Marika Diana

Marika in 2011

Marika Diana is an Italian driver who is most famous for winning the 2005 Italian Formula Ford Challenge.

Her 2005 victory was only her second season of car racing, and her second in motorsport. She began karting in 2003, and did her first races in a Formula Ford in 2004, aged seventeen.

Winning the championship brought her to the attention of the motorsport world. Observers including racing instructor Henry Morrogh commented on her speed and commanding performance. She was keen to progress up the single-seater ladder and looked to the rest of Europe for opportunities.

She raced in Formula Three in Germany in 2006 and 2007. 2006 was a tough season for her. She drove for Ombra Racing and could only manage thirteenth as her highest finish, at the Nürburgring.

Ombra retained her for another year. Her best result of 2007 was ninth, at the Nürburgring. She was fifth in the Class B championship, with one runner-up spot and a series of podium places.

In 2008 she resumed racing in Italy, in the Campionato Italiano Prototipi, a sportscar series. However, she only managed two races in a Ligier, driving for two different teams. She scored one third place at Vallelunga.

In 2009, she managed a brief comeback, competing in three Prototipi races. This translated into a longer Prototype season in 2010, driving a Wolf for BF Motorsport. She was thirteenth overall, and had a best finish of fourth in class.

She stuck with the Wolf in 2011, but only appears to have competed in the first two rounds, the best being the Misano race, in which she was fourth.

Another comeback in 2013 took in a couple of races in the Prototype championship again, at Vallelunga. She had taken two years out in order to have a child, a daughter named Danika. Even then, she expressed a desire to try a different motorsport discipline, possibly touring cars.

In 2016, she finally switched to saloons, and did two rounds of the Italian Touring Car Championship, in a SEAT Leon Cupra. She scored two ninth places at Magione. This was her first experience of touring cars, apart from a test session at Mugello. She had linked up again with the BF team.

She has not competed since then and her official Facebook page has not been updated.

(Image from /www.acisport.it)