Autosport’s 10 brightest female stars of 2024

The second season of the all-female F1 Academy championship was notable for having closer ties to Formula 1, as cars were decked out in the liveries of Grand Prix teams, and for the stunning dominance of its champion who curiously was crowned twice.

But across the spectrum of motorsport categories, there were numerous noteworthy performances to be found in 2024.

Here we chart 10 of the standouts from the season just gone.

Klara Andersson

6th in World RX

Second to Johan Kristoffersson in the opening round of the World RX championship at Holjes marked the best result yet for Klara Andersson in the discipline’s top flight. Taking to the rostrum again in Hungary also ensured this year was the 24-year-old’s most fruitful in terms of podium finishes.

Remaining with the CE Dealer Team alongside Niclas Gronholm for the championship’s new era, with the ‘Battle of Technologies’ concept allowing combustion Supercars powered by sustainable fuel to race against the returning electric-powered RX1e machines, Andersson had nabbed pole for the final by beating 2019 world champion Timmy Hansen in their semi-final. Although her electric PWR RX1e was beaten away from the line by Kristoffersson’s combustion Polo, she’s hardly the first driver to end up trailing the now seven-time world champion…

The Sunday podium in Nyirad also demonstrated Andersson’s tenacity after crashing out during Saturday’s semi-final. A decisive start after gambling on rain tyres in 30-degree temperatures put her in position to seize third after her joker with a piece of precision overtaking that earned her the FIA’s Action of the Year award at last week’s Kigali gala.

There were also outings for Timo Scheider’s new SUN Minimeal Team in Extreme E before the all-electric championship was cut short, including a dramatic roll across the finish line in Scotland.

Jamie Chadwick

7th in Indy NXT

Chadwick made history with the first female win on a street or road course in Indy NXT/Lights

Photo by: Penske Entertainment

Much was made of Chadwick’s Indy NXT victory at Road America back in June. It was a first in this series for a female driver since Pippa Mann’s win at Kentucky Speedway in 2010, and the first of all time on a road or street circuit. The only comparable predecessor was Katherine Legge’s three wins – all on road/street tracks – in the Champ Car-supporting Atlantic series in 2005.

That success came soon after Chadwick’s maiden NXT podium on the Indianapolis road course, and raised the clamour for the 26-year-old Briton, ensconced within the Andretti Global set-up, to graduate to IndyCar. So it’s a shame that across the remainder of the season she never attained another podium. In the end, her second season in NXT ended with seventh in the standings, while team-mate and compatriot Louis Foster dominated and earned a deserved IndyCar call-up for 2025.

But Chadwick fully deserves to be in the mix, and makes an interesting career change of direction for 2025. She will be competing alongside Williams F1 refugee Logan Sargeant in the LMP2 class of the European Le Mans Series with the Hyundai/Genesis project while the marque gears up for its World Endurance Championship Hypercar entry in 2026.

Rafaela Ferreira

4th in F4 Brazil

Ferreira’s performances have earmarked her as a potential emerging star

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

The Brazilian championship isn’t the most competitive Formula 4 series in the world, and Ferreira’s three race wins in 2024 all came in reversed-grid races, but there is reason to suggest that here is a talent who will be brought to wider notice next season.

The 19-year-old from Brasilia went under the radar in her rookie Brazilian F4 season in 2023, but remained with TMG Racing for this year and was quick out of the blocks. Impressively, she topped qualifying for the second round at Interlagos, and her qualifying time median (to minimise the effect of outlier sessions) average of 100.229% was far superior to any other female competing in mixed-gender F4 championships around the world – with the proviso that this was far from the strongest championship.

Consistency was impressive, with finishes in every single race lifting Ferreira to a solid fourth place in the championship. Her weakest weekend was arguably the support round to the Brazilian Grand Prix, but it didn’t matter too much – just days before, she had been announced as an F1 Academy driver as a protegee of the RB team.

Michelle Gatting

8th in World Endurance Championship (LMGT3), 4th in European Le Mans Series (LMGT3)

Gatting was often let down by luck in her campaigns with the Iron Dames

Photo by: JEP

Alternating between Porsche and Lamborghini machinery entered by the Iron Dames, Michelle Gatting again showcased her pace in 2024, although it wasn’t always backed up with the luck to match.

After being promoted to FIA Gold status, the Dane was at the forefront of the all-female entrant’s programmes in the World Endurance Championship, European Le Mans Series and IMSA SportsCar Championship.

There were no wins in the WEC, as various misfortunes followed the Dames. Water pump thwarted a victory bid at Interlagos, while contact derailed outings at Imola and COTA. There should have been more than a single victory in the ELMS, too.

After finger trouble with a wheelnut denied what appeared a likely win in Barcelona, another result was given up on the final lap of the Portimao finale; Gatting moving aside for Andrea Caldarelli’s sister Iron Lynx Lamborghini in a gesture that enabled its crew to win the LMGT3 title.

Anybody wondering if it had been a mistake clearly hadn’t been watching Gatting’s final stint performance to secure victory at Imola, which showed her superb defensive nous. Soaking up constant pressure from Valentin Hasse-Clot during the closing stint, she made the Porsche the widest machine in Italy and didn’t put a foot wrong – even saving a huge sideways moment on the flat-out blast to Tamburello while trying to cover off the dogged Frenchman.

The reward for her progress, which was underlined by a 20-lap pace average at Spa that was fourth fastest of all LMGT3 drivers in the WEC, was being recognised with Porsche-contracted driver status earlier this month, ahead of the Dames’ tie-up with reigning LMGT3 champions Manthey for next year.

Cristina Gutierrez

1st in Dakar Rally (Challenger)

A T3 victory in this year’s Dakar has provided Gutierrez a factory drive with Dacia Sandriders for 2025

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Although compatriot Carlos Sainz’s victory in the overall classification dominated the headlines, Cristina Gutierrez’s Challenger (T3) class success on the 2024 Dakar Rally also merited praise.

The Red Bull-backed Spaniard triumphed after mechanical trouble hit fellow Taurus driver Mitch Guthrie Jr on the final day. Gutierrez duly emulated Jutta Kleinschmidt in becoming just the second female winner of the world’s most famous rally raid event, continuing the under-appreciated tradition of rapid dentists established by the likes of Dick Thompson, Tony Brooks and Miguel Oliveira.

Gutierrez spent the curtailed Extreme E season alongside Mattias Ekstrom at McLaren and will race against the Swede, now with Ford, in January as part of the Prodrive-run Dacia Sandriders programme in the Cars category. Linking up with former Extreme E team-mate Sebastien Loeb and five-time Dakar winner Nasser Al Attiyah will be a huge opportunity for 33-year-old Gutierrez to achieve similar recognition.

Alisha Palmowski

2nd in GB4

Palmowski race-winning form in GB4 earned a wildcard entry in F1 Academy and a run in the Formula E all-female test

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

After a strong 2023 season in Ginetta Junior, Lancastrian Palmowski remained with Elite Motorsport to make the move into single-seaters with aplomb in the GB4 Championship.

It wasn’t simply a case of a female driver doing the business in the cockpit. Sarah Moore, who beat Tom Ingram, Jake Hill and others to the 2009 Ginetta Junior title, was brought in to engineer Palmowski by Elite’s husband-and-wife ex-Manor Formula Renault bosses Tony and Sarah Shaw – the latter of whom oversaw Alice Powell to the 2010 Formula Renault BARC crown.

Palmowski caused a stir by winning the opening race of the season at Oulton Park, and later in the season she took pole position and two victories at Snetterton. She remained firmly in title contention for much of the campaign, but neither she nor anyone else had an answer to the form of Linus Granfors. While the Swede took the crown, Palmowski edged Harry Burgoyne for the runner-up slot.

She was then called up to drive the Prema Racing-run wildcard entry for F1 Academy’s Qatar Grand Prix support round. A fifth-place finish on her first taste of the current Tatuus F4 car – GB4 was using the 2014 model – suggested that Palmowski deserves a full season. Red Bull obviously thought so, because she has been taken onto its Academy programme to join Ferreira and Chloe Chambers at Campos Racing.

Doriane Pin

2nd in F1 Academy

Pin was beaten by Abbi Pulling to the F1 Academy title as she transferred her form from sportscars to single-seaters

Photo by: Erik Junius

If Pin’s shift from the world of sportscars to single-seaters, and new patronage from the Mercedes F1 team, didn’t create enough pressure, then she hardly helped by winning a round of the Formula 4 UAE Championship from pole in Abu Dhabi in February. Granted, that victory came when the on-the-road winner was penalised, but she’d emerged atop a 34-car field that included drivers of the calibre of Freddie Slater!

All looked good for Pin and Prema Racing during the opening weekend of the F1 Academy series, supporting the Saudi Arabian GP. The Frenchwoman claimed pole position, won the first race, and was moral victor of the second but for a bizarre post-race penalty. But then Abbi Pulling got into her stride and left the rest to pick up the crumbs. Pin was a fairly clear runner-up in the standings, but took just two more wins: one at Zandvoort, the other in Qatar.

As well as outings back on more familiar territory in GT3, Pin also undertook a Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine campaign alongside 2023 F1 Academy champion Marta Garcia in the Prema-operated Iron Dames team. She generally had the measure of the Spaniard and was not too far from the points on the odd occasion.

Abbi Pulling

1st in F1 Academy

Pulling put together an all-conquering title charge in F1 Academy, dovetailing her season with a British F4 campaign

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

All told, Pulling’s F1 Academy campaign in 2023 had been a little disappointing, taking fifth in the points behind drivers she had been expected to beat. For 2024, she well and truly put that right.

This time around, the 21-year-old Brit dovetailed the F1 support series with a second programme with Rodin Motorsport, in the British F4 Championship. In a series she first contested back in 2020, she took a reversed-grid race win at Brands Hatch and finished up seventh in the points after missing two rounds that clashed with F1 Academy. But her best performance was arguably qualifying third and finishing second to the dominant Deagen Fairclough at Thruxton, a circuit that rewards finesse behind the wheel.

That Brands win added further to the attention being garnered by the Alpine F1 Junior, who went on to claim nine wins from 14 races in F1 Academy, and a 100% record of podium finishes. And bearing in mind the struggles of Pin and Garcia in Formula Regional this season, it will be interesting to see how she fares in 2025. This time around, the F1 Academy champion’s graduation is to GB3 with her existing team Rodin, which should mean as seamless a transition as it’s possible to get on the single-seater ladder.

Pulling also clocked the fastest time in Formula E’s all-female test at Jarama with Nissan.

Molly Taylor

2nd in Australian Rally Championship (Production Cup)

Wins in Extreme E and the Australian Rally Championship have earned Taylor a place on the list

Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images

Before the final Extreme E season was curtailed to allow for the series’ transition into the FIA Extreme H World Cup, Molly Taylor had won two X-Prix on the bounce alongside Veloce Racing team-mate Kevin Hansen. Following up their double podium in Saudi Arabia, the pair had edged ahead of Fraser McConnell/Laia Sanz (Acciona Sainz) and Johan Kristoffersson/Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky (Rosberg) with a dominant display in Scotland, putting Taylor in contention for a second title in the all-electric series.

But it’s not just the basis of four Extreme E rounds that have the 36-year-old in this list, in what was a good year for the Taylor family as mum Coral claimed her sixth Australian Rally Championship title as a co-driver to Harry Bates. Molly collected four class wins and finished second the ARC’s Production Cup, and reached the final on both occasions when she joined the RX2e field on the World RX undercard with the Hansen Motorsport-run #YellowSquad.

Lilou Wadoux

12th in Super GT (GT300)

Wadoux’s Super GT exploits were added to with a bit-part campaign in IMSA’s LMP2 catagory, which included a win

Photo by: Masahide Kamio

In her second year as a Ferrari factory driver, the French 23-year-old had an unfamiliar assignment; she’d take in a season of Super GT’s GT300 class aboard a 296 GT3 run by Nissan experts Gainer under the PONOS Racing banner. Having only previously raced at Fuji and with the car also new to both team and series, there was plenty to learn, but Wadoux acquitted herself well despite being among a minority on Michelin tyres.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Wadoux and Kei Cozzolino’s best result came in mixed conditions at Sugo. Once a safety car had wiped out the advantage Cozzolino had built, the drying track played in favour of the pursuing Bridgestone-shod LEON Mercedes but Wadoux drove well to finish second.

There were also four outings in the IMSA SportsCar Championship’s LMP2 class in an ORECA run by AF Corse, which included a victory at Watkins Glen – the first for a female driver in any IMSA category since 2018 – alongside Nicklas Nielsen and Luis Perez Companc.

Honourable mentions

Aside from Pulling and Pin, two other drivers won races in F1 Academy this year. Ferrari-linked Maya Weug switched from the Formula Regional European Championship to join Pin at Prema, and after seven podium finishes won the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi. Chloe Chambers made four rostrum visits, and inflicted Pulling’s second defeat of the season in Barcelona. The American will remain for a second year at Campos next season.

A new initiative from the World Rally Championship, the Beyond Rally Women’s Driver Development Programme, produced two standout talents who will go head-to-head at next year’s Rally Sweden to win a Junior WRC prize drive. Lyssia Baudet and Claire Schonborn impressed a jury of experts during a three-day training camp attended by Autosport in September and there was still little to split the pair following their WRC debuts at the Central European Rally.

Abbie Eaton impressed by winning outright in her first season in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB, placing fifth in the Pro-Am standings with Rebelleo Motorsport. The former W Series racer beat eventual champion George Gamble and tin-top ace Dan Lloyd to the flag at Silverstone, concluding a strong weekend in which she’d finished second to Charles Rainsford in the opener.

Also in Porsches, Isabell Rustad showed great promise by winning the Sprint Challenge Scandinavia GT3 title. Aged just 19, the Norwegian looks set to follow her father, 1998 British Touring Car Championship Independents’ king Tommy, into a motorsport career.

Karen Gaillard will also race a Porsche next year in the French Carrera Cup after the Iron Dames driver, who took a podium in the ELMS-supporting Le Mans Cup driving a Lamborghini Huracan, won the national junior scholarship.

Baudet and Schonborn have the chance to continue making waves in the rallying world as part of their prize drives

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool