The 17-year-old from Glossop wants to fight for GB4’s title on her single-seater debut then head to F1 Academy
My preparations for my debut GB4 season, starting this weekend at Oulton Park, are going really well. After two years in Ginetta Junior I’m making the transition into single-seaters, and it’s around 30 seconds a lap quicker in a single-seater, so it’s a huge step. I’m very much just learning, getting to grips with the GB4 car and every time I go out
I pick up something new.
My aim for this year is to be a championship contender fighting for wins and podiums. There’s some great competition out there, such as Harry Burgoyne at KMR Sport along with others. So it won’t be easy at all, but we love a challenge so I’m really determined to try and do the best job I can. I’ve got a great team behind me with Elite Motorsport, so it really should be a great year and I’m looking forward to it.
One of the biggest differences from Ginetta Junior is being on slick tyres rather than road tyres, and the tyre warm-up routine we’ve got to learn. And all that downforce and extra grip compared to the Junior has made it quite a challenge, it’s monumentally different. But I’m really enjoying it, and we’re still learning but chipping away at it each session and making progress.
Also the Ginetta Junior has set me up so well. Being on those road tyres, they’re an extremely loose car, so it’s equipped me with great car control that I can translate directly into the single-seater. It set me up fantastically and we’ve got to grips with the GB4 quite quickly. It’s so far, so good.
Elite Motorsport is fantastic. I joined the team last year for my second year in Ginetta Junior and I progressed as a driver massively. I was a completely different driver who ended the year compared to who started the year.
I’ve had huge support from Chris Hodgetts last year and continuing into this year, plus this year Sarah Moore’s going to be my engineer and driver coach, and there’s team manager Eddie Ives who’s been a great support. So it’s a great group of people. I’m really comfortable within the environment; I’ve got great relationships with everybody in the team.
We looked at GB4 and making the transition with Elite because it was a natural next step in my career and along the motorsport ladder. Then Eddie and the team at Elite decided to get Sarah involved and we’re working really well. She’s got loads of experience under her belt, so it’s great to learn from her.
For my longer-term ambitions, I would just really love a successful career in motorsport, whatever that may be. Monday to Friday, nine to five, coming to a race track rather than being sat behind a desk, that would be my dream.
My immediate aim is F1 Academy for next year. There’s a lot of factors involved in that, but it’s great that GB4 organiser MotorSport Vision and Jonathan Palmer announced prize money for the highest-placed female towards an F1 Academy drive for next season. So that’s going to really give me even more determination to go for it this year and to make that happen next year for F1 Academy. But my job remains constant, I’m just going to go out there and drive as best as I can and whatever happens happens.
I’m open to any opportunity in the future. For the immediate future we’ve picked the single-seater route because of the F1 Academy link and then beyond that it really depends how I feel, if I’m still enjoying it, what budget we have and what’s available to us. I’ve got a really open mind.
I’ve always grown up with the influence of motorsport. My great grandad, Marian Palmowski, was a BriSCA F1 stock car racing driver. I never actually met him, but I’ve always grown up with Formula 1 on the TV and that sort of thing. But with there being no females in F1 or anything like that I didn’t ever think it was an avenue for me to come into racing. I can’t say I was sad about that, I just didn’t realise that that was even a thing we could do.
But then in the six-week school holidays when I was eight or nine years old my grandparents took me for an arrive-anddrive karting session at a local indoor track. Admittedly I wasn’t that quick, but I absolutely loved it and was hooked straight away. We haven’t looked back since.
“My aim this year is to be a title contender fighting for wins and podiums”