Laia Sanz

 

Laia with Carlos Sainz

Laia Sanz races in Extreme E alongside Carlos Sainz, sharing an electric Odyssey 4x4.

The Spanish racer, whose full name is Eulalia Sanz Pla-Giribert, is better-known as a motorcycle endurance rider who has won 14 ladies' European trials championships and ridden in the Dakar ten times on a motorbike. She has finished every Dakar she has entered, between 2011 and 2020, with a women’s award each time. Her best overall finish has been ninth in 2015.  

She had been competing in trials aged seven, in 1992. Her first win was in 1997 and she won her first women’s title in 1998, still aged only twelve.

Her four-wheel career began at around the same time as her Dakar debut. Interestingly, she did not opt for off-road competition.

She entered a couple of Clio Cup races in Spain in 2011 and won class A2 of the 2011 Barcelona 24 Hours, driving a Renault Clio. She was 18th overall, assisted by Enric and Jordi Codony, Francesc Gutierrez and Santi Navarro. 

In 2014, she did some ice racing in Andorra, in the G Series, and competed directly against Ingrid Rossell in a match race. She also did two rounds of the SEAT Leon Supercopa, in Catalunya, and was 19th and 20th. 

In 2015, she returned to enduros, and was ninth in the Dakar on a KTM. She did do some four-wheeled outings in a SEAT Leon, including two races in the Supercopa and the Catalunya 24 Hours, at Barcelona. She was 16th overall and second in class, as part of a two-driver team. 

At the end of the season, she was signed by the works KTM team, and concentrated on motorcycles for a season. 

She did another car race in 2017, finishing 15th in the TCR 24H race at Catalunya. Her car was a SEAT Leon. 

She entered the same race in 2018, driving a SEAT Cupra for the Monlau team. She and her team-mates won their class. 

Her first start in Extreme E came after a long recovery period for wrist injuries sustained in the 2020 Dakar where she was riding for the works Gas Gas team. Her warm-up was a run in a Can-Am SxS vehicle at the Baja Dubai. She was fourth in the UTV class.

Carlos Sainz himself had requested that she join the Acciona Sainz XE team. Each Extreme E must have a male and a female driver and Laia was the first choice for the Spanish team’s female seat.

The first Extreme E race was held in Saudi Arabia and the second event in Senegal and this was her first time visiting the country, as the Dakar had stopped visiting Dakar itself by the time she made her debut. She and Carlos Sainz were ninth in Senegal, having finished fourth in Saudi.

Despite saying that she would carry on with motorcycles when her seat in Extreme E was announced, she decided to commit to four wheels during 2021, including her first run in the Dakar in a car for 2022.

Her first E-Prix in Saudi was a relative success and she and Carlos qualified second, although they were dropped to fourth in the final by mechanical problems. The pair tended to qualify well but come up against issues in finals and their best finish was third in Greenland. They were fifth in the championship.

The second season of Extreme E featured an unchanged Acciona Sainz driver pairing. They were third overall, with two second places in the Saudi desert round and the Chile race. Both drivers usually qualified well, but did quite not have the pace for the final.

Her Dakar adventure ended in a solid 23rd place in the Car class, driving a Mini All4 with Maurizio Gerini. The car was run by the X-Raid team.

Laia's third season in Extreme E featured a new team-mate in Mattias Ekstrom. The pair won two races in Saudi and Sardinia from pole, on their way to second in the championship. They were also second four times. They were also the fastest qualifiers for the second Chile race, but were beaten by the Veloce team, who won the championship.

She entered the Dakar again in 2024, driving an Astara T1.2 prototype. Her co-driver is the Italian Maurizio Gerini.

(Image from enduro21.com)

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)

Ivana Giustri

 

Ivana Giustri was an Italian driver who competed in both circuit racing and rallying, winning women’s titles in both.

The car she was most associated with is the Alpine-Renault A110. She entered the Giro d’Italia three times, between 1973 and 1975, in an Alpine each time. Her best finish seems to have been 44th, in 1974, driving with Bruno Bocconi for a second time. In 1975, she was part of an all-female team with Cica Lurani. Their result is not forthcoming.

Still with Renault power, she was invited to take part in a Monte Carlo Grand Prix support race in 1975. Twelve female drivers from around the world raced Renault 5s on the GP track, with Ivana finishing third. Promotional materials of the time describe her as having won eleven races  in a 1971 Group 4 championship and five in 1972, driving an Alpine-Renault.

Earlier in her rally career, she drove a Lancia Fulvia, between 1970 and 1972. Her first major rally seems to have been the Isola d’Elba event in 1972, a European Championship round. She did not finish. At the same time, she was campaigning the car in European hillclimbs. She won the Italian women’s rally championship on at least one occasion.

Later, in 1980, she entered the Vallelunga 6 Hours with Bruno Bocconi in a Porsche 930, but did not qualify. In between, she did at least two seasons in the Renault 5 Cup, in 1976 and 1979. The second was as part of an all-female team with Caterina Baldoni and Nicoletta Mista. Ivana had started the season as the favourite for the Ladies’ Trophy, but Nicoletta proved faster.

(Image copyright Luigi Calamai)

Lilou Wadoux

 

Lilou Wadoux is a French driver who competes in sportscars and saloons. She is supported by the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission.

She raced a Peugeot 208 in a one-make series in France. She began in 2017, when she was only 16 years old and required special permission as she did not have a road traffic license. This was after only a couple of seasons of karting, mostly recreational.

In her first year, she was eighth in the Peugeot Sport championship, and second in the junior standings. Her second part-season in a Peugeot was in the 308 Racing Cup. She scored four to-ten finishes, with a best result of fifth at Paul Ricard. 

In 2018, she was one of 15 elite female drivers invited to Navarra for an assessment in both sportscars and single-seaters, held by the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission. 

She ended up competing in European TCR in 2019, driving a Peugeot 308, but her season ended after three rounds when she barrel-rolled her car at Spa. She had started reasonably well with a 19th place at the Hungaroring.

Later in the year, she made a couple of guest appearances in the French Clio Cup. The second of these yielded a third place at Paul Ricard.

Her 2020 season was based in the Alpine Elf Europa Cup, driving an Alpine A110. She was seventh in the championship after a steady season, with three fourth places as her best results. These were achieved at Magny-Cours and Portimao.

A second Alpine Cup followed in 2021. This time, Lilou was one of the front-runners from the start, finishing third and second at Nogaro. She earned podium finishes at every circuit the championship visited, five from the first eight races of the season. Her final position was third, after a debut win at Estoril which she followed up with a second place.

Her best moment of the year was probably her victory in the Porsche Sprint Challenge race that supported the Le Mans 24 Hours. This was a guest appearance.

Her Le Mans support victory was upgraded to an actual Le Mans 24 Hours start in 2022. She was signed up to the Richard Mille LMP2 team with Charles Milesi and the pair were joined by World Rally champion Sebastien Ogier for Le Mans. Driving the same Oreca-Gibson prototype as the rest of the field, Lilou had a best finish of eighth, achieved three times at Spa, Fuji and Bahrain. She was ninth at Le Mans itself. This equated to twelfth in a competitive championship.

She stayed with WEC in 2023, but moved with Richard Mille's sponsorship to an AF Corse-run LMGTE Ferrari 488. Her team-mates were Luis Perez Companc and Alessio Rovera. Their season got a shaky start with a non-finish at Sebring and their early exit from Le Mans was a disappointment, but a second place in class at Portimao and a class win at Spa helped them to eighth in the championship. 

Lilou and Luis made a guest appearance at Watkins Glen for the IMSA round there, driving an LMP2 car and finishing sixth in class. She also joined a different AF Corse line-up for the the Spa 24 Hours and the Barcelona round of the GT World Challenge Europe. She was 26th in the Spa race, in a Ferrari. A late-season entry into the Indianapolis GT World Challenge America race for the Conquest team did not go to plan and the team's Ferrari 296 did not complete enough laps to be classified.

Lilou's 2024 plans include competing in the Japanese Super GT championship for PONOS Racing, driving another 296.

(Image copyright Leandre Leber/Gazettesports.fr)