Anna van Vredenburch Limburg-Stirum

Anna on the 1950 Monte

Anna von Vredenburch Limburg-Stirum was a Dutch rally driver who competed under her birth name, and as the Countess Limburg-Stirum. She won the Coupe des Dames in the 1949 Monte Carlo Rally and entered the classic alpine event six times.

Born in 1914, she first competed in rallying before and after the Second World War, starting when she was in her twenties. Her first attempt at the Monte Carlo Rally seems to have been in 1937, co-driving a Ford as Miss van Vredenburgh. The Countess Limburg-Stirum was recorded as her navigator and was probably a relative of her future husband. They were fourth in the Coupe des Dames rankings. Two years later, in the last pre-war Monte, she and the Ford were 25th overall, tied with Mrs AC Lace. In between, still in a Ford, Anna had come 85th in the 1938 Monte.

Anna married Frans Willem Van Limburg Stirum in 1946. He also competed in the Monte at least twice, driving Ford cars.

On her return to rallying, she was twelfth in the 1949 Monte, and won the Coupe des Dames, still in a Ford. Her navigator was Miss Van Vredenburch, who may have been her younger sister, Elisabeth. Their start point was Monte Carlo itself.

The Ford was brought out again for the 1950 Monte. The Countess got to the finish in 131st place, assisted by Mrs. Stahl Wytema. In April of that year, she was part of a Dutch four-woman team in a big American-styled Ford Vedette, in the Tulip Rally. One of the other drivers was Miss Vredenburch, possibly Elisabeth, who had been part of the team the year before.

She had one more go at the Monte in 1951 with Mrs Stahl-Wytema, but their Ford didn't make it to the end.

Anna was part of two major Dutch aristocratic families. Research into her personal life is made difficult by the number of "Countess Limburg Stirums" who existed at roughly the same time. They include ladies in waiting to the Dutch queen and cookbook writers. Some of the Limburg Stirum family was related, by marriage, to Audrey Hepburn, through her mother.

She died in 1999.

(Image copyright Alamy)

Brittany Vorster

Brittany Vorster is a former international Formula Three driver from South Africa. She showed some early promise, but her career stalled at Formula Three level.

She competed in single-seaters in South Africa in 2010, after travelling to Brazil for the first running of the Brazil Open. Her preparations for the event were the first time she had been in a Formula 3 car and she did not qualify. Her South African results are not forthcoming. 

Prior to this, she raced in Formula GTi in South Africa, and was fifth in the 2008 championship after three podium finishes. She went to America late in the season to try out for the Skip Barber karting scholarship, which would have won her a season in Star Mazda in 2009. Her opponents included Conor Daly and Josef Newgarden.

Her first experiences in South America were the following year instead; she was part of a six-driver team for the Granja Viana 500 kart race. Among her rivals were Felipe Massa, Lucas di Grassi, Rubens Barrichello, Tony Kanaan and Ricardo Zonta. She and her team were 26th overall. Massa and di Grassi were part of the winning squad.

She apparently signed with the Prop Car team for the 2010 Formula 3 Sudamericana Lights championship, but it isn't clear how many races she actually did.

A serious accident at the end of the 2010 season meant that she decided to retire. 

Before that, she was active on the karting scene, both nationally and internationally, from 2005. She won the Northern Regions Kart Club DD2 class championship in 2006. Away from motorsport, she was also a model.

Away from the track, she was a model and TV personality. 

(Image from https://continental-circus.blogspot.com/)

Alba Larsen

Alba Hurup Larsen is a Danish single-seater driver currently racing internationally in F4.

She came to prominence when she joined the all-female F1 Academy in 2025, driving for MP Motorsport in a Tommy Hilfiger-sponsored car. She was only 16 years old and this was her first full season in cars. 

Alba's family were friends with Jan Magnussen and his family and she was close to his two younger children growing up. Naturally, this led to an interest in motorsport and to competitive karting from the age of twelve. She travelled around the world to race and won a junior championship in New Zealand in 2023.

She got her big break with the FIA Girls on Track scheme, also in 2023, when she was selected from hundreds of girls who had taken part in Girls on Track events. The assessments included a kart slalom course. The final test for the chosen drivers was timed laps in an F4 car, which was difficult for her as she had never driven anything with a clutch before. She managed another round of testing and assessment despite being unwell.

In 2024, she began her senior career in F4 India, also run by MP, driving for the Speed Demons Delhi team. She did the first two rounds at Madras and Chennai. Chennai was the better circuit for her and she was sixth and eighth. 

During the winter season, she competed in the Formula Winter Series, for the first three rounds. Her best finish was fourteenth at Aragon and she was 32nd overall. 

Her first F1 Academy season began well, qualifying third at Shanghai, but she was not always able to convert pace into results, particularly at Shanghai when she was penalised for colliding with Emma Felbermayr. Her best results were two fourth places in the first and last rounds of the year, at Shanghai and Las Vegas. She was seventh overall. 

Away from F1 Academy, she raced in British F4 for about two-thirds of the season. This proved more challenging, and she could only manage two eleventh places at Silverstone and Thruxton as her best finishes. She was 23rd overall.

For 2026, she was selected as the Ferrari representative driver in F1 Academy, still with the MP squad. She had joined the Ferrari Driver Academy a couple of months earlier. 

Her racing year began with a part-season in the UAE F4 championship, driving for Evans GP. She did the first three rounds, held at Yas Marina and Dubai, with a best finish of tenth, at the Abu Dhabi circuit. Her 22nd position in the championship was the second-best performance in her team.

The 2026 F1 Academy season was disrupted by war in the Middle East, which meant the second round in Saudi was cancelled. Alba qualified second for the first race of the year at Shanghai, but it was a reverse grid and she crashed into Felbermayr again. She did better in the feature race, finishing eighth after a good start.

From a very early stage in her career, Alba has supported other girls wanting a career in motorsport. Her Alba Academy was set up to do this.

(Image copyright F1 Academy)

Natya Soodeen

Natya Soodeen is a rally driver from Barbados who started competing seriously in 2020. After a debut at Vaucluse Raceway in 2019, her first rally was delayed due to the coronavirus crisis. She managed to spend time training in Sweden and the USA before the King of the Hill Rally in October.

Her car was a BMW 318 Compact E36 and she was entered into the Barbados championship’s BimmaCup. Co-driven by Justin Sisnett all season, her best finish was a 24th place in the BRC Winter Rally. She was third in the BimmaCup. Her first entry into the Sol Rally Barbados ended early on, as she rolled her car.

In 2021, she concentrated on rallysprints in Barbados. Her best overall finish in the BMW was 21st, in the MCBI/BRC Sprint. As well as rallies, she won a national autocross championship.Away from active competition, she was elected head of the Women in Motorsport committee for Barbados.

In 2022, she rallied the BMW quite extensively in Barbados, with a best finish of 21st in the BRC Winter Rally. She had a new navigator in Tammy Nelson, having wanted to compete with a woman co-driver earlier. Sadly, she did not finish the Sol Rally Barbados again.

She got rid of the Sol Rally Barbados albatross in 2023, taking the BMW to 39th overall with Sameisha Williams.  It was an exciting year for her; she scored her first top ten in a single-venue stage rally in Barbados, and she also had her first overseas event. The Martinique Rally Tour was part of the French championship and she was fourteenth overall, winning the ladies' award.

She continued to compete extensively in 2024, aking the BMW to Martinique again. This time, it developed mechanical problems and she retired on stage 13, near the end of the second leg. She and Sameisha finished the Rally Barbados again, in 58th place, not helped by a penalty.The BRC Winter Rally was her best event again and she was 25th.

After so long with the BMW, it must have been a big change to switch to Peugeot power at the start of 2025. Natya's new car was a Peugeot 208 R2. She had an inauspicious start, failing to finish the season-opening BRC Shakedown Rally. The reason was prosaic; she was having trouble depressing the clutch fully. A month later, clutch pedal adjusted, she was finishing Rally Barbados, in 48th place from 67 finishers. She was then 18th in Martinique.

A series of class wins in sprint events in Barbados followed, leading to a class championship at the end of the year. She brought the BMW out again for the BRC Winter Rally, but did not finish.

She continued to rally the Peugeot in 2026.

Before turning to motorsport, Natya represented both Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago in equestrian events until she was suspended by sporting authorities, for reasons that were never made clear.

(Image coypright Natya Soodeen)