Bianca Bustamante

 

Bianca Bustamante is a Filipina single-seater racer who began racing cars in 2022. 

She was selected for the third season of the all-female W Series and finished 14th overall, scoring a couple of points for the W Academy team. This followed some guest appearances in the 2022 USF Juniors championship and a spot in the FIA’s Girls on Track shootout in 2021. She did the first two meetings in USF Juniors with IGY6 Motorsport and had a best finish of tenth. 

Later in the 2022 season, she drove for the Bangalore Speedsters in the Indian Racing League and was 17th in the individual standings. The Speedsters were fifth out of six teams. 

Moving back to F4, she joined the Prema team for the 2023 UAE F4 series. Although she was usually a backmarker, she did manage a tenth and ninth place at Kuwait and Dubai. This was preparation for a season in the 2023 F1 Academy with Prema, another all-female championship using F4 cars. She won two races at Valencia and Monza. F1 Academy coverage shows her combative and determined driving style, although she also had some scares, including a collision with Chloe Grant’s flying car at Monza. She was seventh in the championship.

Her second part-season in USF Juniors gave her a pair of ninth places at Circuit of the Americas, driving for Exclusive Autosport. In a busy year, she also replaced Aurelia Nobels for one round of the Italian F4 championship, finishing 19th twice and 25th once at Spa.

For the 2024 season, she switched teams in F1 Academy, moving to ART. She was also chosen as McLaren's supported driver in the series, despite some controversy at Christmas over some tweets about Lance Stroll. She wasn't quite as strong this year, finishing seventh overall with just one podium finish, a second place at Miami. 

ART entered her in some rounds of the Italian F4 championship and its associated Euro4 series at Monza, where she managed three finishes in Euro4 but only one in Italian F4. She was deputising for Aurelia Nobels. Earlier in the season, she had entered the Formula Winter Series with the GRS team, scoring a best finish of 17th at Aragon. She was also a guest in British F4 at Zandvoort, picking up one eighth place, an 18th and a 17th.

Before switching to cars, she raced karts with some success in the Philippines and the USA throughout her childhood. 

(Image copyright Vogue Philippines)

Lena Buhler

 

Lena Buhler is a Swiss driver who races single-seaters, mainly in Europe.

She moved into cars from karting in 2020. Her first experience in senior motorsport was racing in Spanish Formula 4 for the Drivex School team. She was fifteenth in the championship and her best finishes were two fifth places at Aragon and Barcelona. These fifth places were among six top-ten finishes she achieved from 20 starts. She could be quick but was quite inconsistent at times. 

In 2021, she raced in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine, as part of the R-ace team. It was a tough year for her and she earned her best finish of the year, a 23rd place, in the last round at Monza.

During the off-season, she travelled to Arizona in the USA to take part in the W Series F4 tests and was invited back for its Barcelona F3 tests, but she was not offered a seat.

The R-ace connection continued in 2022, with three more FREC races and one finish, a 26th place in Monte Carlo. This followed a part-season in the FR Asian championship, which gave her a best finish of twelfth at Yas Marina. 

She stepped back down to F4 for 2023, entering the UAE championship. Not long after, she was the first driver announced for the FIA’s F1 Academy, an F4-level women-only series, driving for the ART GP team. Lena was one of the oldest drivers in the series, having only started karting at 17 and competing seriously in 2017. She was second in F1 Academy with two wins at Catalunya and Monza. As she was already 25, this would be her only F1 Academy season.

Her 2024 plans were initially unclear, although she became an affiliated driver with the Sauber F1 team as a result of her F1 Academy performances. Later, it was announced that she would be racing in FRECA alongside F1 Academy champion Marta Garcia, although driving for ART again. It was a challenging year and her best finish was 22nd at Paul Ricard. She pulled out of the championship after that.

(Image copyright formula1.com)

Logan Hannah

 

Logan Hannah is a Scottish single-seater driver who won a round of the 2020 Scottish Formula Ford championship outright.

She made her senior motorsport debut in 2017, racing a Formula 4 in the UAE Championship, which runs over the winter season. Logan is a British national but mostly competed in the Middle East to begin with, first as a junior karter.

She was only sixteen when she did her first race at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi. Her results were two sevenths and one eighth place, having finished three of her four races. 

In 2018, she trained for more F4 races with the Arden team, but her actual races were with Graham Brunton’s Formula Ford team. She travelled to the UK for the Walter Hayes Trophy but ran into car trouble with her Ray GR10.

In 2019, she raced in the Scottish Formula Ford championship with Graham Brunton Racing and was fourth overall, with three podium finishes in her 2015-spec Ray. She also raced FF1600 in England, in two Champion of Brands races and the season-ending Walter Hayes Trophy, which has become a regular event for her. Back in the UAE and F4 in December, she took part in the non-championship support race for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and was eighth and ninth. 

She won the David Leslie Trophy at Knockhill in 2020, the first time a Scottish woman had won a national Formula Ford race. Later, she qualified for the Walter Hayes Trophy final, finishing 15th.

Her Formula Ford season in 2021 was restricted to the Formula Ford Festival and Walter Hayes Trophy, but she announced that in 2022 she would be contesting the GB4 (formerly British F4) championship. This was a new series and GBR was one of the first teams to commit to it.

She took advantage of the reverse grid for Race 3 during a GB4 meeting to win a race at Donington, the fourth weekend of her season. This followed a second place in the reverse-grid race at Silverstone. The rest of the season was consistent rather than spectacular, and she was tenth in the championship.

After her traditional appearance in the Walter Hayes Trophy in November, she hinted that this had been her last single-seater race as she was looking to switch to sportscars, possibly Porsches. Mid-season in 2023, she entered a round of the GT Cup at Snetterton, sharing a Lamborghini with Iain Loggie. Loggie crashed the car before she got to drive.

Most of her 2024 racing was in sportscars, in the form of the Ligier European Series. She did four races, sharing the car with Ben Caisley. The pair had a best finish of fourth at Paul Ricard. Later in the year, she was a surprise wildcard entry for the all-female F1 Academy, competing at Yas Marina in Bahrain. Her best finish from her three races was tenth.

(Image copyright Laser Tools Racing)

Maya Weug

 

Maya Weug is a Spanish-Dutch-Belgian driver who was the winner of an FIA Women in Motorsport single-seater talent search in 2020. She was accepted into the Ferrari driver academy as a result. Throughout her short career, she has represented all three countries, having been born in Spain to a Belgian mother and a Dutch father.

She was entered into the 2021 Italian F4 championship by the Iron Lynx team as part of her development. The squad is part of the same team that runs the all-female “Iron Dames” sportscar operation. Her best finish in the opening rounds was a 15th place at Paul Ricard, which was a rookie class win. She was later twelfth overall at Misano and came close to a top ten at Vallelunga. 

Her six guest races in German F4 gave her a debut top ten: ninth at the Red Bull Ring. 

Her second season in Italian F4 started with her first top ten finish, at Imola. She was tenth in Race 1 and sixth in Race 2. By the end of the season, she had racked up six more top-ten finishes at Misano, Vallelunga, the Red Bull Ring and Spa, the best of these being a pair of sevenths at Misano and the Red Bull Ring.

Her guest spots in the German series did not go so well to start with, although she scored another ninth at Zandvoort.

The FIA’s support is long-term and seems to be paying off; Maya was not on the pace right away, but she improved rapidly in her second year.

She moved up to Formula Reginal Europe (FRECA) in 2023, driving for KIC Motorsport. She was the Finnish team's only full-time driver and the highest-performing of the five who raced with them that year. She began as a midfielder but gained confidence mid-season, breaking into the top ten at Spa with a seventh and sixth spot, the first of six top-tens earned in the middle three rounds of the series. She was 17th overall.

For 2024, her links with the Ferrari F1 team led her to a rather odd move: a seat in the F1 Academy all-female F4 series as a Ferrari supported driver. She drove for the Prema team and finished third in the championship, after a win in the final round at Abu Dhabi. She had been a regular visitor to the podium for most of the year. There was also time for a guest appearance in FRECA at Imola, where she rejoined the KIC team. She was 22nd and 14th in her two races.

Previously, she competed in international karting between 2013 and 2020 and won a junior title in 2016. She began karting in Spain in 2011, when she was seven.

(Image copyright Maya Weug)

Marie Baus-Coppens

 

Marie Baus-Coppens is a French driver who has spent most of her career in one-make series in Europe.

She began racing in 2010, aged 19, after some time karting in France. She entered the F4 Eurocup, but did not score any points, having a best finish of 16th at Catalunya and Spa. Sticking with F4, she drove in the French championship in 2011, and did slightly better, managing a thirteenth spot at Pau. 

In 2012, she switched to saloon cars, in the form of the Peugeot RCZ Racing Cup, and fared much better. She achieved five top ten finishes, including a fourth at Magny-Cours, and was tenth overall. 

She continued in the RCZ Cup in 2013, but only made a few appearances in the RCZ Cup as well as some guest appearances in the 208 Cup. This meant that she was unable to make much of an impression on the championship tables in either.

In 2014, she switched allegiance from Peugeot to SEAT, an arrangement that lasted for the next three seasons.

She first raced in the SEAT Leon Eurocup in 2014. Early in the season, she was eighth at the Nürburgring. For the rest of the year, she could not match this, and she was 20th overall. 

In her second season she could only manage a fourteenth place at Barcelona as her best result. She also missed one race, at Monza, due to damaging her car in an accident in Race 1. She was 24th overall. 

A third Eurocup season started more promisingly, with a ninth and eighth at Paul Ricard. She earned two more tenths during the season, and was 19th, after missing the first four races. 

2017 was a quiet season for her; she did two races in the Peugeot 308 Cup, at Magny-Cours, and was 13th and 15th. 

It was both a return and a step up for her in 2018. She raced a SEAT again, but in the European and Benelux TCR championships.

She was not especially competitive in the European series but finished seventh in the Benelux edition, with two fourth places at Catalunya. 

She stuck with the European series in 2019, still in the JSB Competition Cupra she had raced previously, and had a similar season. The following year, she moved into the Ultimate Cup Series, racing a Peugeot in the Challenge GT Sprint championship. Since then, she has raced much less.

(Image copyright SEAT Sport)

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. 

The Duqueine was her car of choice for 2024 and she entered the ELMS with DKR Engineering. Although her campaign only lasted for four races, she did manage one podium finish, a second place at Paul Ricard. Her other two races, at Barcelona and Imola, ended in a fifth and sixth place. She was fourteenth in the championship. 

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

(Image copyright Belen Garcia)

Siti Shahkirah Shaharul

 

Siti Shakirah Shaharul, often known as Siti Shahkirah, is a Malaysian driver who mainly competes in endurance racing.

She began her senior career as one of the winners of the Red Bull Rookies driver search in 2011, aged just seventeen. Red Bull Rookies had been a female-only competition previously, but that year it had both male and female winners. Although she got her break through a competition, she was not new to motorsport as a whole and had been karting since the age of nine. At the end of 2010 she trained at the Petronas Formula Xperience Racing Academy.

Her prize drive was a seat in a Red Bull Proton Satria for the Sepang 1000km. She also took part in a Malaysian Grand Prix support race in the same car, which counted as a round of the Malaysian Super Series. 

After 2011, she was retained as a driver by the Red Bull Rookies team and did at least two more Sepang 1000km races in 2013 and 2014. Her co-driver in 2013 was a Bruneian driver named Siti Zirwatul Iradah Awang Adninin. They were eleventh. The following year she was twelfth overall, with fellow Rookies Geraldine Read and Illy Aquila. 

In 2018, she made her single-seater debut in the Southeast Asia Formula 4 championship, taking part in the last six races at Sepang. Her best results were three eighth places.

She was one of the 60 drivers chosen to try out for the all-female W Series, but she was eliminated after the first round of assessments.

She returned to her favourite haunt, Sepang in 2019 for the 1000km race, partnering Angeline Lee in a Toyota Vios for the Hi-Rev SIC Dream Chaser team. They were 29th overall and won the Vios Enduro class. The same pair tackled the race again in 2020, in a similar car. 

Leading an all-female team, she had another go at the Sepang 1000km in 2022. She drove a Suzuki Swift with celebrity racers Monica Picca and Zulaikha Ahmad and finished 42nd overall.

(Image copyright Siti Shahkirah)

Juju Noda

 

Juju Noda is a Japanese single-seater driver who earned huge media attention as the youngest person to drive a Formula 3 car, aged 11, in 2017. 

The daughter of former Formula 1, Indycar and Super GT racer, Hideki Noda, Juju was introduced to motorsport at a very early age and was karting at three, winning her first race at four. She first tested a full-size car in 2015, driving a Formula 4 which she then drove in public the following year, still aged only nine. Two years later, she was doing speed trials and track days at the Okiyama circuit in an F3 car.

By the time of her F3 test, she had already beaten a lap record for Formula 4 Okiyama in 2016, although it did not stand as it was set during an unofficial track appearance at a Super GT meeting. 

Due to her age, she was unable to compete in her home country, which requires racing drivers to be at least 16, although she raced a little in the USA at the tender age of 13. She took part in the Lucas Oil Winter Race Series meeting at Laguna Seca in early 2019, in a Ray single-seater. Her best result was a fourth place, alongside two eighth places. 

This led to a drive in the 2020 Danish F4 championship, one of the few series to allow drivers of Juju's age (14 at the time) to compete. She won her first race at Jyllandsringen and earned three more podiums, two thirds and a second, on her way to sixth in the championship.

In 2020, she also took part in assessments held by the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission in order to find a junior driver for the Ferrari Academy. Juju was not among the finalists.

Her 2021 season was meant to be spent in the US F4 championship, driving for Jay Howard Driver Development. She practiced for the first round at Road Atlanta and ran fastest, but she did not qualify and withdrew from the championship due to “various recent issues”. Her team did not specify what these issues were, only that they were not related to racism and were “external”.

She returned to the Danish championship just in time for the start of the season. Her Noda Racing-run car was the first F4 car over the line at Padborg, the first of two wins from pole position. She did not finish the third race and was then disqualified from the front of the fourth for causing a collision. Her season did not quite hit the heights again, although she did score six more podium finishes on the way to seventh in the championship. 

At the beginning of 2022 she made a surprise switch to the all-female W Series, taking one of its Academy team spots alongside Bianca Bustamante. The W F3 Regional-based car did not suit Juju and she only got into the top ten once with a ninth place at the Hungaroring.

She also did some races in the Drexler Formula 3 Cup in Europe, competing at Monza, the Red Bull Ring and Brno. Driving a Tatuus T-318 similar to those used in W Series, she earned three fifths and three seventh places in the Open class.

All-female racing was completely left behind in 2023, but controversy was not. She signed up for the Euroformula Open series with her own team and became increasingly quick, winning a race at Paul Ricard and scoring two further podiums. However, after a rule change that allowed female drivers to run a lighter car than their male counterparts, Noda Racing abruptly left the championship. They jumped ship to the Italian F2000 Trophy, with Juju driving a Dallara 320 similar to the EF Open car. She won five races outright on her way to the championship. Later in the season, she entered the BOSS GP series, driving a World Series by Nissan car at Monza. She finished second and third.

She signed for the 2024 BOSS championship, but did not race, in favour of a seat in Japan's Super Formula, the highest level of single-seater racing in Japan. Juju drove for the TGM Grand Prix team, the first Japanese woman to do so and the youngest driver in the championship's history. However, it was a tough season for her. She was near the back for the entire season, with a best finish of twelfth at Suzuka, during the final meeting of the series. She was 21st in the championship.

(Image copyright The Drive)

Marta Garcia

 

Marta Garcia is a Spanish single-seater racer, currently active in Europe, and a former Renault Sport junior.

Her senior career began very early, at sixteen. Her first time out in a single-seater was a Prema test in 2016. That year, she raced in the second half of the Spanish Formula 4 championship. She was eighth overall, with five fifth places as her best result. Her lowest finish was eighth. This followed on from a karting career which included two championship wins in 2015. She started racing at ten.

She intended to race in Formula 3 in 2017, but had another season in F4 instead, driving for MP Motorsport. She was ninth in the Spanish championship, normally finishing in the top ten and with a high point of fifth, at Jerez. Midway through the season, she also raced in Russia, taking part in the Moscow rounds of the SMP F4 championship. She finished two of her three races, with a best finish of sixth.

Marta caught the attention of the Renault Sport development team very quickly and she was signed up as one of their drivers after her 2016 results. This was a short-lived arrangement; they were unconvinced by her performances in 2017 and dropped her at the end of the year.

She returned to karting for a year, competing in Spain and Europe in the KZ2 class. Having lost her Renault support, she struggled financially. As well as getting involved in senior karting again, she enrolled at university.

At the start of 2019, she qualified for the all-female W Series, coming through three rounds of qualification. Her season started well with a third at a wet Hockenheim and she subsequently won one race at Norisring. She was fourth in the championship after a somewhat inconsistent season; Hockenheim and Norisring were here only podium positions.

For 2020, her season was meant to include W Series and Formula Renault Eurocup. W Series was cancelled due to coronavirus and her Eurocup entry did not happen. She returned to W Series in 2021, but was not quite on the pace for most of the eight-race season. Her best result was third at Spa, but this was one of only two top-tens that year and she was twelfth in the championship. She later explained that she was suffering from mental health problems and struggling to balance racing and her studies.

She improved again towards the end of the shortened 2022 W season, starting from pole in Singapore and hanging on for third place. Just before, she had been fourth at the Hungaroring. Her final championship position was sixth.

The implosion of W Series at the start of 2023 encouraged her into F1 Academy, another all-female championship using F4 cars, despite this being a slight backward step. Driving for the Prema team, she won the first championship with seven race victories. 

Her prize drive for 2024 was a seat with the Prema team for the FRECA championship, which she took up. The team was co-opted into the Iron Dames squad, with Doriane Pin as her team-mate. Sadly, it was not a successful season, with a fourteenth place ar the Red Bull Ring towards the end of the year her best finish by far. 

She was quoted as saying that 2024 was probably her last season in single-seaters and she took some steps to make a name for herself in sportscars. Iron Dames provided a Ligier for four rounds of the Ligier European Series, and Marta responded with two wins at Spa and Algarve. She was eighth in the championship.

(Image from denia.com)

Emily Linscott

 

Emily Linscott is an ambitious single-seater racer from the UK who began her career very young.

She first raced a car in 2017 when she competed in the last three rounds of the Ginetta Junior championship. This was only her second season in motorsport full stop, having taken up karting in 2016, aged 13. She also had a shaky start in cars; only the second time she drove on a circuit, she was taken off at Snetterton by an F3 car. The Ginetta was written off and she had to have a spare car brought from the factory.

Her best Ginetta Junior overall finishes were a pair of twelfth places at Brands Hatch and Silverstone, although she scored far better in the rookie rankings. 

Richardson Racing saw her potential and she was signed by the team for the 2018 Ginetta Junior season, earning a best finish of ninth and 16th in the championship. This was in spite of a crash in practice at Knockhill which left her with heavy bruising. The car’s brakes failed going into the hairpin and Emily narrowly avoided going into the barrier head-on. After seeking clearance from the track medics, she was back on the circuit for qualifying and her two races.

At the end of the season she travelled to Malaysia for a guest appearance in the Southeast Asia Formula 4 championship, finishing seventh twice at Sepang even though her car had gearbox and electrical problems. She did not finish the third race of the meeting, having collided with another driver while running in second place. 

In 2019, she travelled to the USA at weekends for the Lucas Oil Formula Car race series, where she was being mentored by Pippa Mann. She was eighth in the championship, with two second places at NCM Motorsports Park. At the end of the year, she was third in the series' Scholarship shootout. She also took part in a couple of rounds of the Dunlop Endurance Championship with Peter Bassill, driving his Ginetta G55 at Oulton Park. They won their class in both of their races. 

Her focus switched again to single-seaters for 2020 and she stayed in America for the Lucas Oils Formula Car Championship, supported by Indycar driver Pippa Mann. She was seventh in the championship, with one podium finish at New Jersey. 

She is racing in US F4 in 2021, driving for Teena Larsen’s Kiwi Motorsport. Once again, she is being supported by Pippa Mann and her Shift Up Now initiative. Part of Emily’s season is being financed through crowdfunding and the rest by a scholarship from PMH Powering Diversity.

Her time training in the US seems to have paid off; her third race at Road Atlanta gave her a debut top-ten when she finished eighth. She also impressed by moving strongly up the field after qualifying problems.

She did complete 14 of the 17 rounds of the championship, but as she was gathering sponsorship on a race-by-race basis, there was no budget for testing. As a British citizen, she was also unable to undertake paid work in the US. She was 23rd in the championship and later admitted that her time in the States had taken its toll on her mental health. She is currently taking a break from competition.

(Image copyright Emily Linscott)

Anna Inotsume

 

Anna Inotsume is a Japanese driver who races touring cars and GTs. She is the 2023 Japanese TCR champion.

She began her career in 2015 as part of a women’s motorsport initiative run by Mazda in Japan. She did some racing in an electric car that year. Her involvement continued through 2016 and incorporated her major on-track debut. She represented the women’s team in December’s Mazda Party Race, qualifying on pole and finishing fourth. 

She was selected to race in the 2018 Super Taikyu series in a Mazda Roadster as part of an all-female team picked from the scheme. “Love Drive Racing” was run by Keiko Ihara and Anna, along with Marie Iwaoka, ran the whole season, including a 24-hour race at Fuji. Their best result was sixth in class at Suzuka. Her first steps into Super Taikyu were the final rounds of the 2017 series, with the same team. She shared the car with Marie Iwaoka at Fuji and Okayama. They were eleventh and thirteenth in class. 

At the end of 2018, she made her debut in the Asian Le Mans Series, joining the all-female R24 team for the Fuji race alongside Marie Iwaoka and Stephane Kox. This team was also run by former Le Mans racer Keiko Ihara. They were seventh in the LMP3 class. 

Anna tried out for the 2020 W Series in September 2019 but was not selected, admitting later that she found the F3 car hard to drive due to her lack of single-seater experience. Her first single-seater races were later in the year in the club-level JAF F4 series. On her third race, she scored her first podium finish. Back in a tin-top, she was invited to take part in the Japanese round of the Asian Mini Challenge.

Mazdas had not been forgotten: having represented West Japan in the Mazda Party Race series in 2018, she joined the Mazda Fan Endurance Japan Tour and won. 

Her 2020 activities included a run in the three-round Kyojo Cup, a single-make sportscar series for women drivers. She was third overall, winning the last race of the season. She also participated in the mixed Vita series, which uses the same car. 

She also returned to Super Taikyu after a year away, competing in a Mazda Roadster run by students from Nihon Automobile College. Hiroko Komatsu joined her in the five-driver team for the Fuji 24 Hours. Later in the season, she joined the Natural Tuning/Cusco team in their Roadster for the third Super Taikyu race. She earned her first class podium, a second place at Autopolis, during the fifth round. 

Shortly before that, she tested an Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR car, with a view to participating in the series in future. 

In 2021 she did make her TCR debut, but in a Honda Civic run by Dome Racing. She scored one second place in the Saturday Series at Suzuka and finished eleventh in both the Saturday and Sunday championships.

She continued for Dome in the TCR championship in 2022 and scored her first win at Fuji, swiftly followed by a second win at Suzuka. This followed a run of seven podium finishes, plus two pole positions, netting her second in the championship. This improved to a championship win in 2023, with five wins and two additional podiums for the Dome team. Her car was a Honda Civic.

In September, she made a guest appearance in Formula Regional Japan, finishing fifth and fourth at Fuji. This led to a full season in 2024. She was sixth in the championship, with one podium finish: a second place at Fuji. 

Back in tin-tops, she travelled to the USA for some guest races in the Toyota GR Cup North America, part of a rotating group of Japanese drivers. She entered the Virginia rounds, finishing 21st both times. 

(Image copyright Anna Inotsume)

Abbi Pulling

 

Abbi Pulling is a British single-seater driver who raced in F4 and the Formula 3-based Euroformula Open championship in 2020. She was the 2024 F1 Academy champion.

Prior to her step up to cars, she was one of Britain’s most successful karters of 2017. She won the Super 1 Junior TKM championship and the British ‘O’ Plate championship outright. She had been runner up in Super 1 Junior TKM in 2016. 

She made her car racing debut at the start of 2018 in Ginetta Juniors in the UK. Her first race was shortly after her fifteenth birthday and she proved herself capable of top-ten finishes, including a ninth place at Brands Hatch, but she only did a part-season. For the other half of the season she got back into a kart and trained further. 

She became supported by Motorsport UK in both competition and studies, and made her step up to senior competition in 2019. The season in the Ginetta GT5 Challenge got going a little slowly, but she became more and more confident and scored her best finish right at the end of the season: sixth at Donington.

In 2020 she switched to single-seaters, which had always been her aim. She raced in British F4 with the JHR Developments team. She had a cautious start to the season at Donington with a fifteenth and then a sixth place, then a disappointing non-finish, but she made up for it with her first podium at Brands Hatch. She posted three more podium finishes: thirds at Croft and Brands and a season’s-best second at Thruxton. The second place was particularly welcome after a nightmare meeting at Knockhill with two non-finishes, one from pole.

The Brands third place was one of the most impressive of the year. Abbi led after a lengthy caution period, having steered her way through a multi-car off. She was reeled in by Zak O’Sullivan and Christian Mansell, but it was a strong performance nevertheless.

She also had her first international race in 2020, when she was invited to take up a guest spot in the Formula Renault Eurocup F3 championship with Fernando Alonso’s FA Racing team. She joined the grid at Imola and finished both races in fifteenth and 16th place. 

She was announced as a reserve driver in W Series for 2021, having been passed over a year earlier due to her age. This was meant to be combined with another British F4 season, but funding ran out at the end of August. It had been a decent year for her, with three third places at Brands and Thruxton.

Her first W Series appearance was in July, at Silverstone, where she was eighth. She rejoined for Round 6 at Zandvoort and was seventh, but she really impressed in the two Circuit of the Americas races with a fourth place from pole and a second. After four races, she was seventh in the championship.

W Series gave her a full-time seat for 2022, although the season was shortened due to financial constraints. She picked up another second place fairly quickly at Catalunya, followed by a third in her home race at Silverstone. She was fourth in the championship.

Away from W Series, she accepted a guest drive in the UK Radical championship, sharing a car with her erstwhile driver coach Alice Powell.

W Series imploded at the beginning of 2023, but Abbi had already jumped ship to F1 Academy, another all-female series using F4 cars. She was one of the first drivers announced and drove for the Rodin Carlin team. Although she was expecting to dominate the championship, she struggled with car issues and a technical disqualification at Paul Ricard. Her best finish was third, which she managed three times, and she was fifth overall.

In 2024, she continued in F1 Academy, as the Alpine team's supported driver with Rodin. She combined this with contesting the British F4 championship again. In F1 Academy, she quickly proved herself to be the dominant driver in the series, winning nine races from thirteen, most of them from pole. Her lowest finish was a third at Zandvoort. Her prize drive for 2025 is a run in the GB3 championship.

British F4 also brought her a win, at Brands Hatch. This was one of two podium finishes she picked up, the other being a second place at Zandvoort. As she missed several races towards the end of the season and wasn't quite consistent enough, she was seventh overall. 

(Image copyright Abbi Pulling)

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)

Regina Sirvent

 

Regina Sirvent races stock cars and trucks in Mexico. She is a racewinner in pickup racing. 

2017 was her first season and she started early. She was 14 when she had her first race in a NASCAR pickup, after seven years of karting in Mexico and the USA. Her best finish in trucks was seventh, at Pachuca, and she was eleventh overall. She also did a part-season in Mexican Super Touring, in the Light class. Her car was a Chevrolet. She was only 30th on the leaderboard due to missing most of the early rounds, but she did manage two top-ten finishes, the best of these being an eighth at Mexico City. 

In 2018, she continued to divide her time between cars and trucks, competing in Mexican Super Touring and the Mikel's Trucks series. Driving a Chevy, she scored two podiums in Super Touring, a second at Amozoc and a third at Mexico City. She was fourteenth overall. In Trucks, she was tenth overall, despite not being as quick. Her best finish was eighth at Queretaro, one of five top-ten positions. 

In 2018, she also made her single-seater debut, racing in the NACAM F4 series at Aguascalientes. She scored one fifth and two seventh places. This was a one-off appearance.

2019 was mostly spent racing in Mikel's Trucks, where she earned a fourth place at Aguascalientes and five further top-ten finishes. She also made guest appearances in TC2000 and Super Touring 1 in Mexico, driving a Ford. TC2000 was not one of her greatest moments; she only finished one of her three races in 26th place, at Mexico City. Super Touring 1 was more fruitful and she came close to a podium at Mexico City, finishing fourth.

When the 2020 season finally got under way, she won her first race in Mikel's Trucks. Her victory at Queretaro followed a start from pole and she also picked up a fastest lap. The second race of the meeting gave her a second place. After a few mechanical problems mid-season, she won again at Queretaro, then finished third in Race 2, on her way to third in the championship.

In June 2020 she was announced as one of four teenaged drivers taking part in a shootout for a place in NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity programme. She drove a Legend car against the other candidates. 

Her NASCAR Mexico season in 2021 took in races in the Peak and Challenge series. She did six Challenge races and finished tenth in four of them, earning a 16th place in the championship. Her two Peak races at Tuxtla and Queretaro were not as successful, earning her 21st and 18th places.

A deal to run in the Truck championship again seems to have fallen through and she did not return to Trucks in 2022 either. She remained active in both the NASCAR Mexico and Challenge series, with the Challenge giving her the best results. She finished in the top ten of three of her five races, coming tenth at Tuxtla Gutierrez, eighth at Queretaro and ninth at Puebla.

NASCAR Mexico proved more of a challenge. Queretaro was her best circuit; she finished 16th there.

She was thirteenth in the 2023 NASCAR Mexico series, only four points away from the top ten. Her popularity led to her winning a fan vote to compete in an away race in Los Angeles. This went a little way to making up for the rumours about an ARCA race seat with the Venturini team, which proved to be untrue.

2024 was spent in the NASCAR Peak Challenge, driving a Chevrolet. She earned her first podium in the series at San Luis Potosi, finishing second. It was an inconsistent season, but she showed some real speed and was eighth in the championship.

She did one NASCAR Mexico race at the Coliseum in LA, finishing 18th.

(Image copyright Angel Ferretiz/NASCAR)

Julia Pankiewicz

Julia Pankiewicz is a Polish single-seater driver. She is most famous for racing alongside her identical twin, Wiktoria.

Julia and Wiktoria both came to prominence competing in Italy, in Formula 4. Twin female drivers have never before raced in such a championship, although they had previously competed against one another in Eastern European Junior Rotax. Julia was usually the faster driver.

Julia graduated from karting at the start of the 2015 season. She raced for the Swiss RB Racing team with Wiktoria. She had a best finish of fourteenth, achieved twice at Misano. Her final championship position was 33rd. She clinched the series’ women’s trophy after Wiktoria had to sit out the last rounds of the season, having suffered a serious accident at Adria. This was the end of the Pankiewicz twins as a sister act, although Julia continued her career.

In 2016, she did a few races in the Formula Renault Eurocup, as well as Formula Renault NEC. Her best result in the Eurocup was nineteenth at Aragon Motorland, one of three races she did there. She did slightly better in the NEC series, with a thirteenth at Hockenheim and 27th overall. Although she was not really competitive, she had a decent finishing record and was rarely last. Lando Norris was that year’s champion. 

Her 2017 season was based around the Eurocup, with only a couple of guest spots in the NEC series. Her best Eurocup result was fifteenth at Monza, and she was 30th overall. Her NEC races at Monza yielded the best results of her career: a seventh and tenth place.

Her team boss Mark Burdett described her as “a pleasure to work with” but her career petered out after 2017. She appears on the entry list for the 2018 Euroformula Open Winter Series, driving for the leading RP Motorsport team, but does not appear to have raced. 

(Image from www.motorsport.v10.pl)

Hamda al-Qubaisi

Hamda al-Qubaisi is Abu Dhabi-born driver who won three rounds of the 2020 UAE F4 championship.

After a short period of international karting in Rotax Max, she began her senior racing career in 2019, in Formula 4. She competed against her older sister Amna al-Qubaisi in the last rounds of the Italian F4 championship at Red Bull Ring and Monza. Her best finish was 21st at Monza. Both sisters were driving for the Abu Dhabi Racing team. 

She did better in the UAE F4 race that supported the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, qualifying third and finishing fifth in her first race, which Amna won. Hamda ran into problems in the second and was eleventh. 

The GP support was a non-championship prelude to the UAE F4 series, which Hamda entered with the Abu Dhabi team. She was on the pace straight away, picking up pole position for the first race at Dubai Autodrome. She could not hold on to the lead on a wet track and finished sixth, although she fought back in Race 2 to second. The terrible weather was partly to blame for her DNF in Race 3 and the fourth race was cancelled due to track flooding.

She earned another two podiums at Yas Marina, both second places, although she was still not quite able to capitalise on her qualifying pace and suffered a couple of offs. She also admitted later that her race starts were not the best. The second Abu Dhabi round began with another pole position, but this weekend she managed to turn it into a win in the third race, after two more seconds She crossed the line for her victory ten seconds ahead of her nearest rival, set a fastest lap and an F4 track record. 

A straight run of podiums at Dubai followed, then a four-race weekend bookended by two wins for the season finale, also at Dubai.

She was fourth in the championship.

Hamda intended to race in Europe for the rest of the 2020 season but the global coronavirus pandemic put a stop to motorsport for the first half of the year. She made it into the Italian F4 championship in August and had a rocky start, recording a DNF in her first race and then an 18th and 14th place at Misano. By the time the series reached the Red Bull Ring her confidence had increased and she picked up her first top ten, a tenth place, Her second top-ten was a ninth place at Monza, which must have been satisfying after a pair of non-finishes. She was 25th in the championship.

In September, she made a guest appearance in the German F4 championship at Hockenheim, earning herself another tenth place.

Making up for a slow 2020, she entered 47 races in 2021. Her schedule took in the complete UAE and Italian championships, plus some appearances in German F4. The UAE series began the year and she was fourth overall, with two wins at Dubai and Yas Marina. Only some inconsistency dropped her out of title contention.

Her season in Italy was also very inconsistent, but she did show flashes of really good speed, finishing third at Misano and then seventh at Vallelunga mid-season. She was 17th overall. Her German season was something of a write-off, with only two finishes from six races.

She decided to move up to F3 in 2022, entering the Formula Regional Asian Series with her sister Amna and their father, Emirati sportscar racer, Khaled al-Qubaisi. It was a tricky championship for her and she was 27th overall. Her best finish was a twelfth place at Yas Marina in the first race of the season.

The main season began in April and Prema ran Hamda in the Formula Regional European Championship, alongside Amna. The jump up in the level of competition showed and she could only muster a 24th place at the Red Bull Ring in the final race of the season. Another go at the UAE F4 championship also did not really go her way; she was 20th overall and only managed a pair of top-ten finishes. These were seventh places in Kuwait and Bahrain.

For 2024, she was announced as one of the first drivers in the all-female F1 Academy series, racing an F4 car for MP Motorsport. Amna was one of her rivals and also her team-mate. She was third overall, winning four times at Valencia, Zandvoort and Circuit of the Americas.

The rules of F1 Academy state that drivers can only stay in the championship for two seasons, so 2024 was the last one for Hamda. She drove for MP Motorsport again, but was not as competitive as in 2023 despite three podiums, including a second place at Yas Marina. She was fifth overall. This followed a winter-season run in the Saudi F4 championship. She began the championship proper well with a win and a third in Kuwait, but she was unable to keep up the momentum. She scored one more podium, a third, at Jeddah in the middle of the season, hanging on to fourth in the championship.

(Image from khaleejtimes.com)