Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky

Mikaela in 2015

Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky is a Swedish driver who has raced in international one-make series for Volkswagen and Audi.

She began karting at the age of twelve, and spent five years in various championships. In 2009, she was fourth in the Swedish Rotax Max championship.

Her first full season of senior competition was in 2012. Instead of learning the ropes in a Swedish national championship, she jumped straight into the VW Scirocco-R Cup, based in Germany, having passed its selection procedure. It was not the easiest of years, with two thirteenths at Oschersleben her best finishes. She was 19^th in the championship. As well as other up and coming young drivers, she raced against guests such as Damon Hill and WRC champion Sébastien Ogier. At the end of the season, she secured an invite to the FIA Women In Motorsport commission’s Scirocco-R Shootout, a competition for female drivers with a funded season in the 2012 Cup as its prize. Mikaela was second, behind Michelle Gatting.

As well as tin-tops, she tried her hand at GT racing, taking part in some rounds of the Scandinavian Porsche Carrera Cup. Her best finish was eighth, at Solvalla, one of three top-tens she achieved in five races. She was twelfth in the championship.

A second season in the Scirocco-R Cup saw a more assured Mikaela. Towards the middle of the season, she broke into the top five for the first time, finishing fourth at the Norisring. She followed this up with a second at the Nürburgring, her best race of the season. She was eighth in the championship.

In a somewhat backwards move, she spent some time in 2013 in Sweden, racing in the Clio Cup, which ran as the Swedish Junior Touring Car Championship. She was twelfth in that championship, too, after a part-season. Her best finish was sixth, at Kinnekulle.

She had her best season yet in the Scirocco-R Cup in 2014, and was the strongest of the female entrants. She won one race, at the Norisring, the first female driver to do so. Despite five more top-tens, four of those being top fives, some poor finishes at Oschersleben and Hockenheim let her down.  She was ninth in the championship.

That year, she also took part in rallycross, racing an RX Lites Ford Fiesta. She raced in the Swedish and Turkish rounds, and performed best in Sweden; she was fifth in the final. In Turkey, she got as far as the semi-final. At the end of the season, she was fourteenth in the championship. She had a similar experience during her part-season in the Swedish Supercar Lites championship: fifth in on final at Höljesbanan, and eighth overall in the championship.

In 2015, she entered the Audi Sport TT Cup, the successor to the now-defunct Scirocco series. A series of non-finishes, including a crash at Oschersleben, dropped her down the leaderboard to fifteenth. However, her race results were quite good, and included a third place, at the Norisring. When she made the finish, she was almost always in the top ten.

For 2016, she remained with the Audi marque, but took a step up into sportscar racing, in an R8 LMS. She raced in the ADAC GT Masters in Germany, for Aust Motorsport, as a team-mate to Marco Bonanomi. It was a steep learning curve for both of them, and Mikaela had a best finish of tenth, at Oschersleben. She was just out of the top ten on two more occasions, and was 52nd overall. Her 2017 plans had to be adjusted, as she broke her leg at the end of 2016.

2017 was another Audi-based year. She took part in the Swedish Touring Car Championship, which was run to TCR regulations. Her car was an Audi RS3 LMS. The season was slow to get going, with two DNFs in the first two races. Her best finish was an eighth place at Solvalla, one of two top-tens she scored during the year. She was 20th overall.

She was in the R8 again for the ADAC GT Masters. Neither she nor any of her Audi Sport Racing Academy team-mates fared particularly well. Mikaela's best finish was fourteenth, at Zandvoort.

In 2018, she concentrated on the STCC and was tenth overall, posting a historic first win at Karlskoga in August. This was one of five top-ten finishes for her.

Her 2019 season got off to an excellent start with a win at Knutstorp. It was her first race in the rebranded STCC, now running under TCR regulations and known as Scandinavian TCR. Her car was a SEAT Cupra as she did in 2018. She was sixth in the championship after a second place at the Drivecenter Arena and thirds at Falkenberg, Karlskoga and Mantorp.

Away from actual competition, she was named as an official tyre tester for the forthcoming Extreme E electric SUV championship. She undertook testing and PR duties for the Alejandro Agag-run enterprise. She was initially not down to race in 2021, having not been selected by a team, but she was selected late on by Jenson Button's JBXE squad.

Another STCC season in a Cupra for PWR was relatively successful. She was ninth in the championship with her best finishes being two thirds at Mantorp. Again, she was slightly inconsistent, although her two DNFs in the first and last races of the year did not help her final leaderboard position.

In 2021 she ran parallel seasons in Extreme E and in the STCC and enjoyed success in both. She partnered Kevin Hansen at JBXE and although they did not manage to win any of the off-road sprints, they scored podium finishes in Senegal, Greenland and Sardinia and were in with a chance of a championship podium until the closing round in the UK. They were second in that race, but had to settle for fourth, just a point behind Catie Munnings and Timmy Hansen who had won a race.

Cupra were her rivals in Extreme E, but she drove for their team in Scandinavian TCR. Her season started very strongly with a second and third place at Ljungbyhed and she was one of the leading drivers from then on. A win eluded her until October, when she scored her first at Mantorp and followed it up with another at Knutstorp. She was unable to catch her team-mate Robert Dahlgren, who was the runaway championship winner, but was a secure second.

She concentrated on Extreme E in 2022, driving for Rosberg X Racing this year with Johan Kristofferson. The pair won two races in Saudi and Sardinia and were the only team to score more than one win, but the better reliability and consistency of Team X44 meant that they were the champions, with Rosberg X Racing in second place.

Rosberg Racing was the 2023 championship-winning team, with Mikaela and Johan still at the wheel together. They won both Sardinian races, one from pole, and another race in Chile, sandwiched between second places in Sardinia and Chile. Their improved consistency, thanks to two thirds in Saudi, meant that they stayed ahead in Acciona Sainz and Veloce.

Driving solo but staying with one-make electric racing, Mikaela raced in the RX2e category of the European Rallycross championship, for the Swedish-run Team E. A third in Norway and second in Belgium was enough to give her third in the championship. 

Circuit racing had not been abandoned either; she made guest appearances in the Scandinavian Porsche Carrera Cup towards the end of the year.

She is the daughter of rally driver Susanne Kottulinsky, and granddaughter of Freddy Kottulinsky, another rally driver. Although she grew up in a motorsport family, she had no interest in it whatsoever until she was a teenager, preferring dance and gymnastics.

Mikaela’s profile rose due to her being romantically linked to Max Verstappen. However, she remained focused on her own racing career and moved on quickly. 

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