Toni Breidinger

Toni Breidinger races in the NASCAR Truck series and has been a regular in the ARCA Menards Series for several seasons.

She made her ARCA debut in 2018, aged 19, driving a Toyota for Venturini Motorsports. Her first race was at Madison and she finished tenth. She was then twelfth at Gateway and 18th at Chicago. Her team-mate was Natalie Decker, and they were joined by Leilani Munter at Chicago, making up the first three-woman team in the series. She made one appearance in the CARS Super Late Model Tour in 2019, finishing 15th at Radford. Away from ARCA, Toni raced in the USAC Silver Crown championship for dirt cars and in Late Models.

In an attempt at a sideways move, she tried to qualify for the inaugural W Series championship in 2019. She made the list of 55 drivers who were assessed, but was rejected at this stage.

In 2021, she returned to ARCA, entering nine rounds of its main series. Her best finishes were two ninth places at Winchester and Springfield. She spent half the season with Tyler Young before going back to a Venturini car. In addittion to this, she contested one Menards Series West race in each car, both at Phoenix, finishing one and crashing out of the other on the opening lap.

An almost full ARCA season followed in 2022, driving Cathy Venturini's car. Six of her twenty races ended in top tens, with her best being an eighth place at Salem. She was sixth in the championship.

In 2023, she made her first starts in the Craftsman Truck championship, driving for David Gilliland and sponsored by Victoria's Secret. She finished all three races, the best of these being a 15th place at Kansas. This was combined with most of the main ARCA season, where she earned seven top-ten finishes, including a third place at her lucky track, Kansas.

This arrangement continued for 2024, with a part-season in Trucks and a regular spot in ARCA. Most of her time was spent in ARCA, with her qualifying pace improving and more top tens coming her way during a full season. She has had a variety of sponsors. The same team runs her in certain rounds of the East and West series, where she is also a top-ten regular. Her Truck schedule is more limited.

She finished in the ARCA top ten on eleven occasions in 2024, the best of these being a pair of sixth places at Berlin and Springfield. Her final championship position was fourth. Her best East series finish was a fourth place at Flat Rock.

She previously raced in sprintcars against her twin sister, Annie. She is the only female NASCAR driver of Arab descent in the world, having Lebanese heritage.

(Image copyright Roman Empire)

Ayla Agren

 

Ayla Ågren is a Swedish/Norwegian driver, born in Norway who has done a lot of her racing in the USA. 

She won the US F1600 championship in 2014 after taking three wins and five podium positions. This was her second season in F1600, having finished fourth in the series in 2013. 

2013 was only her second season as a senior racer, having graduated from karting in Scandinavia at the end of 2011. Like many single-seater racers in the States, she began in the Skip Barber championships. 

Between 2014 and 2019, she did not do quite as much active racing, but was involved with the Mazda Road to Indy training programme, in the hope of getting onto the oval racing ladder. To this end, she took part in the Cooper Tires USF2000 series, for three seasons. She did the full season in 2015 with Pelfrey Racing, who had helped her to her F1600 title. In her first season, she was tenth overall, with a best finish of sixth, achieved at Indianapolis and Mid-Ohio.

In 2016, she switched to John Cummiskey’s team and did three-quarters of the season, missing the Toronto and Laguna Seca races. Her best finish improved to fourth at Road America and she was eleventh overall. Back with Pelfrey for a third year, she only managed seven rounds on her budget. The best of these wasa seventh at Indianapolis.

She also worked as a spotter for Paretta Autosport and other teams in oval-based series, and drove the safety car for Indycar races.

In 2019, she attempted to qualify for the W Series but was unsuccessful at the first selection. Despite expressing some misgivings about the event, she tested again at the end of the year and was accepted for 2020. She was also awarded a significant scholarship by World Rally champion Petter Solberg.

The 2020 W Series season was deferred until 2021, but she took her seat and finished 17th overall. This was not helped by missing the Spa race due to a six-car qualifying crash, but her best finish was only ninth at Circuit of the Americas and she was not one of the drivers automatically invited back. 

At the start of the season, she also drove at Duqueine prototype in the Le Mans Cup, finishing 19th in her class at Paul Ricard. 

She continued as a reserve driver in W Series in 2022, making one appearance for the Puma team at Singapore, substituting for the injured Tereza Babickova. She was 16th. After W Series was cancelled, she did not race in 2023.

(Image from vg.no)

Lindsay Brewer

 

Lindsay Brewer competes in the  Indy Pro 2000 championship in the USA, a part of the Indycar development ladder.

She has raced single-seaters, touring cars and sportscars. After some races in the Skip Barber series, she entered the 2022 Indy Pro 2000 championship with Exclusive Autosport. She did not do a full season. Her best finish by far was eighth at Indianapolis and she was 15th in the championship. 

Early in the season, she also did some guest races in the F1600 championship, driving a Spectrum. Eighth was her best finish there too, at Barber. At the end of 2022, she tried out for the all-female W Series, using an F4 car, but was not selected.

Her second Indy Pro 2000 season was also run with Exclusive Autosport. Sadly, she did not do as well and finished 18th overall this time. Her best finishes were a pair of eleventh places at Indianapolis and Portland.

In 2021, she raced in the TC America touring car series, driving a Honda Civic Type R run by the Skip Barber school team. She did the first four rounds of the championship, with a best finish of eighth at Circuit of the Americas. The team was second in the TC championship, mostly thanks to Eric Powell, but Lindsay was fourteenth overall. 

Throughout her career, Lindsay has been accused of not being a real racing driver and of using motorsport to further her internet influencer presence. She responded to comments made by NASCAR driver Hailie Deegan about female drivers who are Instagram models first and racers second by challenging Deegan to a race, which did not happen. Her commitment to the Indy Pro 2000 series since 2022 should have gone some way to dispelling some of this negativity, but a series of newspaper reports describing her as “the world’s sexiest racing driver” have not helped.

She entered one race in the 2019 Saleen Cup after taking four years away from competition to attend college. Before that, she raced Legends at club level, as well as testing stock cars. She had raced karts from an early age and finished fifth in the PSL Racing TAG Minimax championship in 2009, when she was twelve.

At the end of 2023, it was announced that she would join the IndyNXT (formerly Indy Lights) grid in 2024. She signed for Juncos Hollinger Racing as its solo entry. Unfortunately, her season only lasted eight out of fourteen races, and she had a best finish of 15th, at St Petersburg and Laguna Seca.

(Image copyright Times10)

Bianca Bustamante

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Image copyright Vogue Philippines)

Chloe Chambers

 

Chloe Chambers is a Chinese-born American single-seater driver who became the first woman to win a round of the Formula Regional Oceania series (formerly the Toyota Racing Series).

She started her senior career aged 16 in 2021, after eight years of karting, during which she won several regional titles. She joined the US F4 Championship having won the inaugural PMH “Powering Diversity” scholarship, driving for the Future Star team. Her best finish in F4 was a seventh place at Brainerd, although this was only her second top ten of the year. The first was a tenth place at Mid-Ohio in June. She was 26th in the championship. 

Using the same Ligier F4 car, she entered two rounds of the Eastern Pro 4 Challenge at Autobahn, finishing fourth and third. 

She was selected for the 2022 W Series championship, racing for the Jenner team. Her best circuit was Miami, where she was tenth, and she was 16th in the championship. On the track, she had managed a seventh place in the first Miami race of the season, but a penalty for overtaking during a safety car period dropped her to seventh. Her W Series connections led to an FIA F3 test organised by Bruno Michel, but nothing seems to have come of it and no times were published.

Using the same car as she had used for part of the W season, she entered the 2023 Formula Regional Oceania championship, driving for Giles Motorsport. It was not the most consistent of seasons, but she took advantage of a reversed grid at Taupo to secure her win, leading the entire race and only challenged by Kaleb Ngatoa. Her previous best result had been a fifth place at Highlands and she was usually in the lower reaches of the top ten. She was ninth in the championship. 

During the summer season, she moved into sportscars and raced in the Porsche Sprint Challenge in the USA. She did most of the season and was a front-runner in the Cayman class, finishing sixth in Pro-Am.

She was selected for the second season of the all-female F1 Academy in 2024, driving for the Campos team. From the beginning, she was among the leading drivers, and she won her first race at Barcelona after her first podium at the preceding round at Miami. She was sixth overall.

Sportscars were still part of her plans; she did some rounds of the Porsche Sprint Challenge in the States, winning the Pro-Am class in two of her four races. She also made a couple of guest appearances in the IMSA Mustang Challenge, with a best finish of seventh at Mid-Ohio.

In addition to this, she holds a world record for auto slalom, driving a production Porsche 718 Spyder. She is an ambassador for the Gift of Adoption Fund, being an adoptee herself.

(Image copyright Chloe Chambers)

Caitlin Wood

Caitlin Wood is an Australian driver who races in Europe. In recent years, this has been in sportscars, although she started in single-seaters.

She began her senior motorsport career in 2013, supported by the Women’s Australian Motorsport federation as one of their most promising young drivers, following a successful karting career. Her brother had raced previously and she helped him and their father rebuilt his Spirit Formula Ford. She did part-seasons in the Australian and Victorian Formula Ford championships, earning two fourteenth places in the Australian series. More races in the Victorian championship gave her more experience.

In late 2013, she was selected as Australia’s entry for the FIA Women in Motorsport Scirocco-R shootout, in an attempt to win a VW Scirocco prize drive in Europe. She did not win and returned to single-seaters in Australia. 

Another season in the Australian Formula Ford championship followed in 2014. It was a hard year for her, but she managed to get into the top ten three times towards the end of the season. She was 21st overall. As well as her national series, she got some extra seat time in the New South Wales state championship, where she fared better, finishing sixth overall after five races. 

She put together a deal late in the season to run in the 2015 Australian Formula 4 championship, the first female driver to do so. She was thirteenth in the championship after just under half of the season, with a best finish of sixth at Sandown. 

In 2016, she intended to race in F4 for the full season but ended up in Europe, racing a KTM X-Bow in the GT4 European Series. This followed an invitation by former Formula 1 driver Tomas Enge to join a Young Stars programme run by Reiter Engineering.

She was a solid top-ten finisher in the Pro class, partnered with male drivers including Marko Helistekangas. Her best overall finish was seventh at Pau, and she was seventeenth in the main championship. However, she won the Young Stars class.

She stayed with the Reiter team in 2017 and drove both the X-Bow and their Lamborghini Gallardo. The X-Bow came out for the Dubai 24 Hours, where Caitlin was part of a four-woman Reiter team with fellow Young Stars drivers Anna Rathe, Marylin Niederhauser and Naomi Schiff. They finished the race in 72nd place.

For most of the year she drove the Gallardo in the Blancpain Endurance Series, as a prize for her Young Stars win. She was tenth in the Sprint Cup Silver Cup, having been entered in different classes over the year with Marko Helistekangas. 

She missed some of the 2018 season due to injury but managed the early and late part of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo, racing in Europe. At first, she drove for Mtech in the Pro-Am class, before doing the Silverstone rounds in the Am class with The Energy Check. She returned to Pro-Am for the closing races at the Nurburgring, picking up her best finish of sixth.

She also did her first Bathurst 12 Hours in the X-Bow, although she did not finish. Sadly, she did not finish the race in 2019 either. 

The 2019 summer season was spent as a W Series driver in Europe, having gone through several rounds of selection alongside her former Reiter team-mates, Naomi Schiff and Marylin Niederhauser. Naomi was also selected. 

Her best finish by far was fifth at Assen and she was thirteenth in the championship. She did not race in W Series in 2020 as it was cancelled, but she returned as a reserve driver in 2021. Despite her reserve status, she did four of the eight races, earning one fifth place at Spa. She also drove the Tatuus F3 car up the hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

After being released by W Series, she remained in Europe and joined up with the Adrenalin Motorsport Alzer team for the NLS. Their car was a BMW 330i. She did one NLS race in 2022.

She returned to competition in a high-profile hook-up with Mattel's Barbie brand in 2024, competing in the Porsche Sprint Challenge in the UK. Sadly, fudning ran out after four rounds. Later in the year, she was drafted into the Bangalore Speedsters team for the Indian Racing League. She shared a car with Rishon Rajeev and they were seventh in the championship, ahead of the team's sister car. Caitlin's best individual finish was a fifth place at Chennai.

(Image copyright Caitlin Wood)

 

Belen Garcia

 

Belen Garcia is a Spanish single-seater driver who has raced in both F3 and F4 machinery.

She became the first Spanish woman to win a single-seater race when she claimed the second round of the 2019 Spanish Formula 4 championship at Navarra. A large number of her competitors were excluded from the race for not responding quickly enough to a red flag, gifting Belen the win. She was 15th in the first race. 

2019 was her first full season in cars, after some rounds of the 2018 Toyota Aygo Kobe Cup and karting. She was part of Team Spain for the inaugural FIA Motorsport Games, racing in the F4 Cup and finishing sixth and twelfth in her two races. 

In Spanish F4 that year, her win was something of a one-off. Navarra was her best circuit and she scored her second-best finish there, a seventh place. This was repeated at Algarve. She was fourteenth in the championship with ten top-tens from 21 races. 

After testing a car, she was due to compete in the 2020 W Series but the championship was cancelled due to coronavirus. A planned part-season in the Formula Renault Eurocup was also shelved.

She raced in W Series in 2021, alongside some rounds of the Formula Regional European Championship, which uses the same chassis.

Her year in W Series started well with a fourth place at the Red Bull Ring, but she was unable to keep up the momentum and dipped in and out of the top ten for the rest of the season. As tenth-placed championship finisher, she was not invited back automatically for 2022.

FREC was an even tougher challenge. Driving for the Swiss team G4 Racing, she did ten races from the 20-round calendar. She managed to finish all of them but her best finish was only 22nd place, achieved at Imola. She did out-score her team-mate Axel Gnos on a couple of occasions.

She retained her place in W Series for 2022. The season was shortened due to financial worries. Belen was fifth overall after a somewhat inconsistent season, with a high point being a second place at Paul Ricard. 

Single-seaters have been her focus so far, but in 2020 she did some GT racing at Aragon, entering the last round of the Spanish GT Championship with her father Jose Luis. Their car was a Ginetta G55 and they won their class in their first race. 

She returned to sportscars in 2022, entering the Michelin Le Mans Cup at Portimao in October. She drove a Ligier LMP3 car and was 17th in class after an incident-hit race. She set the CD Sport team's fastest lap of the weekend.

Sportscars became her chief focus in 2023. She raced for different teams in Europe and Asia, using a Ligier LMP3 car for both the Le Mans Cup and the Asian Le Mans Series. Driving for Graff Racing, she was ninth in the LMP3 class of the Asian championship, usually as part of a three-driver team with Sebastien Page and Eric Trouillet. They finished three races, with a best result of seventh at Yas Marina.

The European Le Mans Cup was less satisfying. Sharing the car with Mark Richards or James Dayson, her best results were two fifth places at Spa and Portimao, but it took until the end of the season to get to that level.

Mid-season, she tried out a Duqueine D-08 in the German Prototype Cup and earned a second and a tenth place at the Norisring. 

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

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

(Image copyright Belen Garcia)

Megan Gilkes

 

Megan Gilkes is a single-seater racer from Canada. She has achieved success in Formula Ford and competed in the inaugural season of W Series.

She has been a leading name in Canadian Formula 1200 since 2017, when she competed for the first of two seasons in the championship. In her debut year she picked up her first win and she was runner-up in the championship and in 2018. Another win came at Mosport in 2018 and was one of seven podium finishes, from nine races.

Her experiences in larger-capacity cars have not been quite as successful, but she has raced both Formula 2000 in Canada and Formula Vee in Brazil. 

In 2019, she was announced as one of the 18 drivers selected for the women-only W Series and shortly after that, began competing in the F3 Americas championship. She was one of the weaker drivers in the W Series and was substituted for one race, in an unpopular move by W management. Her only real highlight was her win in the Assen reverse-grid race, which was not part of the championship.  

She ran better in US F3, picking up one ninth place at Pittsburgh. She also started the Virginia round but crashed in the first race, meaning she was unable to start the other two that weekend. 

Back in a Van Diemen F2000, she did a couple of races in the US championship, finishing seventh at Road Atlanta. 

At the end of 2020, she travelled to the UK for the Formula Ford Festival and the  Walter Hayes Trophy, driving a Kevin Mills Racing Spectrum. Her first run in the Festival started promisingly with a fifth in her heat, then she was twelfth in her semi-final . She reached the final of the Walter Hayes at Silverstone, but was involved in a low-speed multi-car pile-up and was unable to finish. Staying in the UK, she entered the 2021 National Formula Ford championship with the team, earning a best finish of fourth at Snetterton in the penultimate race of the season.

Sticking with single-seaters, she moved over to the F4-level GB4 championship in 2022. Driving for the Hillspeed team, she won two reverse-grid races at Snetterton and Donington, plus another third from pole at Silverstone, on her way to a sixth place in the championship. Formula Ford had not been forgotten either and she did the first half of the National season, plus the Formula Ford Festival and the Walter Hayes Trophy. She scored two fourth places in Festival heats.

At the beginning of 2024, she was announced as a driver for Rodin Carlin in the all-female F1 Academy series. Part-way through the season, she announced that this would be her last as a driver and that she would concentrate on her engineering career at the Aston Martin F1 team from 2024. She was thirteenth in the championship, with a few top tens and a best finish of fifth at the Red Bull Ring.

(Image copyright challengecupseries.com)

Tasmin Pepper

 Tasmin Pepper is a well-travelled driver from South Africa who has experienced success in both single-seaters and saloons, including race wins in both. 

She began racing in the 2006 South African Formula Ford Championship, aged sixteen. For her first couple of  seasons she combined karting with Formula Ford. Despite this, she was fourth in 2007 and claimed her first podium finishes. Tannith Gardiner stood in for her at Zwartkops.

Moving up the single-seater ladder in 2008, she entered the South African Formula Volkswagen series, a new championship launched that year using Reynard chassis previously raced in Germany. As well as this she raced in Formula BMW Pacific, racing all over Asia as well as her homeland, including three support slots for Formula 1 races. Her best finishes in both championships were fourth places. She was seventh in Formula Volkswagen and thirteenth in Formula BMW. 

A season spent closer to home was rewarded with her first win, at Kyalami, driving a Formula Volkswagen in the South African championship. Another three podiums at Kyalami and Killarney confirmed her fourth place.

In 2010, she continued where she left off, finishing second in the championship with another win at East London and ten podium places. When she finished, she was never out of the top ten, and almost always in the top five. 

She challenged again in the 2011 Formula VW series. Sadly, she did not win this time, although she was rarely out of the top five. She was fourth overall. 

After 2012, she switched from the declining Formula VW to saloon car racing in the Wesbank Super Series, driving a VW Golf. She also returned to karting, including some visits to Europe for the X30 series after winning the South African edition in 2011. Her win was repeated in 2012. 

Volkswagens were to be her favoured car for six seasons and in 2013, she added more wins to her tally: a round of the Polo Cup at Phakisa. Later that year, she was selected for the FIA VW Scirocco R-Cup ladies' evaluation tests, but did not win the following Shootout in Europe. 

She returned home to the Polo Cup in 2014, ending the season fourth overall. This was one of her best final finishing positions, although she bettered it in 2016 and 2018 with second places and outright race wins.

In 2019, she qualified for the all-female W Series, despite being out of single-seater racing for some time. She was a solid midfield but not spectacular finisher, racing in Europe. Her best finish was sixth at Zolder, which she repeated in the non-championship race at Assen. W Series did not run in 2020 due to the global coronavirus crisis, but she was set to compete again in 2021. Sadly, coronavirus seriously curtailed travel to and from South Africa and she was unable to race at all.

She is from a motorsport family; her brother Jordan races and her father Iain used to. She has been involved in one form of racing or another since she was four.

(Image copyright Reynard Gelderblom/Wheels24)

Marta Garcia

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Image from denia.com)

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)

Veronika Cicha (Jaksch)

Veronika Cicha is a Czech driver who races a GP2 car in the BOSS and MaxxFormula championships in Europe. 

She began her career in hillclimbs, driving Mitsubishi Lancers. Between 2011 and 2014, she competed extensively around central Europe in both a Lancer Evo IV and a WRC05 Lancer. In 2014, she also had a go at rally co-driving in a similar car, sitting alongside Karel Stehlik in the Rallye Liberec. 

In 2015, she started competing in the BOSS series, in a GP2 car from 2005. This car ran in the Formula class, alongside that of her Top Speed team-mate and partner, Wolf Jaksch. She was eighth overall in her first season, with a best finish of fourth in class at Assen. 

In 2016, she only did a part-season and was 18th. This was partly due to a string of non-finishes mid-season and Monza and Assen. Her best result was sixth in the Formula class at Hockenheim. 

She struggled with reliability again in 2017, but has also managed two seventh places and one ninth. She was fourteenth overall. Mid-season, she changed teams from FXtreme to H&A Racing and also changed cars, from a 2005 to a 2008 Dallara GP2.

2018 was a better year; she was seventh in the championship and earned one second place at Assen, back in the 2005 car that she knew best. 

At the end of 2018, she was announced as one of the 55 initial candidates for the all-female W Series. Despite her experience in handling very powerful single-seaters, she did not make the initial cut at the first selection event. She did not seem overly concerned and concentrated on her new venture for 2019, a debut season in the MaxxFormula championship. This series is very similar to BOSS. She also married Wolf Jaksch and began racing under the name Veronika Jaksch.

She continued to use the GP2 car and was rewarded with two second places at Zandvoort to start her season, having qualified fourth. These were her best finishes, the next best being several fourth places.

Maxx Formula managed a short season in 2020 and Veronika was part of it. Her best finishes again were fourth places at Monza. She was also sixth twice at Most.

Three more sixth places were her best results in 2021, in the same car. She was eleventh in the championship and third in the Prestige class.

(Image copyright BOSS GP)

The W Series

(For a more detailed discussion of Speedqueens’ stance on W Series and a review of the TV show, click here.)

The inaugural W Series championship ran in the summer of 2019. It was billed as the first-ever all-female single-seater championship. (The Esso All-Ladies Formula Ford race in 1985 was actually the first.)

Eighteen drivers were chosen to race Formula 3 Regional cars, with two “reserve” drivers who were intended to deputise for injured colleagues and only took part in a few actual races.

There were six championship races of roughly half an hour each, plus one non-championship race which ran using a reverse-grid format. The series acted as one of the supports for the DTM in Europe.

W Series was launched with a huge media drive, with former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard acting as one of its public figureheads. He was also one of the judges for the initial driver selection events. Lyn St. James, who had previously been pivotal in the similar Women’s Global GT Series, was another. 60 racers from all round the world were assessed; through a combination of elimination and voluntary dropping-out, this was whittled down to 20. All 20 selected drivers would have all of their expenses paid for the summer racing season and would receive a share of the $2m prize pot.

There is nothing especially innovative about an all-female racing series but W Series did introduce some relatively novel concepts, including the no-cost nature of entry. Drivers were made to swap cars after every race and worked with a different team of mechanics every day. This was ostensibly to prevent the more mechanically-minded among them from gaining an advantage. Prohibitions were also placed on testing and competing in F3 cars during the W season. No driver was permitted to take part in an F3 race on any of the six circuits the series visited, unless she was fully signed up for that championship. Testing was not allowed. Drivers were allowed limited sessions on a simulator to prepare prior to a race weekend. There were no competing teams; all cars were run centrally by Hitech Grand Prix on behalf of W Series itself.

Many were critical of the whole idea, chiefly Indycar driver Pippa Mann and European F3 racer Sophia Floersch. Both drivers, along with others, considered it a step towards sex segregation in motorsport and believed that the money involved would have been better spent supporting female racers in existing championships. Some of this criticism died down but a few concerns arose during the season about safety and standards of car preparation. Jamie Chadwick, Alice Powell and others experienced difficulty downshifting under full steering lock in some of the Tatuus FRegional cars, for example. 

Early indications were that W Series was intended as a reality TV-style competition. The first set of driver assessments took place in the unlikely setting of a frozen track and used road cars, not a situation likely to arise in an F3 championship. Announcements of who had made the cut and who would have to “fight for their place” had a distinctly X Factor flavour. However, the races themselves proved popular with spectators as a sporting contest and W became more of a serious competition than when it started. The organisers attempted to mix things up a little by dropping a struggling Megan Gilkes to reserve status after a free practice session where she had been relatively quick, but this proved highly unpopular and was not repeated.

Jamie Chadwick was the first champion, winning two of the six races. This was not unexpected as she was the entrant with the most notable and recent successes on her CV. BMW junior driver Beitske Visser was second. Alice Powell, winner of the final round at Brands Hatch, was third although she could have finished higher had she not encountered a series of car problems. The other races were won by Marta Garcia and Emma Kimilainen. Megan Gilkes won the reverse-grid non-championship race from pole.

2019 Standings

1. Jamie Chadwick
2. Beitske Visser
3. Alice Powell
4. Marta Garcia
5. Emma Kimilianen
6. Fabienne Wohlwend
7. Miki Koyama
8. Sarah Moore
9. Vicky Piria
10. Tasmin Pepper
11. Jessica Hawkins
12. Sabre Cook
13. Caitlin Wood
14. Gosia Rdest
15. Esmee Hawkey
16. Naomi Schiff
17. Vivien Keszthelyi (Reserve)
18. Shea Holbrook
19. Sarah Bovy (Reserve)
20. Megan Gilkes

The top twelve 2019 drivers were automatically invited back for the 2020 season. Any of the eight additional 2019 intake were permitted to reapply for 2020, alongside 15 new drivers. The season was cancelled due to coronavirus.

The 2021 championship was won again by Jamie Chadwick. Eighteen cars started each race, with a rotating series of reserve drivers sharing one of them. The series was now on the F1 support bill and ran for eighth races.

1. Jamie Chadwick

2. Alice Powell

3. Emma Kimilainen

4. Nerea Marti

5. Sarah Moore

6. Fabienne Wohlwend

7. Abbi Pulling

8. Beitske Visser

9. Irina Sidorkova

10. Belen Garcia

11. Jessica Hawkins

12. Marta Garcia

13. Abbie Eaton

14. Miki Koyama

15. Bruna Tomaselli

16. Caitlin Wood

17. Ayla Agren

18. Gosia Rdest

19. Vicky Piria

20. Sabre Cook

The third W Series season was intended to be a ten-round championship, with double-header rounds at the US and Mexican grands prix. A planned race at Suzuka was substituted for Singapore. In an unusual move, the usual W Formula Regional cars were not transported to Catalunya and the similar cars from the Toyota Racing Series were used instead. This was repeated at Singapore. The Singapore race ended up as the least of the season, as money problems meant that the last three races were cancelled.

A team system of sorts was introduced. All cars were run centrally, but pairs of cars carried branded liveries.

Jamie Chadwick dominated once more, with Alice Powell and Beitske Visser picking up one win apiece.

1. Jamie Chadwick (Jenner Racing)

2. Beitske Visser (Sirin Racing)

3. Alice Powell (Click2Drive Bristol Street Racing)

4. Abbi Pulling (Racing X)

5. Belen Garcia (Quantfury W Series Team)

6. Marta Garcia (CortDAO W Series Team)

7. Nerea Marti (Quantfury W Series Team)

8. Emma Kimilainen (Puma W Series Team)

9. Jessica Hawkins (Click2Drive Bristol Street Racing)

10. Fabienne Wohlwend (CortDAO W Series Team)

11. Sarah Moore (Scuderia W)

12. Bruna Tomaselli (Racing X)

13. Abbie Eaton (Scuderia W)

14. Juju Noda (W Series Academy)

15. Bianca Bustamante (W Series Academy)

16. Chloe Chambers (Jenner Racing)

17. Emely de Heus (Sirin Racing)

18. Tereza Babickova (Puma W Series Team)

19. Ayla Agren* (Puma W Series Team)

*Ayla Agren stood in for Tereza Babickova at Singapore after she injured her back in a Formula Regional Europe race.

This proved to be the last W Sseries season, as the championship ran into serious financial difficulties and went into administration.

(Image copyright Matthias Hangst/Getty Images)