Laia Sanz

 

Laia with Carlos Sainz

Laia Sanz races in Extreme E for Carlos Sainz's team, 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 was the Italian Maurizio Gerini. They were 15th in the Car class.

Back in Extreme E, Laia partnered Jamaican driver Fraser McConnell. They won the second Desert E-Prix and were second in both Hydro races, finishing second overall in the final Extreme E championship.

The same pairing as 2024 entered the 2025 Dakar, driving for the Century Racing Factory Team, but they had to retire on the second stage.

Mid-season, she rejoined the Sainz Extreme E team for the Final Lap, the championship's last event before becoming Extreme H. Laia and Fraser McConnell were fourth and eighth in their two races.

(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.

At the end of 2025, she briefly came out of retirement to race Formula Ford at the Walter Hayes Trophy, at Silverstone. She ran well in her heat but was taken out in a collision.

(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.

Her 2024 season was split between the US and Japan. Driving for the Ponos team, she was part of a two-driver squad for Super GT, using a Ferrari 296 in the GTEAm class. It was a year of reliable finishes, but nothing spectacular, with sixth being her best finish, at Suzuka. She and team-mate Kei Cozzolino were twelfth overall.

In the States, she joined up with Richard Mille again for some rounds of the IMSA championship. Sharing an LMP2 prototype with Luis Perez Companc, Nicklas Nielsen and Matthieu Vaxiviere, she won the third round at Watkins Glen. This came after finishes at Daytona and Sebring. She returned for the final round at Petit Le Mans at was sixth in class.

At the end of the year, it was announced that Lilou would be racing in Japan, in the Super GT championship. However, this did not pan out and she withdrew before the first round. Instead, she joined the Richard Mille-sponsored AF Corse team, driving their Ferrari in the European Le Mans Series. Her team-mates were Riccardo Agostini and Custodio Toledo. It was a good year for them and they were second in the LMGT3 class, with class wins at Paul Ricard and Silverstone. At Le Mans itself, they were eleventh in class and 43rd overall.

AF Corse also ran cars in IMSA that year, and this time Lilou was in the sister car to her ELMS team-mates, driving alongside Simon Mann, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Kei Cozzolino. They were 24th in the GTD class, but that didn't tell the whole story. It was a part-season, and Lilou led her team-mates to a class win at Petit Le Mans, the season finale. They were 26th overall and ahead of several GTD Pro cars.

(Image copyright Leandre Leber/Gazettesports.fr)

Jade Paveley

 

Jade Paveley is a British rally driver and motorsport broadcaster, often seen in a Subaru Impreza.

Although she is probably best known for her rallying, she began her career on the circuits. Her first year of competition was in 2010, aged seventeen. She was racing in Britcar, in a Mazda UK Mazda MX-5 run by Jota Motorsport. Her usual team-mate was David Hooper. The car was lacking in power compared to others in its class, so Jade was unable to challenge for outright or even class wins, but she became the youngest person to finish a 24-hour race at the season-ending Britcar 24 Hours at Silverstone. 

In 2011, her actual racing programme was quite limited, although she did try out some other roles within motor racing. She tested with the Lotus F1 team as a crew member, and also crewed for the Mazda team during the Valencia 6 Hours. In return, she drove for Mazda in the Snetterton 12 Hour race and was second overall, first in class. 

She also entered some MX-5 Cup races as a Mazda guest driver. As well as this, she undertook various pieces of media work, including captaining a driving squad for a TV show. 

This approach continued in 2012: she was based in Ireland for some Formula Ford races with the Murphy Prototypes team, mainly working as a development driver. She also drove a Mazda prototype at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and undertook some other testing. 

In 2013, she was linked with a Mini Challenge drive, which does not seem to have happened. She drove in some club events including the Birkett 6-Hour Relay, but it is here that she takes the rally path. Her first event was the Toyota Harlech Stages, driving a Ford Fiesta. She was 32nd overall. She also tried co-driving for her father Dave and for Steve Hopewell, but chose the driving seat.

In 2014, she switched full-time to rallying. She competed around the UK in a Subaru Impreza and a Mitsubishi Lancer, with a best finish of fifteenth, in the Glyn Memorial Stages. The Lancer belonged to Dave, who had previously competed in it since about 2007.

She continued to rally the Impreza in 2015, and was an impressive ninth in the Toyota Harlech Stages. 

In 2016, she did not enter as many events, but kept competing in her father’s Lancer. Despite another short season in 2017, she was sixth in the SMC Stages, in this car, a career-best result. 

She was back rallying an Impreza in 2018 Welsh Tarmac rallies and earned three top-twenty finishes, on her way to a Welsh junior title. The best of these was a 15th place in the Rali Cwm Gwendraeth. This improved to a twelfth place in the 2019 Gareth Hall Memorial Rally. 

Although she did relatively few competitive rallies in 2019, she was quite active in demonstration events for Jaguar. She was brought in to drive their one-off F Type rally special at events including the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Opportunities for rallying were limited in 2020 due to coronavirus, but she did two events in two different cars, the Impreza and a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III in which she was thirteenth in the Rali Adfer Coedwigoedd Cymru. This was her first gravel rally and her father navigated for her.

The enforced layoff took Jade in a new direction, however. She launched the Motorsport Now podcast and developed her broadcasting career. In 2021 she has reported on the World Rally Championship. She combined this with some outings in the Impreza, including a twelfth-place finish in the Gareth Hall Memorial Rally.

Another new challenge for her was joining the Excite Rally Raid team for the British Cross Country Championship. She and her two co-drivers won their class at the Parkwood rally raid. The team is preparing for a future Dakar entry. 

Her media career continued in 2022, with stage-end reporting at several WRC events. Her off-road adventures were curtailed by the cancellation of hte British Cross Country series, but she still managed some stage rallies in the Impreza. She did two events at the Epynt ranges in Wales, with a best finish of 27th in the Dixies Challenge Rally.

The Impreza was not forgotten in 2023: it came out for the Three Shires and Lee Holland Memorial Stages.

Apart from demonstration events, she did one rally in the Impreza in 2025, the Alan Healy Memorial event at Cadwell. She did not finish. Later in the year, she announced that she was pregnant.

(Image copyright Jade Paveley)

Nathalie Maillet

 

Nathalie Maillet was a successful club racer from the 2000s onwards, as well as becoming the chief executive of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

She only earned her racing license aged 33, in 2004. When she was younger, she concentrated on her growing career as an architect. Despite growing up in a motorsport-oriented family, she never got to compete herself as a teenager and then her studies took over.

Success came fairly quickly. She was the 2006 Belgian VW Fun Cup champion and also won that year's Fun Cup 25 Hour race. 

She won a second Fun Cup 25 Hours with the Dubois Racing team in 2008. The same team, comprising Nathalie, Ronnie Dubois and Benoit de Keijser, entered some Belgian Touring Car rounds, with midfield results. 

The same team raced an Audi A4 silhouette in the BTCS in 2009 and 2010, and won at least one round. They won the Spa 12 Hours in 2009. In 2011, Nathalie used the same car in the BTCS for three races. 

In 2012, she contested the Euro RACECAR series, a European version of NASCAR. She was twelfth overall with one top-ten finish: eighth at Spa. 

RACECAR became the NASCAR Whelen Euroseries in 2013. Nathalie was twelfth overall again, with two eleventh places. In 2014, she drove a Toyota Camry in the Euroseries and had a best finish of sixth, achieved at the Nürburgring and Le Mans. She was twelfth in the Elite 2 category. 

She did not race in 2015, although she continued to be involved through management. This had begun with the Racing Club Partners team in the Euroseries. She was also the organiser of the American Festival Finals event.

In 2016, she was named as the new director of Spa-Francorchamps. 

Nathalie was from France but lived and worked in Belgium. She was murdered at home in August 2021 by her former husband Franz Dubois. She was 51.

(Image copyright Euro NASCAR)

Caterina Baldoni

 

Caterina (second left) with her Aseptogyl team-mates

Caterina Baldoni is an Italian race and rally driver now more famous for her glamorous image than for her results.

She was part of one of the later incarnations of Team Aseptogyl in the late 1970s, when it was associated with Fiat, and with Italian drivers. It was Aseptogyl which brought her in to rallying.

In 1978, she is recorded as having taken part in the Quattro Regioni Rally in Italy, in a Fiat 128. Her navigator was Cristina Bertone. At the end of the year, she was part of a three-car Aseptogyl entry for the Rally Valle d’Aosta. Thirty-sixth placed Margarita Corio was the team’s leading finisher, with Caterina in 45th. Maurizia Baresi did not finish.

She remained with the team for another season in 1979. Luisa Zumelli partnered Caterina for that year’s Citta di Modena Rally and the San Marino Rally, which was their better event and gave them a 45th place.

After moving away from the declining Aseptogyl setup in 1980, she rallied a Jolly Club Autobianchi A112 in a one-make series in Italy. Her best result was 33rd in the Sanremo Rally.

Prior to her Aseptogyl adventures, she raced an Alpine R5 on the circuits, with limited success. Her circuit career overlapped with her time on the stages; she was part of an all-female Renault 5 team with Ivana Giustri and Nicoletta Misto. She does not appear to have done the whole season.

She had been interested in cars from a young age and performed some of her own mechanical work on her Fiat 500.

Her nickname was “The Pink Panther” due to her pink cars. It was occasionally hinted that she had some involvement with Gianni Agnelli of Fiat, which she never confirmed or denied.

Before and during her time as a rally driver, she worked as a model, which gained her considerable media attention. In the early 1980s she won the TV quiz show “Flash”, with her specialist subject being Enzo Ferrari. 

She later married and was known as Caterina Taglliatest.