Alice Powell: The First Female F1 Racing Driver?

Remember the name, because Alice Powell is set to be the first female F1 driver in modern times

18 May 2015

Alice Powell is breaking boundaries in motorsport. In 2010 she became the first woman to ever win a Formula Renault title - a highly competitive series that has helped the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen to F1 - and last year she became the first female to score a point in the GP3 series, a support championship to Formula 1.

Now, she's leading the F3 Cup championship, a budget UK-based series that puts 2.0-litre race cars head to head.

Image source: GP3 Media

Racing driver Susie Wolff is currently the closest a woman is to Formula 1 - holding the title of the Williams F1 Team development driver - but despite performing solidly at a recent test, she isn't tipped for a promotion.

That leaves Powell in the prime position to become the first female Formula 1 driver in 37 years - the last being Lella Lombardi who started 12 races between 1974 and 1976. Here, in an exclusive interview, we dig deeper into the mind of a future great.

Where it all began

Alice Powell (GBR) Hillspeed Formula Renault

Image Source: Jakob Ebrey

"I started in motorsport when I was eight years old. I had always been a fan of racing; I was watching it on the television when I was three or four years old. No one in my family participated in motorsport; it was just me that took up the interest.

My family are interested in it but my mum and dad wouldn’t go out of their way to watch a Grand Prix. I worked my way up through the level of karts from the age of eight and moved into cars with the Ginetta Juniors championship at the age of 15."

Who do you look up to?

Image Source: Vodafone McLaren Mercedes

"I used to be a huge Michael Schumacher fan. My parents always remind me that I always used to get upset and cry when I was young if Schumacher didn’t win or finish. I don’t get like that now obviously. Now, I support the Brits. I’m patriotic like that. So I cheer for Lewis, Jenson and Paul. I also train at the Lotus F1 Team so I support their two drivers as well."

What's the Ginetta series like?

"It’s still really competitive and I think the Ginetta Junior championship is a really good championship for anyone who wants to come up from karting. Karting is becoming more and more expensive now; I don’t do too much karting, but compared to when I started out in karting, the prices have probably doubled so there are more kids who want to step up a lot earlier.

I think that’s good because they are getting experience racing on circuits that they may do when they move up to other championships and they are also getting used to handling a race car too."

You're the only woman to win the Formula Renault BARC. What has that meant to you?

Image source: Jakob Ebrey

"It's really good to have that title and to be able to say that I have won and that I’m the only female to do so. I think winning a championship these days is good but it doesn’t make as big a difference anymore. You’ve just got to look at one example, Robin Frijns who has won GP2 races and has won every title that he has raced in but he isn’t in GP2 now as he doesn’t have the funding.

It just shows that, yes he won those championships and yes, I won the BARC Renault series but I’m still struggling to get the funding to race."

What's the news on women in F1?

Image Source: GP3 Media

"There's definitely more interest coming through now. The doors have been shut in the past for females wanting to step up into Formula 1. But obviously Susie Wolff has done really well to get the breakthrough of driving at the Young Driver Test for Williams.

There are more females taking the roles of mechanics too; here at my F3 Cup team Mark Bailey Racing, for example, we have a female data engineer. You’ve got Monisha Kaltenborn at Sauber as their Team Principal and Claire Williams at the Williams team as Deputy Team Principal."

What's your goal this season?

"The aim is to win the title, but we’ve been set back a little bit. We had a good start to the season and then after that we had a number of set-backs with problems with my car. We had to swap cars for two weekends and this weekend I’m back in my original car."

Are you hoping to move up to GP2 or Formula Renault 3.5 soon?

Image Source: GP3 Media

"I think either GP3 or World Series by Renault would be the next step. It’s obviously down to getting the right management behind you, getting the right team behind you and obviously with all of that comes the right level of funding.

Serious motorsport is one of those sports where yes, you can be talented but if you don’t have the funding to progress then it’s going to be very tough to move up the ladder."

What car do you currently drive?

"I drive a 2005 Renault Megane. It’s a good car, I got it second hand back in March when my 1998 Renault Clio - with just shy of 180,000 miles on it - decided that it was going to fail its MOT and cost £600 to repair, so I thought there was no point keeping it."

Money no object, what would it be?

"I did a day for Mercedes in Cheltenham and they let me drive a few of the cars from the AMG range, like the CLS and stuff like that. I have to say, that was a nice car. Maybe I would just get an Aston Martin and a Mercedes. Why not? If money is no option – I might as well have them both."

Did you pass your driving test first time?

"Yes. I had one and a half lessons and I studied my book to make sure that I passed all of the written theory stuff. Luckily I passed first time but I didn’t tell anyone I was taking my driving test, just in case I didn’t pass it."