women in motorsports

📸: Oli Kearon 📝: Annabel Sampson, Dora Davis-Evitt, Isolde Walters

F1 Academy Drivers Alba Larsen (🇩🇰), Nina Gademan (🇳🇱), and Rachel Robertson (🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿) for Tatler Magazine’s August Issue. Written and Interviewed by Annabel Sampson, Dora Davis-Evitt, and Isolde Walters

30/04/2026

The best of frenemies. ❤️🖤

On the second and final testing on Silverstone, the girls had the track in mixed conditions after bidding goodbye to the guests from Girls on Track UK, and multiple student groups from the two days prior. Alisha Palmowski topped the times in both sessions, but comparitively was behind Ella Lloyd's top time from the day prior by .377 seconds, slim margins.

In the morning, early showers made for a wet track. With Palmowski, Lloyd and rookie Megan Bruce all claiming the top three in the morning.

Alba Larsen went 4th, with rookies Rachel Robertson, Payton Westcott, Ella Stevens and Lisa Billard all in line behind her. Championship leader Emma Felbermayr recovered after missing out on the top ten in Monday's morning session to go 9th, with Ava Dobson rounding out the top ten.

Afternoon rolled around with Alisha Palmowski beating her morning time to go 2:01.945, with her Campos teammate Megan Bruce behind her in P2 and the current top rookie Payton Westcott in P3.

Ella Lloyd, Emma Felbermayr, and Ava Dobson were right behind. Rachel Robertson from Mathilda Paatz in her highest result of the Silverstone test in 8th, followed by Nina Gademan and Alba Larsen rounding out the top ten, while the bottom 7 or 8 drivers are left up to mystery

Most clearly we can see the need for experience on this track. Despite weaker results in China, Megan Bruce is dialed in for Silverstone with three top four appearances across the two days of testing and high quality performances in GB4 with lots of Silverstone testing experience.

The rookie battle is consistently fascinating even with little data from the test itself, and it will be interesting to see what going to Montreal in a couple weeks will be like for the rookies and for the greater championship. Felbermayr, while struggling at Silverstone, was the standout star of Montreal in 2025 and going back to this familiar track may help her pull out ahead of her competition before Silverstone savants Ella Lloyd and Alisha Palmowski can make real championship challenges.

All really kicks off once again in Montreal, Canada for the 2nd round of the F1 Academy championship on May 22-24. And like last year there will be 3 races to enjoy across the weekend and plenty of action to prepare for

This weekend sees the kick off and continuation of a lot of great series featuring women in motorsport in almost every category you can think of! Good racing and good track time for women across the board! Heres the highlights of this upcoming weekend of where some up and coming drivers are competing and where prior graduates of F1 Academy are too!

Junior Formula Series

This weekend, Ligier JFC, Spanish F4 and F4 CEZ all kick their season off. Spanish F4 will see the proper full series debuts of Luna Fluxa Cross (COFTA-Senior Champion) and FIAWIM Rising Star Maria Neto after the two girls got their footing in the Spanish Winter Series. They join More Than Equal driver Zoe Florescu in the championship

F4 CEZ features a staggering seven female drivers, three of which currently are competing in F1 Academy - Mathilda Paatz in her 2nd year in the championship, Jade Jacquet, and Ava Dobson. This weekend will also be the highly anticipated debut of McLaren Development Driver Ella Hakkinen a former Discover your Drive competitor and the daughter of 2-time F1 World Champion Mika Hakinnen.

Meanwhile across the pond, Ligier JFC (in collaboration with FRAmericas and USF4) Launches this weekend as the only championship of the trio with female drivers competing. Ava Hanssen in her second year of the championship and Ella White in her debut in LJFC

Stock Racing

ARCA Menards Series West competes at Tuscon Speedway this weekend as their third event of the season. Jade Avedision, Mia Lovell and Hailie Deegan all try their hand at the speedway on different teams as the three female drivers of the series. It will be Lovell's series debut this weekend

Endurance Racing

The easier question to answer would be who ISNT racing in Endurance this weekend? Lets start with Le Mans Cup and European Le Mans Series. F1 Academy 2025 World Champion makes her series debut with Duqueine in LMP2 Pro/AM. She joins the company of former W Series competitor and Williams Academy advisor Jamie Chadwick who will race for IDEC in her 2nd year. Also on the ELMS grid is Lilou Wadoux in LMP3 for AF Corse. Working in tandem with ELMS is the Le Mans Cup's first round where 2023 F1 Academy graduate Lena Buhler is competing for R-Ace GP.

Carrie Schiener competes in the GT World Challenge Cup this weekend in Paul Ricard. Porsche Carrera Cup Asia enters its second round of the season at Zhuhai International Circuit where 2024 F1 Academy graduate Amna Al Qubaisi is competing in her second round of the championship after her successes the first time around in Shanghai and Chloe Chong is finally licensed to compete in the Nurburgring for NLS, with the 3rd weekend of the championship taking place this saturday

Alba Larsen in her Ferrari gear and one of her most iconic fits.