Ella Lloyd

Ella Lloyd is a British driver who races single-seaters, most famously in the all-female F1 Academy championship.

She began her motorsport career in 2022, racing in Ginetta Juniors at the age of 16. She got into motorsport through the FIA’s Girls on Track karting challenge in 2018, having never done any karting before.

Her best results at the start of the 2022 season were three 16th places, achieved at Brands Hatch and Knockhill. Later, she improved, picking up an eleventh place at Thruxton. She was 21st overall.

The first year of her senior career, 2023, ended with a runner-up in the Pro class of the Ginetta GT5 Challenge, after a series of wins. She had 17 podium finishes from 25 races, ten of those being wins in the Pro class.

She then switched to single-seaters in 2024, first in the Formula Winter Series, then in British F4. Rodin entered her for the last two rounds of the Winter Series, taking over from Bart Harrison. It was a cautious start and she only got in the top 20 once, although she also scored more points than Harrison or some drivers who did a full season.

She was eleventh in the F4 championship, impressing many with her pace, despite her limited single-seater experience. The work she had put in over the winter had started to pay off. During the year, she scored three second places, at Silverstone, Knockhill and Brands. This led to a wildcard entry for the Singapore rounds of F1 Academy, where she was ninth and seventh. Later in the year, she took part in the Formula E Women's Test at Jarama, recording the seventh-best set of times. As a result, she was invited back to test again for the McLaren team at Berlin Tempelhof in 2025.

For 2025, she was signed by the Rodin team as McLaren's supported driver in the series. To prepare, she entered the Formula 4 Middle East Trophy. This wasn't a huge success; in the five races she did, her best finishes were 17th places at Yas Marina.

F1 Academy itself was more successful. In the third race at Jeddah, she scored her first win, following it up with three second places later in Canada.

She is from a motorsport family - both parents and her older brother compete - and she has won junior championships in both downhill skiing and showjumping.

(Image copyright F1 Academy)

Alisha Palmowski

Alisha Palmowski began her racing career in Ginetta Juniors in 2022, aged 15. She was the winner of the Ginetta Junior Scholarship and her prize was a full season’s racing in the championship. She describes this win as a turning point in her career; without it, she might never have switched to cars from karts.

Her scholarship followed six years of karting, during which she finished strongly in two junior categories. Although she quickly became competitive, she had no great interest in doing sports as a child, and only watched motorsport on TV.

Her best results were two eighth places at Knockhill in July and the challenging Brands Hatch GP circuit, in October. This was one of six top-ten finishes she earned that year and she was thirteenth in the championship. A run in the Ginetta Winter Series followed; the four-round series was held at Brands Hatch and she picked up one second and one third place.

In 2023, she was fifth in the championship, with ten podiums from 24 races. She was third in her second race of the season at Oulton Park, then second twice at Silverstone, setting herself up for a strong run in her final year as a junior racer.

Switching to single-seaters, she entered the GB4 championship in 2024 and was immediately on the pace again, winning the first round at Oulton Park, one of her best circuits. This was one of three wins that year, which gave her second in the championship, with eight additional podium finishes.

Impressing many onlookers by getting to grips with GB4 so quickly, she was selected as a wildcard entry for the Bahrain F1 Academy round and finished fifth in the one race which took place. This led to a full-time Academy seat in 2025, driving for the Campos team as Red Bull's supported driver. She has spoken openly about being quite star-struck in the F1 paddock, but it did not affect her performance.

At the end of 2024, she took part in the Formula E Women's Test at Jarama, driving for the Envision team with Alice Powell.

To prepare for her upcoming season, she entered the Formula Winter Series at the start of 2025, alongside her Campos team-mates, Chloe Chambers and Rafaela Ferreira. All three did two rounds each, with Alisha taking the first two at Algarve and Ricardo Tormo. She was the highest-placed of the three, coming in 23rd in the championship. Algarve was her best circuit; she was thirteenth twice and twelfth once.

She could not have hoped for a better start to her 2025 F1 Academy season. An incident-strewn first race at Shanghai meant that a calm and determined Alisha was able to take her first win. She followed it with a sixth place, and was then third and fourth at Jeddah, and second at Miami.

(Image copyright Red Bull)

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)

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)

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.

In 2023, she was announced as a driver in the British GT championship, racing a Ginetta G56 for Toro Verde. She did the first four races with Joe Wheeler, finishing two of them. They were 31st and 30th at Oulton Park.

She sat out 2024 due to pregnancy.

(Image copyright Esmee Hawkey)

Sarah Moore

Sarah with the John Cooper Mini

Sarah Moore made history in 2009 by winning the Ginetta Junior championship outright. She was the under-17 series’s first female champion. She has since gone on to race saloons and sportscars in the UK and Europe.

She completed her first season of the Ginetta Junior series in 2008. She managed to finish in the top ten six times, with a best result of sixth. This followed a part-season in 2007, when she was fourteen. As well as full-size cars, Sarah also raced karts.

Her championship-winning season included five wins, making her the first female driver to secure victory in a TOCA-sanctioned race. She was awarded a BRDC Rising Star at the end of the year.

She returned to the series in 2010 for a final year, but did not manage another win. She was seventh overall. This year, she moved from her family’s team, Tockwith Motorsport, to Eurotech.

In 2011, after turning seventeen, she switched to single-seaters and raced in the Intersteps Formula, supported by Tockwith again. Her best finish was fourth, achieved twice at Silverstone, and she was sixth overall. Later, she described her foray into single-seaters as “difficult”.

She also did four races in the Smart 4Two championship, scoring two podium finishes. This was a new championship for the UK, based on the unlikely Brabus-prepared Smart micro-car.

She continued in the 4Two series in 2012, and scored a second at Spa and a two thirds at Snetterton. Her team-mate was her younger brother, David. They have another brother, Nigel, and all three pair up at various times.

A career hiatus followed. For a season, Sarah concentrated on her work as a driver coach, and only competed in karting. Even then, it was to help develop her student drivers.

In 2014, she was ready to race again. Alongside her brother Nigel, she travelled to Germany, to compete in the VLN, held on the legendary Nordschleife of the Nürburgring. She was racing in the Toyota GT86 Cup class. They won the class twice.

The pair aimed to return to the VLN in 2015, but it was not to be. Sarah kept her hand in by racing in kart enduros. She was the European ProKart Endurance Champion, with her team-mate Matthew Greenwood.

After another year spent mostly on the sidelines, Tockwith Motorsport entered Sarah into six rounds of the LMP3 Cup. She was driving a championship-standard Nissan-engined Ligier. If she had been able to complete the season, she would have been in line for a good position: she and co-driver Richard Dean were third at Donington and second at Spa.

As well as sampling prototype racing, Sarah continued to gain experience in different saloons. She entered five rounds of the UK Mini Challenge, all at Brands Hatch. She drove in both the Cooper Pro and JCW classes. Her best finish was fourth in the JCW car, in August.

Minis were a theme during her 2017 season. The intention had been for her to run a full season of the Mighty Mini championship. This was restricted to four rounds, but she won two of them.

The other cars she raced were a Smart ForFour, which she used for some rounds of the Britcar championship, and a Ginetta G50. The latter car she used in the BWRDC’s Ladies’ Handicap in November. She was the runaway winner on scratch, lapping almost all of the field twice. However, she was given a very low handicap, and was tenth in the final results.

In 2018 she drove a Ginetta in Britcar with Matt Greenwood. They won the Endurance championship in the Tockwith Motorsport G50.

2019 involved another season in Britcar and Sarah also tried to get back into single-seaters in the female-only W Series. Her season started well enough and she led during the first race at Hockenheim, but she could not get onto the podium and had a best finish of fifth, at Hockenheim and Zolder. She was eighth in the championship and will race again in 2020.

In mixed competition, she entered the Algarve round of the GT4 South European Series, driving a Ginetta G50 run by Tockwith. She and Moh Ritson were second in class in both races.

W Series was cancelled for 2020 due to the coronavirus crisis but Sarah picked up a drive in the UK Porsche Sprint Challenge. She raced at Donington and Croft, earning two fourth places and a sixth.

Her 2021 season was based around W Series, in which she finished fifth. She began the season well at the Red Bull Ring with a second place and was a fairly consistent top-ten finisher, apart from a mid-season dip in form. She was due for automatic inclusion in the 2022 championship and was picked for the Scuderia W team. 

In 2022, she was a consistent finisher in the lower half of the top ten in W Series. Her best result was seventh, achieved in Hungary and Singapore, and she was eleventh in the championship.

W Series folded at the start of 2023 so there was little competitive racing for Sarah that year. Late in the season, she was signed by the Bangalore Speedsters for the Indian Racing League, sharing the car with Kyle Kumaran. Sarah won the first race at Madras and was fourth and seventh in her other two races, leading the Speedsters to a championship win. Individually, she was fourth.

Moving away from competiton, she was announced as a driver coach for the More Than Equal female driver training programme.

(Image copyright Marc Waller)

Jade Edwards

Jade with the Mini in 2016

Jade Edwards is a British sportscar racer. She is the younger sister of Chloe Edwards, and the pair sometimes race together.

She began racing in 2006, in the Ginetta Junior championship, as a fifteen-year-old. Chloe, who is three years older, had raced in the series the year before, so Jade used her old car. Her best result appears to have been fourth, at the Ginetta Junior Festival in 2006, and she was ninth in the championship.

Later, in 2008, after she had graduated from junior competition, she shared Chloe’s MG ZR for the SportMaxx Cup. The pair occasionally drove together.

They competed against each other in the 2010 Max5 Championship, driving different Mazda MX-5s this time.  

In 2011, Jade returned to Max5 with the family team. She had to sit out the mid-part of the season due to crashing her car at Rockingham, and the engine then blowing up at Donington. However, she managed some top-ten finishes in class.

In 2012, she was 37th in the championship, with a best finish of two third places, plus nine more top tens. She did not run a whole season.

In 2014, she made a comeback after a quiet period, driving a Ginetta G55 in the British GT4 championship. She took part in three races, finishing two of them, with a best finish of ninth, at Spa. She was also tenth at Snetterton, with co-driver Matthew Draper. Later in the season, she made a guest appearance in the Aston Martin GT4 Challenge at Donington, this time with Chloe. They won their race, which was a female first for the championship, and probably for the marque. Driving for the Craft-Bamboo team, Jade also took part in three other races.

In October, she did her first international endurance race, the 12 Hours of Hungary. She was driving a Volkswagen Golf with Tom Onslow-Cole and Paul White. They were seventh overall, and won their class.

Most of 2015 was spent in the British GT4 Championship, driving the Aston Martin for the Stratton/UltraTek team. Her best finishes were a pair of tenth places, at Rockingham and Snetterton, and she was 25th overall. Chloe was among her team-mates, alongside George White and David Tinn. Late in the season, she drove a MARC Focus in the Catalunya 24 Hours, as part of an international driving squad, but did not finish. This was a guest spot with an Australian team. They had been leading their class until the 22nd hour.

In 2016, she took a step back from racing, and spent some time as a driving instructor to Johnny Vegas on ITV's motorsport game show, Drive. She made a guest appearance in the Knockhill round of the Celticspeed Mini Cooper Cup, in support of a hospice charity, and at the end of the season, contested the 25 Hours of Spa Fun Cup race. She and her team-mates were second.

Her last event of the year was the Race of Remembrance at Anglesey, in which she drove a VW Golf with Tom Onslow-Cole, Chris Hoy and Jon-Allan Butterworth. This was her third run in the charity race, in aid of injured service personnel. She won the inaugural one in 2014, and finished on the podium in 2015.

In 2017, she raced in the Clio Cup for Ciceley Motorsport. It was a challenging year with a tight budget, which limited her opportunities for testing. She did prove herself capable of getting on the pace with two top-ten finishes: a ninth at Croft mid-season, then an eighth at Silverstone in September. Her final championship position was 16th.

She raced for the MRM team in the 2018 Clio Cup. It was an eventful year, with a few dramatic accidents as well as four top-ten finishes. She rolled heavily at Oulton Park and a crowdfunding campaign was needed to get her back in the championship. She also had her share of being collected by other peoples' accidents. In addition to this, she was stung by a sponsorship deal that turned out to be a scam mid-season. Again, her supporters rallied round to help her. She was 14th in the championship.

Her third season as a Clio driver was with Team Hard. She was seventh in the championship after a more consistent season with slightly fewer funding constraints relating to accident damage. Her best finish was a fourth place at Brands Hatch, the second race of the season.

Although she did not get to race much in 2020 due to the coronavirus crisis, Jade's career got a boost when she became the first female BTCC driver since 2007. Team Power Maxed Racing offered her their Vauxhall Astra for the Silverstone races in September and she was set for a top-20 finish until she was pushed off-track by Andy Neate. As a late entry, her car had to carry considerable ballast and she made up several grid positions before having to settle for 23rd. She was 21st in the second race and then had to retire from the third due to damage received earlier.

Her 2020 guest spots led to a full-time seat in the 2021 BTCC, driving a Honda Civic Type R for the BTC team, supported by PHSC. It was another tough year in a legendarily combative championship, but there were some high points. From 30 races, she scored seven top-twenty finishes, the best of these being a 15th spot at Snetterton, earning her first BTCC points. She had her share of scrapes and had to retire five times, but she continued to push and develop and was 26th overall in the championship.

Her second season with BTC featured more top-twenty finishes and fewer DNFs. She managed another 15th place, this time at Brands Hatch, and was 27th in the championship.

For her third BTCC campaign, she started the year with Team Hard, driving a SEAT Cupra. The car was unreliable and Jade couldn't start twice, incurring penalties. For the mid-season Silverstone races, she moved to the One Motorsport/Startline Racing team, in a Honda Civic. This was a much more reliable and she finished in the top twenty seven times, including two 16th places. She was 31st in the championship.

When not actively racing, Jade works within the motorsport industry, as a driving instructor, PR person and even as a tyre technician. In 2014, she was one of the safety car drivers for the BTCC. She is a third-generation racer, the daughter of Jim Edwards Jr.

(Image copyright Chloe Edwards)

Sophia Flörsch

Sophia Flörsch is a German driver who began racing in the UK in 2015. She is one of the most talked-about and highly-rated female drivers of the past few years.

Her senior debut followed a six-year karting career, which included two championship wins: the ADAC Kart Bundeslauf Bambini B title in 2009, and the 2010 60cc Easykart European Grand Finals. She was picked up by the Red Bull talent scouts, and although she is not an official Red Bull junior team member, she is still associated with them.

She took part in the Ginetta Junior championship in 2015, and was one of the younger drivers in the series, aged fourteen. Despite her age and inexperience, she was one of the fastest drivers in the series, winning twice at Thruxton. She was the youngest driver to win a Ginetta Junior race. After Thruxton, she was second at Croft. Her season had built slowly, from a fifth at Brands Hatch. Observers from the media and teams sat up and took note.

 In a somewhat controversial decision, she left the championship after five rounds, in order to conserve money and to train for a season in Formula 4 in 2016. Single-seaters had always been her ultimate goal, but she was unable to start racing them until she was fifteen.

She returned to Germany, and duly entered the ADAC Formula 4 series, with the Motopark team. She was only just fifteen.

It was a tough year. The season started well enough, with a ninth place at Oschersleben, rising to fifth in the third race. After the first break of the season, Sophia’s lack of testing time started to show, and her results slipped. Other, older drivers working with better-funded teams were able to devote time to testing; Sophia had to take her final school exams instead. The team also had problems with strategy, often involving tyres, which were linked to the lack of testing time, and therefore experience of new tyres. She battled into the top ten on three more occasions, at Oschersleben, Red Bull Ring and the Nürburgring, but too many other races were marred by emergency pit stops, small accidents, poor starts and race plans that did not pay off.

Towards the end of the year, she adjusted her expectations to finishing the season, and learning as much as she could. F4 had been intended as a one-year springboard to Formula 3, but another season was needed for Sophia to prove what she was really capable of. She was 19th in the championship.

She got her second season in 2017, driving for Mucke Motorsport. It was a double attack on both the German and Italian F4 championships. In the Italian series, she only did a part-season, but became a solid top-ten finisher quite early. In May, she earned her best result: a fifth at Adria.

The ADAC championship was a different story. Sophia continued to find it hard going in the early part of the season. By the Lausitz rounds in May, she was sneaking into the top ten, but she could not find consistency. It took until the end of the season for her to click with the car, when she managed third spots at Sachsenring and Hockenheim. She had two fastest laps at Hockenheim and would have had another podium had she not been disqualified. This was not her first brush with the Clerk of the Course either; she was fined 20,000 Euros for sharing unauthorised footage earlier in the year of her almost collided with an errant course car that suddenly appeared on track.

She was 13th in the championship.

In 2018, she moved up to the FIA European Formula 3 Championship with Van Amersfoot Racing. It was a late deal so she had no time for testing. Towards the end of the year, she was clearly learning the ropes; she picked up her first top-ten finish at the Red Bull Ring in September.

In November, she went to Macau with VAR and impressed onlookers with her qualifying pace. However, her race proper was ended by a serious accident. Her car collided with a slower car and took off over its wheels, coming to rest in a photography bunker. Sophia suffered a broken vertebra and needed surgery. A small number of photographers and marshals was also injured.

She intends to progress up the single-seater career ladder, with the ultimate aim of a Formula One race seat. VAR ran her for another season in F3 in 2019; the team intended to contest the Formula European Masters series, but switched to the F3 Regional European Championship after the FEM was cancelled. This left Sophia and VAR on the back foot, although she had a solid if unspectacular year. Her best finishes were two fourth places at the Hungaroring and Imola and she was sometimes caught up in accidents that were not of her causing. She was seventh in the championship.

Later in the year, she tested an FIA F3 car with HWA Racelab. The team ran her on her return to Macau in November, but she did not finish. This was the end of her involvement with HWA.

Shortly before the start of the 2020 FIA F3 season, she signed a deal with the Campos team. This meant that she had to go into FIA F3 without testing the car beforehand. She started a rather erratic year with a 26th place at the Red Bull Ring, although this improved to 16th in the second race. Her best result was twelfth at Monza, in September. It appeared that she was finding it hard to settle and she often tangled with other drivers, suffering off-track excursions.

She was more successful in her return to sportscar racing. Together with Katherine Legge and Tatiana Calderon, she was announced as one of the original Richard Mille Racing team, an all-female crew supported by the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission. They were set to race a bright red LMP2 prototype in the European Le Mans Series and Le Mans itself and the car made the start, but the first two rounds clashed with FIA F3 and Sophia could not start. Her first race with the team, now with Beitske Visser replacing Katherine Legge due to injury, was the Paul Ricard round, where they were eleventh in class. Of the three races Sophia did, the best was Monza, where she was tenth in the popular LMP2 class. 

Le Mans itself ran quite smoothly. The three-woman Richard Mille team was thirteenth overall and ninth in LMP2.

Sophia kept her options open for the future. In 2020, she tested an electric DTM car for Schaeffeler, having become one of their affiliated drivers. Later, she tested an Extreme E car, but was not selected for any of the teams. Although she did not rule out another season in single-seaters, she moved completely into closed cars in 2021.

Most of the year was spent in the DTM, now running as a GT championship. She drove an Audi R8 LMS for Abt Sportsline and it was a tough season spent trying to learn from both her rivals and her team-mates, Kelvin van der Linde and Mike Rockenfeller. Her best finishes were two ninth places at Assen and Norisring, in the second half of the season. She was 18th overall.

Prototypes were a more successful hunting ground for her. She continued to drive for the Richard Mille squad in the FIA Endurance Trophy, alongside Beitske Visser and Tatiana Calderon. Apart from crashing out of Le Mans itself, Sophia had a good, competent year, recording top-ten finishes in all of the other five races. The best of these were two sixths at Portimao and Bahrain.

Portimao would prove a lucky circuit for her later in the year. She was invited to join Algarve Pro Racing for the last round of the ELMS season, driving an LMP2 car very similar to the Richard Mille car. Her team-mates were Richard Bradley and Ferdinand Habsburg. They were third, the first time the team had got onto the podium and the first time a woman driver had done so.

She also tested with WRT Racing in the official Bahrain WEC test. She was the quickest driver on track. 

Despite her positive WRT test, she returned to the Algarve team in 2022, competing in the European Le Mans Series. Her usual co-driver was Bent Viscal. They had a superb start to the season at Paul Ricard, overcoming a red flag in qualifying that meant Bent was unable to match Sophia's pace, but Sophia quickly got the car up to fourth from tenth. Bent led briefly at the end of the race, but was second after a pitstop.

The rest of the ELMS season did not quite reach those heights: they were eighth, tenth and twelfth in the three other races Sophia did before leaving the team due to a clash of activities.

Her second Le Mans at the wheel of an LMP2 prototype gave her and her team-mates a 20th place overall, fifth in class, again with the team overcoming problems early on.

At the end of the season, Sophia demonstrated a Brabham Formula 1 car previously raced by Giovanna Amati in Bahrain.

Her 2023 season began with something of an about turn. She returned to FIA F3, supported by the FIA and driving for the PHM-Charouz team. It took her a while to get back to a good pace, but she was the quickest of the four PHM drivers throughout the season and she scored her first points for a seventh place at Spa. These were the only points accumulated by the team. She was 23rd in the championship. For the season-ending Macau race, she moved back to Van Amersfoort Racing, competing at the Guia circuit for the first time since her accident. After qualifying in 17th, she was 15th in the qualifying sprint race and then eleventh in the main race. She then signed with Van Amersfoort for the 2024 FIA F3 season. 

Midway through the 2023 season, she was also announced as a member of the Alpine F1 team's academy.

Her 2024 season was spent with Van Amersfoort. It wasn't as strong a year as she had with PHM; her best finish was an eleventh place at the Red Bull Ring, in the feature race. Although she was a regular top-twenty finisher, she wasn't able to get into the points again and had to settle for 29th place. 

She will be moving to the USA for 2025, competing in the Indy NXT championship for HMD Motorsports, following a successful test. 

She has been an outspoken critic of W Series and sex-segregated racing as a whole. 

(Image copyright Alexander Trienitz)

Jamie Chadwick

Jamie (right), Ross Gunn and the Beechdean Aston Martin

Jamie Chadwick graduated to senior motorsport in 2015. She is a product of the Ginetta sportscar racing development ladder, one of a few female racers to utilise this route into the sport.

Jamie began karting at the age of twelve. Taking advantage of the opportunities in the UK for juniors to race on full circuits, she switched to cars after only two years.

She was the winner of the Ginetta Junior Scholarship in 2012, at fourteen, beating around sixty other young drivers to the prize of a fully-funded season in the Ginetta Junior Championship in 2013.

She took up her prize-drive in Ginetta Juniors in 2013. Between her scholarship win and the start of the season proper, she took part in the three-round Winter Series at Rockingham, finishing seventh. She was the highest-scoring first-timer.

During her 2013 season, her best result was fifth, at Knockhill.  She was usually inside the top ten, averaging seventh place, but she also had some disappointments; she racked up three DNFs that year. She was tenth overall. Her brother, Ollie, also raced in the series against her.

She had a second full season of Ginetta Juniors in 2014. Her year started well, with a podium: a third place at Brands Hatch. She racked up four more podium finishes, all thirds, and was eighth in the championship. 

Following her seventeenth birthday in 2015, it was time to move on. Jamie jumped straight into the British GT Championship, in the GT4 class. Her car was no less than an Aston Martin Vantage, run by the Beechdean-AMR team. With her partner, Ross Gunn, she got off to another good start, with two second places at Oulton Park, followed by two wins, at Rockingham and Silverstone, a second place at Spa and a third at Brands Hatch. The only real disappointment of the season was a disqualification at Oulton, following their second place on the track. The exclusion was for causing an accident, although it was not deliberate. At the end of the season, this did not count for much; Jamie and Ross were British GT4 champions. Jamie is the youngest ever winner of the title.

2015 had one more adventure for Jamie. The Beechdean team entered the Vantage in the Britcar 24 Hours at Silverstone, driven by Jamie, plus Jonny Adam, Harry Whale and Andrew Howard. They won the race from pole. This was the first win for a female driver in this event.

In recognition of her achievements, the BRDC nominated Jamie as one of their Rising Stars in 2015, along with the support that the award entails. The BWRDC has put her forward for their Gold Star award, for outstanding female drivers. She is also part of the Evolution Academy for young drivers, run by Aston Martin and Prodrive.

She remained a Team AMR driver for 2016, and raced the Aston Martin again in the British GT Championship. Her best finish was fourth, at Brands Hatch. As she missed a couple of races mid-season, she was thirteenth in the championship. Among her team-mates was Great British Bake Off's Paul Hollywood.

Her career changed direction in 2017 when she entered the BRDC Formula 3 Championship. This was her first time in a single-seater. Her first meeting in the Double R-run car was at Oulton, and did not quite go to plan. She was eleventh in her first race, then got disqualified from the second and did not finish the third. The second round at Rockingham went better; she was eighth in the first race, which translated to pole position in the reverse-grid second race. She was third, her best finish of the year. At the end of the season, she was ninth, after being a regular top-ten finisher, but not quite on the winning pace yet.

After the season ended, she took part in her first Formula Ford races at the Walter Hayes Trophy. She was third in her heat at the Silverstone event, following a battle with Michael Mallock, but car trouble intervened and she had to fight for a twelfth place in the final.

Her second season in BRDC F3 was somewhat of a mixed bag of results, but in August she became the first woman to win a British F3 race, following her victory at Brands Hatch.

Earlier in the year, she returned to her Aston Martin roots with a run in the Nurburgring 24 Hours. She was fifth in the SP8 class, driving a Vantage with Jonny Adam, Alex Lynn and Peter Cate. They were classified 63rd overall after a difficult race.

The winter season was an opportunity to rack up more single-seater wins; she dominated the Bahrain round of the MRF Challenge in the Formula 2000 category, winning twice.

At the start of 2019, she was awarded the Wakefield Trophy for the most meritorious performance by a woman in motorsport. At around the same time, she was announced as one of the first 20 drivers for the all-female W Series. Jamie won the first W Series title in the summer, with two race wins.

Mixed-sex Formula 3 was on the cards too. She did a couple of rounds of the Asian F3 series for Seven GP at Sepang, picking up a best finish of fifth. She signed up for the 2019-20 winter series with Absolute Racing and earned a two second and two third places at Sepang and Chang. Her results improved towards the end of her campaign when team-mate Devlin DeFrancesco went home due to health concerns, leaving Jamie as number one driver. She was fourth in the championship.

Away from single-seaters, she remained part of the Aston Martin Academy. Her activities with the team centred on the VLN: one championship race and the Nurburgring 24 Hours, where she won her class with Alex Brundle and Peter Cate.

She also did some historic racing, finishing fourth in class in a Jaguar E-Type at the Spa Six Hours. At the end of the year, she raced a Formula Ford in the Walter Hayes Trophy at Silverstone. She qualified for the grand final but was taken out by another driver.

W Series was cancelled in 2020 due to the coronavirus crisis, so she could not defend her title. A move up to FIA F3 was rumoured, but she chose the Formula Regional European Championship, signing with the elite Prema Powerteam. Her season started well with a third place at Misano, but she was not quite able to reach those heights again and struggled with the car. She was ninth in the championship. 

In 2021, she signed up to contest the first Extreme E championship, racing an electric SUV on tracks in remote locations for the Veloce team. Her team-mate was Stephane Sarrazin, although he was replaced by Lance Woolridge for the final round in Dorset, England. Her own season startly inauspiciously as her car died in qualifying, but she did fight back with a second place in the Ocean ePrix, held in Senegal.

She missed two of the Extreme E events due to W Series commitments. Her second W title was only assured late in the season, as she was challenged strongly by her fellow Brit, Alice Powell. Her win tally was four to Alice's three, giving her the edge.

Her plans at the start of 2022 were unclear. She was replaced in the Veloce Extreme E team by Christine Giampaoli Zonca and was considered unlikely to be racing in W Series again. Apparently, an FIA F3 seat was discussed, but she declined to take it was it was not with a really competitive team.

It was back to W Series instead, although her return started raising questions about W's mission and its inability to move drivers on to higher levels of racing. Jamie won the championship again fairly easily, driving for Jenner Racing, winning five of the seven races in the series' shortened season. 

In order to save her professional career, it was obvious that she had to move on. At the end of 2022, she was announced as a driver for the Andretti Autosport team in the IndyNXT championship (formerly Indy Lights) for 2023. The option of another W title defence was also off the table because the championship folded at the beginning of 2023. 

Her IndyNXT season began the hard way with spins, contact and thirteenth place at the St Petersburg street circuit. By the time the Mid-Ohio round came around in July, she broke into the top ten for the first time. Her best finish of the season was a sixth place at Portland and she was twelfth in the championship. Her relatively high profile meant that she came in for considerable criticism, but she was retained by Andretti for 2024.

Her second-year perofrmance in IndyNXT was a real improvement. It began slowly with 20th places at St Petersburg and Barber Motorsports Park, but then she leapt up to the podium at Indianapolis, finishing third. A couple more disappointing finishes followed, but then she scored her first win at Road America, leading the most laps in the process.

Although she did not manage any more wins or podiums, a run of top-tens and a late fifth place at Milwaukee took her to championship seventh.

This was her last season in IndyNXT: she signed up with IDEC Sport to contest the European Le Mans Series in 2025. She will be racing in the LMP2 class. Her team-mates are F1 driver Logan Sargeant and Mathys Jaubert. 

(Image from http://www.prodrive.com/)

Alice Powell

Alice Powell graduated to full-size cars in 2007, at the age of fourteen. This came after a successful karting career, which began when she was six, and she was competing at eight. She won her club’s championship in her first year of competition, then went on to top-ten performances in BRDC Stars of Tomorrow and JICA competition.

Alice was one of the second wave of young drivers to take advantage of the rise in junior full-circuit racing. She contested the Ginetta Juniors Winter Series early on, driving a Ginetta G20, and was joint fifth after three races. Later, she drove in the last few rounds of the main Ginetta Junior championship, and was 16th overall. This was in addition to two karting series.

She returned to Ginetta competition in 2008, for the main season, leaving karts behind. Her best finishes were two seconds, at Knockhill and Silverstone, plus two thirds and a string of top tens: 16 out of her 24 races finished in the top ten. She was ninth in the championship.

In 2009 she switched to single-seaters, beginning in the UK Formula Renault championship. Her team was the experienced Manor Competition. However, Alice had not had the budget for much testing. Despite a slow beginning, she was breaking into the top ten by round five, with a ninth place at Donington. Gradually, her pace increased, although her good straight-line speed did not always turn into good race positions. After a disappointing off at Snetterton from seventh place, she only made slow progress up the leaderboard, with an eleventh at Brands Hatch being her next-best score. She was 18th overall.

In the middle of her Formula Renault programme, she made a guest appearance in the Brands Hatch Formula Palmer Audi round. Her three races gave her a seventh, ninth and eleventh place. 

She moved down to the BARC Formula Renault championship in 2010, a club-level series. Here, she became the first female driver to win a Formula Renault championship, after winning two races, at Silverstone and Thruxton. She also scored five second places, and was never out of the top ten. BARC Formula Renault was interspersed with a part-season in the Ginetta G50 Cup. Her best finish was fifth, at Brands Hatch, with two sevenths at Croft, and eighths at Brands and Rockingham, her other highlights. She was 16th overall.

At the end of the year, she drove in the Formula Renault Winter Series, having secured some funds for testing. Although this went well, Alice did not have the pace to challenge for the top positions. Her results were a seventh, and eighth, a ninth and a tenth, with two DNFs at Pembrey. She was twelfth overall. 

In 2011, she raced in Formula Renault once more, running mainly in the British championship, and entering two North Europe series events. In Britain, she was much stronger than in 2009, finishing seventh in her first race at Brands Hatch. At Donington, she broke into the top five for the first time. Her best finish was fourth, at Snetterton, and she was rarely out of the top ten. The only thing she did not get was podium finishes, and she was ninth overall. In the NEZ championship, she was eighth and tenth in her two races at Oschersleben.

As well as this, she travelled to India for the two-round MRF Formula 1600 championship, supporting the Indian Grand Prix, and was second after two podiums, a second and a third. She also had guest runs in the BARC Production Touring Car Trophy (Class B) and Radical Clubmans Cup, which resulted in a clean sweep of wins. She was driving a Fiat 500 Abarth in the Trophy. A further guest appearance in the Intersteps championship gave her one eighth place at Donington. During this year, she was selected for the BRDC’s Rising Star driver development programme, and won the BWRDC’s Gold Star Elite award.

In 2012, despite many accolades and considerable media attention, she struggled for sponsorship. At the last minute, she put together a deal for the GP3 international single-seater series. After only two days of testing, it proved a difficult learning curve: her first race ended in a DNF, then she was just out of the top ten at Catalunya and Monte Carlo. The rest of the year was punctuated by DNFs. It picked up slightly at Spa and Monza, where she was twelfth. However, by the end of the season, she had managed her first points finish: eighth at Monza. She was 19th overall.

After that, she went back to India for some rounds of the MRF Formula 2000 series. She scored a second and third at Buddh, and was fifth overall. 

In 2013, she planned to contest the GP3 championship again, although funding was an issue, and she only put together a deal at the last minute. She only actually managed two rounds of GP3, driving for Bamboo Engineering, alongside Carmen Jordá. Her results were two 20th places at Yas Marina.

The rest of the year was spent in Formula Three, mostly in the UK. This was somewhat of a step down for Alice again, but she took the opportunity and it paid off. Driving for Mark Bailey Racing, she was second in the MSV F3 Cup, with five wins, at Brands Hatch, Zolder, Silverstone and Oulton Park. Apart from a pair of DNFs at Snetterton, she was never out of the top five, and usually in the top three. She led the championship for much of the season, but a strong finish from Alex Craven caught her up. The non-finishes allowed this.

As well as the F3 Cup, she took part in three rounds of British Formula Three, winning her class twice.

There was more F3 for Alice in 2014. She made a guest appearance in the Rockingham round of the British championship, and was fifth and third in the two races she finished. At Rockingham, she also posted two class wins in the MSV series, as well as two class seconds, at Snetterton. However, most of her season was spent in Southeast Asia, contesting the Asian Formula Renault championship. This was an excellent season, with five wins, recorded at Zhuhai and Shanghai. Apart from one non-finish and one fifth place, both at Zhuhai, she was never off the podium, and she won the championship from Canadian Maxx Ebenal. 

Before her championship win was confirmed, Alice had some other excitement. Her grandfather attempted to broker a deal with the foundering Caterham Grand Prix team, in which he would effectively pay for a race seat for Alice in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. This would allow the team, then in administration, to complete the season. The deal did not go through, partly due to Alice not having a Superlicence, and no easy way of achieving one, in the short timescale available. 

2015 was a much quieter year. Mid-season, she took part in her first sportscar race, the Silverstone 24 Hours. Her car was a works Aston Martin Vantage GT4, shared with Marek Reihman, Andrew Palmer and Andrew Frankel. They were fourth in Class 3, and fifth overall. During the winter season, she went back to the Middle East for another run in the MRF Formula, racing at the Yas Marina circuit. Her best finish was eighth.

As well as racing, Alice has been a vocal advocate for women in motorsports, and is part of a new initiative begun by Susie Wolff, encouraging greater female participation.

Lack of finances limited her opportunities since the start of 2016.

At the end of 2018, she returned to the driving seat as a guest racer in the Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy, which supports Formula E. She won the Pro-Am class and was fifth overall at ad-Diriyah, having showed her skill with some aggressive overtaking.

Her profile rose again mid-2019 when she was announced as one of the 20 drivers chosen for the inaugural W Series. From the start, Alice was one of its most enthusiastic exponents and she proved herself to be one of its quickest drivers, winning the final round at Brands Hatch. Had it not been for a series of car problems, she would probably have won more races.

After the W Series ended, she made a guest appearance for the all-female Heinricher Racing/Meyer Shank IMSA team, deputising for Christina Nielsen at Virginia. The team did not finish due to a crash.

In 2020, Alice planned to rejoin the W Series for its short summer season, although it ended up being cancelled due to coronavirus. She did compete for Team Germany in the Formula E-supporting Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy. Her first races as an official driver gave her two third places at ad-Diriyah. These were her best results of the year and she was fourth in the championship.

Not long after, she was announced as an official test driver for Envision Virgin Racing in Formula E.

Her second W Series season was a close-run contest with Jamie Chadwick. Alice was the early championship leader, winning two of the first three rounds at the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone. In the end, she scored one more win (at Zandvoort) to Jamie's two, and had to settle for second.

Her testing duties for Envision included a full race simulation at Valencia.

A third W Series season included another win at the Hungaroring, as well as three more podium finishes. She was third in the championship. She continued to test for the Virigin FE team, including driving the first two-seater Formula E car.

W Series folded due to financial difficulties in 2023. Alice did not race that year, although she continued her coaching and management and also worked extensively as a commentator. This continued in 2024, although she did take part in the Formula E Women's Test for Envision.

(Picture by Daniel Kalisz, copyright GP3 Media Service)