8 with Fabian Plentz and won Class 1 outright, scoring victories in four races and only finishing off the podium once.

Carrie decided against qualifying for the 2019 W Series to concentrate on racing in the VLN with an all-female team, Girls Only. This endeavour included female mechanics, managers and media reps. The WS Racing Girls Only Volkswagen Golf did two rounds of the VLN, driven by Carrie, with either Jasmin Preisig and Ronja Assmann or Laura Kraihamer and Petra Baecker. They earned two second places in the SP3T class but did not finish the Nurburgring 24 Hours due to mechanical problems.

The rest of Carrie's year was spent racing an Audi R8 again. She did most of the ADAC GT Masters with Dennis Marschall, picking up a third place at Hockenheim during a somewhat difficult season. They were 24th overall. Driving solo in the same HCB Rutronik-run car, Carrie fared better in the DMV Dunlop 60 championship, finishing fifth from pole in her first race at Hockenheim, her first of four top-five finishes. Later in the season she switched to the GT Touring Car Cup which is part of the same championship with Marco Seefried. They were second at Hockenheim and fourth twice at Zolder.

Girls Only raced again in 2020 once the season finally got under way. The three-woman team entered four VLN races and had a best finish of second in class in the first round. They also teamed up for the Nurburgring 24 Hours. Carrie, Laura Kraihamer and Celia Martin faced many problems during the race, including a break for extremely heavy rain, but managed to finish third in class. 

Carrie's VLN season was a double-duty one; she also raced in Girls Only's parent team's Audi R8 with Henrik Bollerslev and Niklas Kry. The team won its class in all four races it entered.

She used an R8 for the ADAC GT Masters but had a frustrating time of it. Partnering Dennis Marschall again, the year started with a pair of non-finishes at Lausitz and the pair could not build up any momentum. Their best results were two eighth places at the Nurburgring and Sachsenring, which were their only top-ten finishes.

Moving into a different car completely, Carrie finished her year on a higher note in the Mugello 24H Series race. This was a double six-hour race and she was driving a Aston Martin Vantage GT4 for PROsport Racing. She and her two team-mates were second in class in both parts, finishing thirteenth overall both times.

The Girls Only R8 ran better in the 2021 Nurburgring 24 Hours, winning the SP8 class with Carrie as team leader. The other drivers were Pippa Mann, Celia Martin and Christina Nielsen. They were 45th overall. Carrie and Celia also won their class driving together in one round of the NLS. In a completely different team, Carrie drove a Ferrari 488 GT3 in another two NLS races. This was in the FIA Pro-Am class and she managed one third and one fourth place.

Italy featured heavily in the rest of her season; she was racing the Ferrari for AF Corse in the Italian GT championship. Her best finish in the Endurance series was a second place at Vallelunga and she was a consistent top-ten finisher. The Sprint series gave her three podiums: a third at Monza and a second and third at Imola. She was fifth in both championships. 

Carrie continued to run the Girls Only team but did not race in the GT Masters in 2022. That said, she was extremely successful. She spent most of the year in the Porsche Cup Germany, driving a 992 with Lars Joosten. They won their class and finished third overall in the championship. She also raced in the GTC Race series for GT cars, in the GT60 one-hour enduros. For some of the season, she was partnered by David Schumacher. Although she crashed during the last race, she still won the GT3 title.

The Girls Only team came out for the Nurburgring 24 Hours again, with Carrie leading a four-woman squad. They were 35th overall and won their class in their BMW. The race was a one-off; Carrie drove with Peter Terting in a Mercedes-AMG GT3 for the main NLS season. They had a best finish of fourth overall, third in the GT3 class. She joined the NLS again in a BMW for two of the 2023 races, sharing with Walkenhorst's Christian Bollrath and Charles Weerts.

In a surprise move, Carrie switched back to single-seaters for 2023. She was signed by ART Grand Prix for the all-female F1 Academy series, which uses F4 cars. Despite an indifferent start to the season, she won the second Zandvoort race at the year's midpoint, from frontrunners Marta Garcia and Lena Buhler. Although she did not get onto the podium again, she was stronger in the second half of the season and finished eleventh overall. She re-signed for 2024, this time for the Campos team, running as the Sauber F1 squad's supported driver. This will be her last year in F1 Academy as she is already 25, the maximum age allowed.

She also entered the UAE F4 championship at the beginning of 2024, driving for AGI Sport. It wasn't one of her best performances and she could only manage two 21st places at Yas Marina as a highlight. A short run in the Formula Winter Series in Spain yielded similar results, although she did get into the top twenty, taking 17th place once at Jerez. Later in the year, she had a little more success in British F4, finishing thirteenth at Zandvoort. She did six races overall.

This was to be her last year in F1 Academy, as she turned 25 that year and had also had her two permitted seasons. She drove for Campos, posting regular top-tens. The best of these were two sixth places at Zandvoort and Abu Dhabi and she was ninth in the championship. 

Girls Only had not been forgotten either: Carrie joined the four-woman team for the Nurburgring 24 Hours, sharing a BMW with Pippa Mann, Beitske Visser and Fabienne Wohlwend. They were classified third in class in the shortened race, 47th overall. 

(Image copyright Carrie Schreiner)