Inside Australia’s quest to supply the subsequent feminine Method 1 driver

Alana Gurney is flying. In her roaring crimson go-kart with a hot-pink quantity plate, the 12-year-old hurtles via Oakleigh Go Kart Racing Membership’s circuit at 100km/h.

It’s a dreary Tuesday afternoon and darkish storm clouds with sporadic drops of rain threaten to dampen the monitor, however Gurney will not be bothered. With screeching tyres, she roars down the straight – named after present Method 1 championship chief Oscar Piastri – and prepares to clock a brand new lap time earlier than her dad Ben waves her in.

Gurney obliges, turning into the garages and lifting her pink and neon yellow helmut – bedazzled with handmade triangular stickers.

“I used to be about to go sooner dad,” she complains.

Broadly recognised as one of many nation’s main feminine motorsport abilities within the junior league, Alana’s karting resume is affected by dozens of accolades, together with 2023 and 2024 Victorian Karter of the 12 months, Oakleigh Membership Champion and the winner of the celebrated 2025 Women Trophy – awarded to the highest-scoring feminine driver of the season.

In her debut season, Gurney positioned fourth out of 76 drivers within the Cadet 12 class of the Karting Australia championships.

The 12-year-old was poised for a podium end, however slipped off the monitor within the remaining spherical of the championships in Coffs Harbour.

“We had been aiming for a top-five end in my first 12 months so I’m nonetheless tremendous comfortable we achieved that,” Alana says. “Subsequent 12 months we’ll be even higher.”

One of many fastest-growing teams in motorsport, ladies and ladies now characterize greater than 15 per cent of all motorsport licence holders in Australia.

Alana and different junior racers together with Lana Flack, Charlotte Web page and Oceane Colangelo characterize a brand new wave of feminine drivers.

Alana’s father Ben, who doubles as her race mechanic, recollects his daughter being enamoured with dust karts from an early age.

“I had a sim at house with an F1 recreation and each morning, she’d play it and look via the steering wheel and check out her finest to succeed in the pedals along with her tiny toes,” he laughs.

“You ask her one thing about F1 and she or he’ll let you know who received again in 1982.”

The household saved up and acquired Alana a go-kart in 2021. The then eight-year-old received her second race meet.

“She received that race assembly in a clear sweep, it was insane,” Ben mentioned.

Since then, the Gurney household have grow to be a 24/7 pit crew, spending 85 per cent of their 12 months travelling to races throughout regional Australia of their caravan. Ben devotes hours to constructing engines of their yard shed and reuses outdated tyres and chassis, whereas mum Leanne and older sister Ella are answerable for the race calendar and social media.

Their dedication has paid off. In her four-year racing profession, Alana has amassed 98 trophies and has her sights set on knowledgeable profession in motorsport, ideally a prestigious Method 1 seat.

“I simply need to race the boys and win towards the boys,” she says..

“I like racing the boys as a result of after I beat them, they get actually upset and stuff, as a result of [there] ain’t no means a woman simply beat me.”

The Aussies vying to finish a 50-year F1 drought

As she waits for the crimson lights to extinguish at Marina Bay Avenue Circuit, Melbourne-born teenager Joanne Ciconte takes a deep breath.

Battling Singapore’s sweltering humidity, the 17-year-old driver sifts via the noise – the spectators, the opposite drivers and her engineer’s voice over the radio – earlier than settling right into a deep focus.

“After I get into the automobile, each noise round me simply blurs into silence and that’s simply because I’m so targeted,” she says. “We expertise excessive G-forces, going over 240 kilometres [per hour] and particularly at avenue circuits, the extent of focus is essential.”

Joanne and Aivia Anagnostiadis are two Australians racing within the F1 Academy – an all-female collection designed to offer a pathway into the single-seater pyramid to F3, F2 and eventually F1.

Launched in 2023, the academy options drivers between the ages of 16 and 25 and was just lately the topic of a Netflix docuseries F1: The Academy.

It’s the brainchild of managing director Susie Wolff – the final girl to take part in an F1 weekend. A improvement driver for Williams, Wolff drove in a number of F1 apply periods in Barcelona and Silverstone in 2015, however by no means raced in a grand prix.

The final girl to begin and race in a Method 1 grand prix was Lella Lombardi on the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix, almost 50 years in the past. Italian driver Giovanna Amati entered an F1 race in 1992, however didn’t qualify.

Because the grid’s youngest driver, Joanne is forthright about her ambitions to be Australia’s first feminine F1 driver.

Regardless of a rocky begin to her rookie 12 months, the 17-year-old just lately clinched eighth place at race 2 in Singapore.

Joanne grew up enjoying tennis, swimming and basketball and begged her dad to let her kart after watching her brother on monitor.

“I simply stored nagging my dad about me getting right into a go-kart however he assumed that I wouldn’t do it as a result of there weren’t any females in motorsport generally, it was so male-dominated,” Joanne says.

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“However that didn’t actually cease me, and I stored nagging him and finally that chance got here to me… I fell in love with it fully.”

{The teenager} received 2023 Australian Karting Championship Pink Plate earlier than transitioning to Central European Zone F4 Championship, Spanish F4 and Method Winter Collection.

Alana Gurney met Joanne and Aiva at Victorian race meets, describing them each as “the good individuals who had been at all times comfortable to talk.”

Being a task mannequin is one thing Joanne and Aiva are enthusiastic about.

“It’s superb to see the evolution of females in motorsport, as a result of again after I began, there was virtually no visibility,” Joanne says.

Aiva – who races for Hitech Grand Prix workforce – mentioned feminine position fashions may rework how younger drivers see themselves.

“If one woman watches a race and thinks, “I need to try this,” then that’s an enormous win for me,” she says. “I need to assist open doorways and present that there’s an actual pathway to skilled racing for girls.”

Karting Australia chief working officer Lee Hanatsche believes Australia is within the race to supply the subsequent feminine Method 1 driver inside the decade.

“There may be definitely lots of potential inside the present ranks,” he mentioned. “Australia is punching above their weight by way of the inhabitants in comparison with the variety of drivers which are that includes on the world stage, each in Method 1, in IndyCar, in GT racing all over the world.

“It’s not out of the query that Australia can have a younger feminine up there in F1.”

The value of a motorsport profession

On August 23, Queensland teenager Annabel Kennedy crossed the chequered flag at Madras Worldwide Circuit in Chennai, etching her identify in motorsport historical past books as the primary feminine to face on an Indian F4 podium.

Three days later, she was again in her grade 11 Brisbane classroom learning maths and english.

“I didn’t actually course of it at first,” Kennedy admits. “I didn’t realise I used to be the primary feminine till the announcer talked about it after I walked as much as the rostrum.”

{The teenager} received the celebrated Australian Pink Plate within the KA3 Senior Mild class in January and is eyeing a seat in F1 academy subsequent 12 months.

Kennedy is candid concerning the monetary obstacles, estimating her household has spent greater than $120,000 on racing abroad this 12 months, excluding lodging and journey prices.

Gurney’s household highlights the same problem; they spend hours on highway journeys to race meets throughout regional Victoria and lower your expenses by counting on outdated tyres.

The price of a motorsport profession will not be distinctive to ladies. Piastri’s father Chris has estimated his household, together with sponsors and corporations, invested between $5.5 million and $6.5 million into Piastri’s F1 dream.

However Ciconte says cash is without doubt one of the principal obstacles stopping ladies from purusing skilled careers in motorsport.

“Sponsorships and monetary backing virtually at all times went to the boys, again then it was tougher for a lady to safe the funding or backing to maneuver up the ladder,” she explains.

Motorsport Australia improvement supervisor Charlie Bowen mentioned attitudes had been slowly altering.

British Magnificence model Charlotte Tilbury introduced a partnership with the F1 Academy in 2024, to enchantment to F1’s skyrocketing feminine fan base.

“They [Charlotte Tilbury] made an actual funding in that sport as a result of they know, not solely are they feminine followers, it’s solely a matter of time earlier than we get a feminine driver,” Charlie says.

“Traders are seeing a golden alternative for themselves to interact with females in motorsport.”

“I at all times say motorsport is definitely genderless, as a result of the automobile doesn’t know is pushing the pedals,” she laughs. “It’s a level-playing discipline.”

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