Red Bull Rookies

 

The 2009 Rookies

The Red Bull Rookies became a familiar sight in Malaysian endurance racing between 2008 and 2014. The first Female Driver Search was held in 2007 and the chosen drivers raced a Honda DC2 in the Merdeka Millennium Endurance race. The first official Rookies team was assembled in 2008 and consisted of Malaysian women selected at special events.

The driver search expanded to Singapore and Brunei in 2010. A few male drivers were assessed in 2011.

Each year, a couple of Rookies were retained as “Senior Rookies” to mentor the newcomers alongside non-driving manager Kenvin Low. 

Proton cars were used by later Rookies teams, who usually took part in the Sepang 1000km as well as the Merdeka race.

Like many driver search schemes, it had limited success in launching long-term careers for many of its entrants, although Leona Chin is still racing in 2021 and Siti Shahkirah Shaharul has competed quite extensively away from the team.

Some initial selection events were held in 2014, but no 2015 team was assembled and the project was quietly retired. 

Below is a list of Rookies recruits between 2007 and 2013. Each team competed the season following their selection. Male drivers’ names are in italics.

2007 (Red Bull Female Driver Search)

Philippa Yoong

Deanna Yusoff

Hiroko Nakamura

2008

Puteri Ayu Jasmin

Leona Chin

Baizura Ruslan

Norlina Johor

2009

Diana Chin

Nur Hayati Omar

2010

Malaysia

Carmen Lim

Lee Hui Jing

Brunei

Melline Jaini

Liana Radzak

2011

Malaysia

Siti Shahkirah Shaharul

Mark Darwin

Singapore

Amirah Mokhtar

Emmiline Ang

Brunei

Fauziah Haziz

2012

Singapore

Melissa Huang

Brunei

Siti Zirwatul

2013

Malaysia

Geraldine Read

Brunei

Illy Aquila Fateen Ismail

(Image from http://malaysianracedriver.blogspot.com/)

Siti Shahkirah Shaharul

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Image copyright Siti Shahkirah)