Juliana Chiovitti

Juliana Chiovitti is from Canada. In the mid-2000s, she was touted as one of the strongest female hopefuls for Indycar.

She had been a karter since childhood and grew up around the sport. Her father was the owner of the US arm of Birel karts and her two elder brothers raced. Later, her family also owned a kart track in Sutton, Toronto. As a teenager, she began winning regional titles, in both Canada and the USA. By 2003, she was competing in senior karting and won at least one Formula Senior race outright at her home circuit.

As soon as she was old enough, she was looking for opportunities in single-seater racing. She raced in Formula 4 in Canada (not the same as modern F4) in 1999, competing at Mosport and Shannonville and winning a Rookie of the Year award. She was second in the championship.

The following year, she was assessed as part of a women’s training programme for Toyota Atlantics, with a view to CART in the future, but this did not lead to anything. She was the quickest of the three female drivers who were timed, but she could not find the sponsorship she needed. The others were Sara Senske, Jenny Sheehy and eventual winner Danica Patrick.

Her big break in cars came when she raced in the Canadian Bridgestone F2000 Series in 2004. She was fourth overall, with two wins and three further podiums, just in front of James Hinchcliffe.

Her performances brought her to the attention of Kathryn Nunn, who invited her to a six-driver, all-female shootout for an Indy Lights seat at the end of the year. Juliana lost out to Sarah McCune.

She did not race again and returned to karting. She now works as a performance driving instructor.

(Image copyright Retro Karting by PCN)

Chiara Baettig

Chiara Baettig is a Swiss single-seater racer. As petrol-powered circuit racing is illegal in her home country, she has competed abroad exclusively.

After a long and quite successful spell in junior karting in Europe, she began racing cars at the age of 15, at the end of 2025. Her three Swiss karting championships attracted the attention of Red Bull, and she was invited to their driver search event in Portugal. This led to a race seat.

She travelled to Saudi Arabia for the Saudi F4 championship, driving for a Red Bull-affiliated team with Scott Lindblom and Christopher al-Feghali. She was eighth in her first race at Bahrain, but then did not finish the second race. The story was the same for the next round, with one ninth place after another DNF. Her best finish was seventh, at Jeddah. Without the three non-finishes she incurred, she could have been the best of the six regular female drivers in the series. She was twelfth overall.

Prior to a full season in the British F4 Championship, Campos Racing ran her in the Formula Winter Series, held in Spain in the first months of 2026. Campos has been the home of the Red Bull and Racing Bulls entries in F1 Academy since 2025. She was their sole full-championship entry out of the five F1 Academy-associated drivers they ran. It was not a consistent five rounds for her; she earned one second place at Estoril, behind Rocco Coronel, but her next-best finish was tenth at Aragon. She did improve in the second half of the series, becoming a consistent top-twenty finisher who was closer to the top ten. She was 17th overall.

After a slow start at Donington, she began to hit her stride in British F4 at Brands Hatch, where she was sixth in Race 3. A steady Snetterton meeting was then followed by two further top-tens at Silverstone, a ninth and her debut podium of the year, a third place. On the way, she set the fastest lap of the weekend. This was one of two podiums; she was third again at Silverstone later in the year, having finished fifth earlier in the weekend.

Silverstone was also the scene of her eye-catching debut in F1 Academy. She secured the highest grid position of any of the previous wildcard entries, a pole position, and was also the youngest driver to do this. Race 1 was a reverse grid and Chiara couldn't move up from eighth, but she and Alisha Palmowski were the runaway leaders in the second race. Alisha had got a much better start, but Chiara chased her all the way and was less than a second down by the end.

(Image copyright F1 Academy)

Mishael Abbott

Mishael Abbott is an American single-seater racer who rached as high as the IRL Infiniti Pro Series (Indy Lights) in 2005 and 2006.

Her best Pro Series finish was eighth at Miami, in 2005, after qualifying fourth. This was her first race in the championship, driving for Hemelgarn Racing. They ran Mishael in four events that year and she finished all of them: ninth at Phoenix and eleventh and twelfth in two races at Indianapolis. The eleventh place was in the Freedom 100, held on the oval. She was thirteenth in the championship and her results were on a par with her team-mate Jerry Coons Jr's. There was considerable media attention around her as she was the first woman to race in this particular iteration of Indy Lights, and because Danica Patrick was racing in Indycar that year.

In 2006, she did three races, two for Michael Crawford Motorsports and one for the SME team. She was thirteenth in her first race at Miami-Homestead, 17th at Indianapolis and twelfth at Watkins Glen. After that, her sponsorship money ran out.

At the same time, she acted as a spotter for Indycar driver Jacques Lazier on ovals.

Her time in single-seaters began in Formula Star Mazda, the third rung on the Indy ladder, after some years of karting and midget racing. She was particularly successful in 125cc gearbox karts. After growing up watching her father compete in club racing, she had wanted to race herself from the age of about six.

She first competed in cars in 2001, aged 20, racing a Formula Star Mazda car at club level. She took it more seriously in 2002, entering three rounds of Formula Mazda at Sebring, Pikes Peak and Road Atlanta. She finished the first two, with her best result being a 19th place at Pikes Peak. She finished 19th again at Road Atlanta in 2003, one of two races she did in the national series that year. Her programme also included the Eastern regional championship, where she scored her first podium at Watkins Glen.

After her Pro Series sponsorship ran out, she returned to national-level motorsport. Proving herself in a bigger single-seater, she raced a Formula Atlantic car in SCCA events in 2007 and 2008, with good results. Her best finish in 2008 was second, and she was rarely out of the top ten, finishing fourth in her championship. The car was a Ralt RT41, similar to those previously used in the Toyota Atlantic development series.

In 2008, she also substituted for her father in some SCCA Formula Mazda races. 

The previous year, she also raced sportscars in the IMSA Prototype Challenge series, in the L1 class. Her car was a spec Elan-Van Diemen DP-02. She was fifth in her first race at Sebring, although she was unable to start the second. She did four races that year.

At the end of 2008, she had to pull out of motorsport, due to health problems.

(Image copyright Indycar)

Francesca Pardini

Francesca (right) instructing at Yas Marina

Francesca Pardini is most famous for her successes in sports prototype racing in Italy in the early 2000s.

She was the Italian Prototype title-winner in 2001 and has been described as the first woman to win an Italian sportscar championship outright. Her car was a Lucchini-Alfa Romeo, one of the oldest in the field. She won four races that year, starting with the season opener at Vallelunga. Her others were at Misano, Magione and Binetto.

This came after a runner-up spot in the same championship in 2000, following race wins at Mugello and Misano. She repeated this in 2003, having won one race and scored five podium finishes.

At the same time as her winning Protoytpe campaign, she raced in the Italian Ferrari Challenge, doing four events. Her best finish was ninth in a sprint race at Mugello. She also did some rounds of the Clio Cup in Italy.

Her sportscar career developed in tandem with single-seaters. In 2000, when she was 19, she did four rounds of the Light category of Open Telefonica Nissan, at Monza and Ricardo Tormo in Spain. She was driving for the Doors Engineering team. Her best finish was eleventh at Monza.

At the time, her ambitions were high. There was talk of her moving to America at the end of 2003 for either sportscars or the Indy development ladder, but this did not happen.

She came to England to race in Formula Palmer Audi in 2004. This was step down from Formula Nissan, but she had been out of a single-seater for a few seasons. She was a regular fixture in the top ten from the start, coming in seventh and sixth at Brands Hatch in the first round. These were her best finishes in the eight races she did before pulling out, although she was never out of the top ten when she finished. Her season seems to have been ended by an accident at the Nurburgring. 

At some point in 2004, she returned to Italy for some Prototype races. Her low final position suggests she only took part in a few races. She did at least the Vallelunga round and appears to have finished seventh.

Her activities since 2004 are less clear. During 2005, she took part in at least one VW Fun Cup event as part of a Uniroyal-sponsored ladies’ team, driving with Fun Cup regular Sabine Dubois and touring car racer Valentina Albanese. This appears to have been a limited programme. 

In 2015, she moved to Abu Dhabi to take on an instructing job. Remaining in the Gulf region, she became the only female race instructor to work in Saudi Arabia and the only one to take on female pupils. She also works as the Formula 2 paddock manager for the Gulf-based races and is a qualified steward.

She is the daughter of Guido Pardini, who also raced in Prototypes in the early 1990s. At first, she was not encouraged by her parents and her mother tried to interest her in ballet. She describes having begun racing at 16, in 1997, going straight into cars without any karting experience.

(Image copyright Donna Moderna magazine)

Lia Block

Lia Block is an American rally and off-road driver who has also spent time racing single-seaters. 

She began her career very early, entering her first rally not long after her 15th birthday. This wasn't event her motorsport debut: she had already tried out drag racing aged fourteen and was one of the youngest drivers ever to be granted an NHRA license. The rally was the Oregon Trail; which she managed most of the first leg before her "Hoonigan" Ford Fiesta R2 succumbed to engine problems. Still with co-driver James Matthew and a different Fiesta, she fared better in her first full season in 2022. By June, she was into the top ten, securing ninth place in the Southern Ohio Forest Rally. This was one of two top-tens that year, the second being another ninth in the Susquehannock Trail Rally. She was twelfth in the ARA championship and fifth in the 2WD class.

Top-ten finishes became the norm for her in the 2023 ARA series. She was driving a Subaru BRZ which seemed to suit her. Her best finish was fourth in the Oregon Trail Rally and she won the 2WD class in all but one of the rallies she finished, leading her to the ARA Open 2WD championship. At 16, she was the youngest champion in ARA history. She was fourth in the main championship. The only real disappointment that year was a non-finish in the Lake Superior Performance Memorial Rally, where she was trying out a Ford Escort Cosworth. 

Her ARA performances had begun to draw attention and 2023 was a busy year for her. In July, she was signed by Carl Cox Motorsport to replace Christine GZ in their Extreme E team. She joined Timo Scheider for the Sardinia and Chile races, earning a best finish of fifth in Sardinia. She was fourteenth in the championship.

She had already been running a dual campaign in the Nitrocross rallycross series in the States, driving for the Swedish OMSE team in the NEXT class. After a part-season, she was fifth in the NEXT championship, not helped by two disqualifications at MidAmerica and Utah, for rejoining the main circuit unsafely. She had won the Utah race. Her best recorded finishes of the year were two second places at Wild Horse Motorsports Park and Glen Helen. At the end of her 2023-2024 season, she was offered Travis Pastrana's car for the Group E races at Glen Helen. This is the highest level of Nitrocross. She was eighth in her race.

After this year, her career began to take multiple directions at the same time. She drove for the Dreyer & Reinbold team in the shortened 2024-2025 Nitrocross season, again in Group E. She was eighth this time after four rounds, with Utah being her best circuit. She was fifth.

Rallying had been put to one side for the moment. She only did one ARA event in 2024, the Lake Superior Performance Rally. She and navigator Keaton Williams had been running in third place and had won their last completed stage when they crashed out in their Subaru. 

Late in 2023, she had made the surprise announcement that she would be moving into single-seater racing, despite having little circuit experience. She was signed up for the 2024 F1 Academy season, driving for ART Grand Prix as the Williams supported entry. As prep, she did the Spanish-based Formula Winter Series with GRS. This was very much a learning experience and her highest finish was a 25th place at Ricardo Tormo.

Her first F1 Academy year was also a tough one, with several races affected by mishaps and unavoidable contact with other drivers. Her home races in Miami were a case in point and she could only manage 15th and tenth. Her best finishes were two fourth places in Singapore, and she was eighth overall.

Her second F1 Academy season had more high points. She won her first race at Singapore mid-season after keeping her lead in the reverse grid race, having started from pole. This came off the back of her first podium at Zandvoort. She had overtaken Tina Hausmann for second place, behind Nina Gademan. Both times, the second race was nowhere near as good for her, and she received a penalty at Zandvoort for starting from the wrong grid position after Chloe Chambers pulled out. She was ninth in the championship after a very up and down season.

Another big moment for her in 2025 was when she was asked to drive an ex-Keke Rosberg 1982 Williams Formula One car at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Her two-year term in F1 Academy came to an end then and she decided to leave single-seaters and return to rallying. She had done one event in 2025, the Boone Forest Rally in a Ford Fiesta, finishing third overall and winning her class. It was time to get back out.

Her first rally of 2026 was in the Fiesta, in Rally3 spec. She and new co-driver Alessandro Gelsomino were excluded from the Snodrift Rally's Powerstage for receiving outside assistance, having led at the time. Lia decided to switch to a more powerful Rally2 car, a Hyundai i20, and was immediately fourth in the 100 Acre Wood Rally. This improved to third in the Olympus Rally and a close second in the Southern Ohio Forest Rally. She is also returning to rallycross in 2026.

She is the daughter of the late Ken Block, of Gymkhana fame. Her mother Lucy, sister Kira and brother Mika also compete in rallying.

(Image from rallyx.se)

Yolanda Surer

Yolanda Surer (now Egger, previously Tavoli; given name also spelled Jolanda) is a Swiss driver who competed in Europe for almost 20 years, between 1987 and 2004. She was married to Swiss Formula One driver Marc Surer, from 1986 to 1993. At the time, she was a model and actress and it was through him that she got involved in motorsport. Initially not taken seriously, she quickly proved that she was capable of competing against some extremely talented opposition.

She was eleventh in the Swiss Formula Ford championship in 1989. The races were held in neighbouring countries. The following year, she moved up to Formula 3-level competition, beginning with the LISTA Formula 3 Trophy, a nominally-Swiss championship. Jo Zeller was that year's winner and Yolanda was eighth. She also made some appearances in the B class of German Formula 3, as part of Jacques Isler's team. She scored one point from two races, earning a tenth spot in her first race at Zolder. She was competing against eventual winner Michael Schumacher, Mika Hakkinen and Ellen Lohr, among others.

Part-seasons in both the German and Swiss F3 championships took up 1991. She was thirteenth in the Swiss series. In Germany, she drove for Opel Team Schuebler for the first and third rounds, before rejoining the Isler team for three further rounds later in the season. Her best finish was with Isler, coming in 15th at the Norisring. 

She moved to touring cars later, racing in German and Italian championships. Her first forays into tin-top competition were in the 1992 Nurburgring 24 Hours, where she shared a BMW 325i with Anette Meeuvissen and Gaby Sonnauer. They were 29th overall and second in class.

Her first full series in was the Group N-based German Touring Car Trophy in 1993, driving a BMW M3 for the Menton Automobilcenter team. She was on the pace straight away, winning her class in the first race at AVUS. The rest of the season gave her three seconds and three thirds, enough for seventh in the championship.

It was now time for her to move up the touring car ladder. This meant the 1994 German Touring Car Cup, which ran to Super Touring regulations. Her car was a BMW 318i prepared by BMW Team Isert. The first race, at AVUS, ended in a tenth place, racing against the likes of Audi drivers Frank Biela and Emmanuele Pirro and former Formula 1 driver, Thierry Boutsen. The BMW could not match the pace of the dominant Audis at the start of the season. Although Yolanda maintained a good finishing record, she was not able to catch up when some of the other BMW drivers began winning. Tenth remained her best finish and she was 22nd overall.

It was down to Italy for the 1995 Italian Super Touring Championship. She had been signed by BMW Italia and had Emmanuele Naspetti and Gianni Morbidelli as team-mates. After a bumpy start to the season with a non-finish and subsequent non-start, she got into her groove and became a top-ten regular. Her highest finish was fourth, which she achieved at Misano. This was one of two top-five finishes, along with her fifth place at Varano. Both times, she was the highest-placed BMW Italy driver. She was ninth in the championship.

Her second Italian season was not a full one; she left the championship after the Imola round in July. Her car was an BMW 320i this time, still run by BMW Italia. After a disastrous first round at Mugello, where she failed to finish Race 1 then didn't start Race 2, she picked up her pace again and had a best finish of seventh, at both Monza and Misano. She was twelfth in the championship.

She was also fourth in the 1996 Spa 24 Hours, in a Bastos Fina BMW, for a womens' team. Her co-drivers were Kate Rafanelli and Florence Duez.

After taking time out of her career to have children (she became pregnant while racing in the Renault Spider Cup in 1997), she returned in 2004, as Yolanda Tavoli. She drove a Honda S2000 for an all-female team in the Nürburgring 24 Hours. Her co-drivers were Gaby Roosen, Anja Wassertheurer and Friederike Moritz. They retired after 30 laps.

Not long after that, she retired from racing. She now owns and edits a German-language magazine.

(Image source possibly Marc Surer's Facebook)

Emma Felbermayr

Emma Felbermayr is an Austrian single-seater driver who rose to prominence competing in the all-female F1 Academy.

Her senior racing career only began in 2025, when she was announced as an F1 Academy driver for Rodin. Previously, she had done karting in Europe. The team entered her into the Spanish-based Eurocup 4 Winter series, which was her first-ever time in a single-seater. During the first round at Jerez she improved her finishes from 28th, through 20th to a best of thirteenth. In the next round at Portimao, she was 20th, 21st and 31st. As she missed the last round, this left her 27th in the championship, second of Rodin's three drivers, ahead of Kyuho Lee who did a full season.

She also drove in the main Spanish F4 championship, racking up almost a full season as part of the same team. It was rather an inconsistent year ending in 29th overall, with her best finish being another thirteenth at Catalunya. In contrast to her Jerez result, which was aided by a string of crashes and some judicial penalties, this one was more on her own efforts.

Her debut season in F1 Academy was a very mixed bag of results. Driving a Rodin-run car with the backing of the Sauber F1 team, she was dropped to eleventh in the first race at Shanghai after contact with Tina Hausmann's car on the last lap. She was fifth in Race 2. There was more contact and disappointing results at Jeddah and Miami, then she made a breakthrough at Montreal. On the track, she was third in Race 1, but was later disqualified due to her car being underweight. She made it up in Race 2 with her first win. 

For the rest of the season, there were no more podium finishes, although she came close in Singapore with fourth. She was tenth overall.

Her 2026 season began with a run in the UAE F4 championship, driving for PHM Motorsport this time. Her best finish was a twelfth place in the third round at Yas Marina and she was 26th overall. 

Sauber became Audi for at the beginning of 2026 and Emma was retained as their F1 Academy driver Rodin also kept her on in F1 Academy, although she continued to race for PHM elsewhere. Her programme included selected rounds of the Italian F4 championship. In May, she also joined the British F4 championship with Virtuosi Racing. She picked up one top-twenty finish at Silverstone and did slightly better in the Italian series, coming in 15th once at Misano and fourteenth at Monza.

The F1 Academy season began well at Shanghai. Emma was third in Race 1, in spite of contact from Alba Larsen. She then won the second race after a mistake by Larsen, who was leading, dropped her to the back. Alba Larsen remained somewhat of an albatross for Emma; she spun during the reverse grid race at Montreal after a small collision with her car.  She had stalled on the grid during Race 1, but earned a second place in Race 3.

She is the daughter of sportscar racer Horst Felbermayr Jr. He has expressed a desire to race at Le Mans with his daughter and son in the future. Emma has said she would like to compete at Le Mans some day. 

Her career has been aided by Allan McNish, who now runs the Audi academy.

(Image copyright Jun Da Tan)

Alexandra Asmasoebrata (Allida Alexandra)

Alexandra Asmasoebrata, also known as Allida Alexandra or Andra, is an Indonesian driver who competed up to international Formula Renault level. 

After four or so years of karting, she first stepped up to single-seater racing aged 16, taking part in the 2004 Formula BMW Scholarship shooutout in Spain. She was not among the winners and did not make her competitive debut until the following year. Her first races were in 2005, when she did some rounds of the China Formula Campus series, winning her class.

She first drove in the Asian Formula Renault Challenge in 2006, aged eighteen. She was 24th overall after participating in seven races. The best of these was her last one at Shanghai, where she was ninth overall. The following year, she did six races, starting at Zhuhai, Sepang and Beijing. Her best finish was a fourteenth place at Beijing.

In 2008, she reappeared in AFR. She was twelfth this time, with a best finish of fifth at Zhuhai, in her first race of the season. This was one of four top-ten finishes she had that year, the others being an eighth and two ninths at Shanghai and Sepang.

For most of her career, she combined Formula Renault and karting. The following year, she was third in the 

A shorter season in 2009 meant that eighth was her best finish, also at Zhuhai, a feat she bettered in 2010 with a fourth place at Zhuhai. She was eighth in the championship. By then, the series was being held entirely in China. 

In 2011, she drove in both the Asian Formula Renault Challenge and Formula Pilota in China. It was her best season yet; she was third in Formula Renault with five podium finishes, four thirds and one second, at her favoured Zhuhai. 

Unfortunately, she only entered four races in 2012: three rounds of Asian Formula Renault. Her finishes were two sevenths, and two DNFs. 

She bounced back in 2013, taking part in six Asian Formula Renault races and earning two thirds and four fourths. She was fourth overall. 

In 2014, she was set to race in Asia Formula Renault again, but does not appear to have competed. A long lay-off followed, where she had three children among other things. She returned to the tracks in 2026, racing in the Mandalika Kartini race, a women's championship held at the Mandalika circuit in Indonesia. There were seven other entrants in Krida Agyas. Alexandra was third.

Alexandra is the daughter of former Indonesian racing driver and politician, Alex Asmasoebrata. It was him who first took her karting and she is open about how this helped her during her own career.

(Image copyright Alexandra Asmasoebrata)

Diana Rosario

Diana Rosario is a racer from Macau who is best-known for her efforts in single-seaters, and later, sportscars.

As there is only one circuit in her home country, which is a street circuit and therefore not usually in use, she had to cross the border to race, in China and further afield in Asia. 

Her first time in a single-seater was in 2004, when she was 20. She took part in the Formula Racing Development training school following several successful years of karting in Macau. In order to gain more experience, she worked at kart circuits after school. Her career almost came to a premature end in 2000 when a 16-year-old Diana broke her collarbone during karting practice, but she later credited the experience with helping her mature as a driver.

In the early part of her career, she concentrated on single-seaters, sticking to championships promoted by FRD. She entered the 2005 Formula Campus Challenge in China, driving for the Perfect Beauty team. After eight races, she was unplaced. A few years later, she would return to the Ford-powered series, finishing second in 2009 and winning the title in 2009. Her 2009 victory was by 38 points over her nearest rival, La Wai Lung of Hong Kong.

She competed sporadically in Asian Formula Renault from 2008, with a best finish of fifth overall in 2011. The championship was run in China and her best result came at Zhuhai, where she was fourth.

At the same time, she was developing a parallel career in sportscars. She competed at the prestigious Macau Guia race meeting in 2010 and was 22nd in the Macau GT Cup, driving a Ferrari F360. Presumably in the same car, she took on the Zhuhai rounds of the Asian GT Series, finishing second and third. Her second run in the Macau GT Cup in 2011 gave her an 18th place, competing against Chinese driver Rose Tan Ying. Eduardo Mortara was the winner.

She committed fully to sportscars in 2012. The GT Cup was not her best event and she was 25th in a Ferrari F430, but her two races in the Asian GT Series were enough for eighth in the championship. Further afield, she took the Ferrari to Sepang for a round of the Malaysian Super Series, finishing eleventh in the GT class.

In 2013, she was linked with a drive in the Asian Le Mans series, but does not appear to have competed. 

Later, in 2018, she made a comeback in the Asian Blancpain GT Series, driving a Mercedes GT4 for Craft Bamboo Racing. Her best finish was fourth at Ningbo, alongside team-mate Naomi Ran Zhang. She had shared the car with James Tang earlier in the season.

She has not raced since then.

(Image from "Indigenous Species" by Susana Chan)

Brittany Vorster

Brittany Vorster is a former international Formula Three driver from South Africa. She showed some early promise, but her career stalled at Formula Three level.

She competed in single-seaters in South Africa in 2010, after travelling to Brazil for the first running of the Brazil Open. Her preparations for the event were the first time she had been in a Formula 3 car and she did not qualify. Her South African results are not forthcoming. 

Prior to this, she raced in Formula GTi in South Africa, and was fifth in the 2008 championship after three podium finishes. She went to America late in the season to try out for the Skip Barber karting scholarship, which would have won her a season in Star Mazda in 2009. Her opponents included Conor Daly and Josef Newgarden.

Her first experiences in South America were the following year instead; she was part of a six-driver team for the Granja Viana 500 kart race. Among her rivals were Felipe Massa, Lucas di Grassi, Rubens Barrichello, Tony Kanaan and Ricardo Zonta. She and her team were 26th overall. Massa and di Grassi were part of the winning squad.

She apparently signed with the Prop Car team for the 2010 Formula 3 Sudamericana Lights championship, but it isn't clear how many races she actually did.

A serious accident at the end of the 2010 season meant that she decided to retire. 

Before that, she was active on the karting scene, both nationally and internationally, from 2005. She won the Northern Regions Kart Club DD2 class championship in 2006. Away from motorsport, she was also a model.

Away from the track, she was a model and TV personality. 

(Image from https://continental-circus.blogspot.com/)

Alba Larsen

Alba Hurup Larsen is a Danish single-seater driver currently racing internationally in F4.

She came to prominence when she joined the all-female F1 Academy in 2025, driving for MP Motorsport in a Tommy Hilfiger-sponsored car. She was only 16 years old and this was her first full season in cars. 

Alba's family were friends with Jan Magnussen and his family and she was close to his two younger children growing up. Naturally, this led to an interest in motorsport and to competitive karting from the age of twelve. She travelled around the world to race and won a junior championship in New Zealand in 2023.

She got her big break with the FIA Girls on Track scheme, also in 2023, when she was selected from hundreds of girls who had taken part in Girls on Track events. The assessments included a kart slalom course. The final test for the chosen drivers was timed laps in an F4 car, which was difficult for her as she had never driven anything with a clutch before. She managed another round of testing and assessment despite being unwell.

In 2024, she began her senior career in F4 India, also run by MP, driving for the Speed Demons Delhi team. She did the first two rounds at Madras and Chennai. Chennai was the better circuit for her and she was sixth and eighth. 

During the winter season, she competed in the Formula Winter Series, for the first three rounds. Her best finish was fourteenth at Aragon and she was 32nd overall. 

Her first F1 Academy season began well, qualifying third at Shanghai, but she was not always able to convert pace into results, particularly at Shanghai when she was penalised for colliding with Emma Felbermayr. Her best results were two fourth places in the first and last rounds of the year, at Shanghai and Las Vegas. She was seventh overall. 

Away from F1 Academy, she raced in British F4 for about two-thirds of the season. This proved more challenging, and she could only manage two eleventh places at Silverstone and Thruxton as her best finishes. She was 23rd overall.

For 2026, she was selected as the Ferrari representative driver in F1 Academy, still with the MP squad. She had joined the Ferrari Driver Academy a couple of months earlier. 

Her racing year began with a part-season in the UAE F4 championship, driving for Evans GP. She did the first three rounds, held at Yas Marina and Dubai, with a best finish of tenth, at the Abu Dhabi circuit. Her 22nd position in the championship was the second-best performance in her team.

The 2026 F1 Academy season was disrupted by war in the Middle East, which meant the second round in Saudi was cancelled. Alba qualified second for the first race of the year at Shanghai, but it was a reverse grid and she crashed into Felbermayr again. She did better in the feature race, finishing eighth after a good start.

From a very early stage in her career, Alba has supported other girls wanting a career in motorsport. Her Alba Academy was set up to do this.

(Image copyright F1 Academy)

Solenn Amrouche

Solenn Amrouche is a French driver who began her career in sportscars, before switching to single-seaters. She is known for racing a Vortex sports prototype in Europe.

She began her career in the Mitjet silhouette series when she was 17, and also raced a Porsche and a Fun Cup VW with her father, Lionel Amrouche.

Her first full season in sportscars was in 2023, and she was a class runner-up in the Spanish GT Endurance championship. She shared the car with her father and won one race outright. They were fourth in the championship, having never finished lower than fourth. This was a new version of the car too. As well as the Spanish championship, Solenn shared the Vortex with Lorina Padovani for the Ultimate Cup in France, finishing as class runner-up twice. She also took part in the Barcelona 24 Hours with three male team-mates: Stephane Cottrell, Julien Boillot and Philippe Gruau. They were 31st overall and sixth in class. This was her first experience of a 24-hour race.

She continued to compete for the Vortex team in 2024, in the Spanish Endurance Championship and in the 24H Series European championship, where she picked up a GTX class win at Barcelona. She also raced a Porsche in the 992 class for the Seblajoux team, finishing 19th and twelfth at Portimao.

Her Spanish GT season was plagued with car problems to begin with and she wrote it off as a development year, but still picked up a class win at Navarra. This was after missing the first two races with a malfunctioning Vortex. She was fourth individually in the GTX standings and ninth overall in the championship.

In 2025, she changed to single-seaters, racing a Formula Regional-spec Tatuus F3 car in the Hoosier Cup, which runs as part of the Ultimate Cup series. She started slowly at Paul Ricard, but got quicker as the weekend went on and was fifth in Race 3. This improved to fourth in Portugal, then third place at Aragon, her best of the season. Her final championship position was seventh.

The Vortex had not been forgotten either and she did one race in it at the Dubai 24 Hours, finishing third in class. Her team-mates were her father, Gilles Courtois and Philippe Bonnel.

She took her single-seater racing further for 2026. At the end of of 2025, she was announced as a driver in the GB4 championship in the UK, driving for the Arden team.

(Image copyright Solenn Amrouche)

Courtney Prince

Courtney Prince is an Australian driver who races sportscars and single-seaters.

She was one of her country’s youngest-ever single-seater drivers when she entered a few rounds of the Australian Formula Ford championship in 2016, aged 14. Her car was a Mygale SJ011 run by the Sonic Motor Racing team. That year, she picked up her first top tens, a pair of tenth places at Winton. This followed several years of karting.

Between then and 2019, she competed extensively in the national, Victoria and New South Wales championships, with a best finish of eighth overall in the 2019 Australian series. She was a regular upper-midfield finisher with a best race finish of second, achieved at Phillip Island in 2017, in the Australian championship. In 2018, she scored some further podiums in the New South Wales and South Australian Formula Ford series, driving for the same Sonic team. In her last season of Formula Ford, she came close again, finishing fourth twice on the way to Australian championship eighth.

In 2020 she started racing Porsches, scoring three third places at Sandown in the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge. These were her only appearances of the year. Another part-season followed in 2021, where she continued to be supported by the Sonic team who she had been with from the beginning. She was third again in the first race of the year at Phillip Island.

She continued to be competitive and was fourth in the 2022 championship, picking up another third at Phillip Island and another three third places at Sydney Motorsports Park.

In 2021 and 2022, she also competed in Aussie Racing Cars, driving a motorbike-engined Mustang. She did a part-season the first time, before a longer programme in 2022. By the end of her time in the series, she was a top-ten regular and had a best finish of fifth at Winton, which she earned twice.

It was time to move up to the Carrera Cup in 2023. This proved harder and she was 17th overall, managing a couple of top tens. The best of these was an eighth place at Adelaide, in her last race of the year.

She did better in the Bathurst 6 Hours, finishing third in her class with Karlie Buccini and Ellexandra Best. Their car was a BMW. Racing against Karlie Buccini this time, she drove a BMW in the Aussie Production Cars rounds at The Bend. She got her first APC points in the bag with two seventh places, an eighth and a twelfth.

The Buccini team got back together for the 2024 Bathurst 6 Hours, with Sue Palermo replacing Ellexandra Best. They won their class in a BMW and were tenth overall.

The rest of 2024 was divided between Aussie Racing Cars and Production Cars with Team Buccini, scoring top tens in both. She was a class winner in the APC. In November, she joined up with Michael Kokkinos in his Audi R8 for an enduro at Phillip Island. She set a lap record in her first race in the car, and the pair won one race.

Another Buccini entry for the 2025 Bathurst 6 Hours led to a class win, with Karlie Buccini and Tabitha Ambrose. Their car was a BMW 340i and they were 31st overall. Driving a Ginetta with Valentino Astuti, Courtney also did a couple of rounds of the Australian GT4 championship. At the end of the year, she tested a V8 Supercar with the Eggleston Motorsport team, in their Holden Commodore. The aim of this was a possible Super2 programme for 2026.

(Image copyright Courtney Prince)

Aurelia Nobels

Aurelia Nobels is a Brazilian-Belgian driver born in the USA, who began racing in Danish Formula 4 in 2022, when she was fifteen. She has competed under both a Belgian and Brazilian license.

Her first race in the Danish championship at Jyllandsringen gave her a seventh place, which she improved to a sixth the next day. In an unusual move, she also entered the Brazilian F4 championship, picking up a twelfth place as her best finish at Mogi Guacu. Back in Europe, she joined the Spanish F4 series for its Spa away round, but was not competitive, only managing one 23rd place.

In July 2022, she was selected as a senior driver for the FIA’s Girls on Track initiative. This led to a run in the Italian F4 championship in 2023, along with its related Euro4 championship, for Prema. In addition to this, she was signed by the Ferrari driver academyShe was unplaced in both series. Her best finishes were two eleventh places, one in each series, at Imola and Catalunya. In Italy, she had to miss some rounds, including two of the Misano races. She had an accident in the first race and had to sit out the rest of the weekend.

In 2024, she joined Sainteloc Racing for the UAE F4 championship, in preparation for a season in F1 Academy. She was linked with a Ferrari-backed seat. Her UAE races didn't go brilliantly, with a 19th at Yas Marina her best result. She then did some Saudi F4 races and earned one third place at Losail. This was enough for eleventh in the championship.

Most of 2024 was taken up by F1 Academy, where she was twelfth for ART Grand Prix, despite several top-ten finishes, including a fifth at Zandvoort. She also found time for guest spots in Eurocup-4 and British F4, at Monza and Zandvoort. Her best finish at Zandvoort was 16th, and Monza, fourteenth.

Like many of her F1 Academy rivals, she did the 2025 winter season in Spain, competing in the Eurocup-4 winter series. ART Grand Prix ran her and two other F1 Academy drivers for a part-season. She was the best of the three, finishing 28th overall, with a best finish of fourteenth. Later in the year, she did the Mugello rounds of the Euro4 championship for AS Racing, finishing 23rd twice and 33rd once.

Her F1 Academy season, supported by Puma, was up and down, beginning badly with two DNFs at Shanghai, but ending with her first podium, a third place at Las Vegas. She was thirteenth overall and this was her last season of F1 Academy.

She left the Ferrari Driver Academy at the end of 2025 and her future plans are unknown.

(Image copyright Aurelia Nobels/Ferrari)

Nerea Marti

Nerea Marti is a Spanish driver who graduated from karts to cars at the beginning of 2019. She has raced in both F1 Academy and W Series and gone on to compete in endurance.

Her first steps in cars were in the 2019 Spanish Formula 4 championship, with the Praga Espana Formula de Campeones team. In her second-ever race at Navarra, she was classified second overall due to ten drivers being penalised for not reacting quickly enough to a red flag. The rest of the year was inconsistent and led to championship 16th, with top tens at most of the tracks the series visited, but often followed by more disappointing results. She previously competed for the same team in karting from 2015 to 2018.

After the first season of the all-female W Series concluded in 2019, she was selected for a race seat in the next edition. However, the season was cancelled due to coronavirus and Nerea returned to karting for a time once motorsport began again.

She did get to race in W Series in 2021, and was named as one of the series' Academy drivers, who were exempt from elimination for a season. She impressed with a third place at the Hungaroring and was a regular top-ten finisher, coming fourth in the championship. She also tested an FIA F3 car with a group of female drivers, although no further drives came out of it.

In 2022, she was invited back to race with W Series, joining the Quantfury team alongside Belen Garcia, who had been a rival in the Spanish F4 championship. She was seventh in the championship, despite podium finishes in Miami and Paul Ricard.

After the collapse of W Series in early 2023, she signed for Campos Racing in the all-female F1 Academy, following two races in the Formula Winter Series at Valencia. Despite a first-round disqualification, she was fourth in F1A, winning once at Paul Ricard. She combined F1A with a run in the Spanish GT Championship, winning the GT4 class in a BMW Spain-supported M4 shared with Jose Manuel de los Milagros, who had also won a Catalan Endurance title with her in 2022. She had fit her CER races around her W Series commitments, and picked up six wins from eight races, finishing second in class. In 2023, they were ninth overall, with one outright podium finish.

In 2024, she was fourth in F1 Academy again, with third places at Jeddah and Abu Dhabi. She also had a few guest races in Spanish and NACAM F4. Even though she won a NACAM race at Mexico City (alongside two second places), her career began to move again towards sportscars, probably because she would not be allowed another year in F1A. More BMW Spain support helped her to fourth place in the GT4 class of the Supercars Endurance Championship. She also tested an Andretti Formula E car in the series' Women's Test at Estoril.

Sportscars were her focus for 2025, and she did almost a full season of the Supercars Endurance Series in a BMW M4, sponsored by BMW Promotion. Nerea and her team-mate Juan Maria de los Milagros won one race at Valencia, but they were only 15th in the championship as their other results were not as stellar.

(Image copyright Jason Vian/Vogue)

Vivian Siu

Vivian Siu (Siu Wing Man) is a Hong Kong driver who races single-seaters. 

As a teenager, she became interested in motorsport after becoming "addicted" to arcade racing games, something she did while she was mourning the sudden death of her mother when she was 16. She didn't get to race for real until she was in her 20s, after she had finished her studies at Columbia University and started working in the financial industry.

She competed in Formula 4 in 2023, beginning with the first two meetings of the Chinese championship. This was a first for a female driver to begin with, but she also managed to score points at Ningbo, finishing tenth.

During the winter season, she entered the first round of the Southeast Asia (SEA) F4 series at Zhuzhou Circuit in China, finishing sixth twice and tenth once for the BlackArts team. She switched to Champ Motorsport for the non-championship Macau support race, finishing 17th and 14th. This was a first for a female driver as well, although others had finished the Macau Grand Prix itself.

Trying something different, she entered the 2023 Asian Motorsport Championships, a tournament-based event similar to the FIA Motorsport Games. She and Li Ho Sing won the mixed pairs gold medal in Auto Gymkhana.

Since 2023, she has not raced much, although she has been the subject of a a film, "Zero to Macao".

Away from motorsport, she works in financial services in New York. Although born in Hong Kong, she spent most of her childhood in the States, returning to her home country after the early death of her mother and returning as a student.

(Image from Macao News)

Kornelia Olkucka

Kornelia Olkucka is a Polish single-seater racer who has competed in F4 across Europe.

She raced in CEZ F4 in 2024. This was her debut in cars and she raced for the Swiss Maffi team. The first two rounds at Balaton Park and the Red Bull Ring were tough for her, but she became a reliable finisher, with a best finish of sixth at Brno. Her team withdrew her from the last round at Salzburg and she was 17th in the championship, second of the three female regulars behind Michalina Sabaj.

Staying with the Maffi set-up, she entered the Formula Winter Series at the start of 2025. Her aims were mostly learning still, and she did finish all twelve races. This was in spite of some of them being rather incident-filled, including one at Valencia where her two of her rivals were penalised for pushing her off the track. Her best finish was at Catalunya, where she was 20th in the final race of the year. This was her second top-twenty after another at Valencia. She was 37th in the championship.

This was preparation for a season in Italian F4 in 2025. The Maffi team entered four drivers, two more experienced and two rookies, Kornelia and David Walther. The first round at Misano was a tough one; she was 27th in the first race, despite suffering tyre damage following contact, then 26th in her second heat, but she did not qualify for the final. The Vallelunga rounds were also in a heats-and-final format, and the weather was bad to boot. Kornelia finished one of her races in 22nd place, having spun out of Race 1 due to contact with another car. Again, she did not qualify for the final. At Monza and Mugello, she finished all three races both times, scoring a best result of 26th, at Monza. Unfortunately, she then had two DNFs at Imola. It was a chaotic meeting and Race 2 had to be cancelled completely after a startline pile-up. Kornelia received a three-place grid penalty for crashing into her team-mate in an attempt to avoid stationary cars. 

She did not better her 22nd place in the two remaining rounds, with one 24th place at Misano the best of her late season. Her final championship position was 50th.

Prior to her switch to cars, she was a karter from the age of 14, and represented Poland at the 2022 Motorsport Games in the Karting Endurance category. She has expressed interest in sports psychology and suggested it as a future career move.

(Image copyright Maffi Racing/Kornelia Olkucka)

Gaby dela Merced

Gaby dela Merced is a Filipino driver who raced single-seaters in the 2000s, up to Asian Formula 3 level.

She was fourteenth in the 2006 Asian Formula 3 championship, racing in the Promotion class. Her best overall finish was seventh, at Batul in Indonesia. She also ran quite well at Batanga and Zhuhai. One of her rivals was Michele Bumgarner. The two were the highest-scoring Filipino drivers, from five, with Gaby the second highest.

She first raced saloons in 2002, after two seasons in slalom and autocross. Her first championship was the SVI Challenge Cup and she was third in the novice class. Her car is not recorded, but her car for the same series in 2003 was a Honda Civic. She won at least two races at Subic International Raceway and was second in the championship, after duelling with her team-mate Mikko David at the front all year. 

She also competed in the BRC (Batanga Racing Circuit) Production Touring Car Championship, finishing third. 

Later, she raced in a Formula Toyota championship in the Philippines, which used a Japanese-spec single-seater with slicks and wings. She was runner-up in Formula Toyota in 2004 and also competed in half of the Asian Formula BMW championship, driving for Team Tec Pilipinas. Her best finish was eleventh, at Beijing. She had been awarded a scholarship drive for Formula BMW and this was her prize drive. The scholarship was decided via a shootout at Johor in Malaysia, and this was the first time she had driven a single-seater.

Post-Formula 3, she attempted to launch her career in America, like her compatriot Michele Bumgarner would manage the year after. However, she could not find a seat anywhere with the money she had.

Between 2006 and 2009, she does not appear to have raced much, and concentrated on her TV career, which included a stint on Filipino Big Brother. She made her comeback, racing in endurance events in the USA. One of these races was the 2008 25 Hours of Thunderhill, where she shared a BMW M3 with Robbie Montinola and Angelo Barretto. The all-Filipino team was twelfth overall and sixth in class. Earlier in the year, she made a guest appearance in the PTC at Subic.

She had to stop racing in 2010 after a knee injury. This was later found to be due to an inflammatory condition which needed surgery. This limited her participation for quite some time. For about five years in total, she had to stop doing all sports.

What also did not help was Gaby's involvement in a so-called Filipino racing team designed to get Filipino drivers into NASCAR. This 2013 plan turned out to involve no racing at all; a supposed multinational race at Charlotte was reduced to a driving experience day more commonly sold to complete novices. Gaby was sanguine about her experiences, claiming that "sh** happens".

Her next adventure was the Transasia TA2 championship in 2014, based on the Trans Am formula in America. Her car was a 450bhp Ford stock car and she raced across Asia for a Korean team. She made a few guest appearances in the series after that.

After another long hiatus, she returned to Asian motorsport for the Giti Formula V1 Race Challenge in 2019. This is a sportscar championship using the same Vita prototype as the all-female Kyojo Cup in Japan. She also guested in the Thailand Super Series round at Sepang, sharing a TA2 Ford Mustang with Australian Jaylyn Robotham. They were 16th in one race. 

Since then, she has done some drifting, and more media work, including some acting and TV hosting. Her last motorsport outings were the MSCC Mazda Cup in the Philippines in 2024.

She also competes in flag football, joining the Philippines womens' team in 2023. 

(Image copyright Gaby dela Merced)

Anita Liden

 

Anita Lidén is a Swedish driver who is most famous for attempting to build a career in NASCAR in 1970.

She tried to enter the Motor Trend 500 at Riverside, but never made the start, having no car and no backers. She had shown up at Riverside and hung around the gates in the week before the 500, handing out business cards in the rain and attempting to persuade car owners to take a chance on her.

Despite her chutzpah, the enterprise did not work. Her complete lack of stock car experience, apart from some slow testing laps, and general lack of American racing experience, worked against her. Her husband Lasse, another racer who was with her, was also unsuccessful in launching a US competition career.

Anita and Lasse lived near the Anderstorp circuit, where he raced both cars and motorbikes. She was formerly a model and got into motorsport through her husband.

She had raced in Formula Ford in Sweden in 1969, in her first year of competition. She usually used the name "Anita Snabb", which translates to "Fast Anita". Her car was a Merlyn. In 1969, she entered the Junior race at the Hyllingeloppet event at Knutstorp, finishing second.

After her trip to America, she returned to Sweden and quickly went back to single-seaters. She continued to race in Formula Ford, then in the Swedish and European Formula Vee championships. She took part in the Swedish series in 1970 and 1971 and the European championship between 1970 and 1072.

Much later, in 1976, she raced in the Lee Cooper Mini Lady Cup, a Swedish all-female racing series, and won at least one race, although not the championship, which went to Birgitta Uppling. Her car was advertised for sale in 1978, so her career appears to end there.

(Image copyright Autosprint, 1971)

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. A third place at Singapore kept her fourth in the championship, the most successful Rodin driver that year. She will be retained for a second season.

At home, she did most of the British F4 season, where it did not clash with F1 Academy, also with Rodin. She was a regular visitor to the top ten and was 14th in the championship. Her best circuit was Zandvoort, where she was seventh, third and fourth, earning her only podium of the year.

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)