More Than Equal has launched their first driver development program and this week in the Driver Development Roundup I have all the details. I also have news on the shortlist for the 2025-26 IMSA Diverse Driver Development Scholarship, a new partnership between the Skip Barber Racing School and Margay Racing and how the Formula E rookie test benefits both drivers and teams. All this and much more in this week’s edition of the Driver Development Roundup on Motorsport Prospects.
More Than Equal has announced its initial driving cohort for a female-focussed driver development program. The organization, founded by 13-time grands prix winner David Coulthard and entrepreneur Karel Komarek, announced its inaugural cohort featuring six female drivers aged between 13 and 14 — Ivonn Simeonova (Austria), Katrina Thung (Malaysia), Kristýna Kalistová (Czech Republic), Lana Flack (Australia), Laura Bubenová (Slovakia), and Skye Parker (United Kingdom).
“Our drivers will benefit from a programme that has been designed with female athletes in mind from the very start, when too often girls have had to navigate programmes and systems in motorsport that were built entirely for boys,” said Ali Donnelly, More Than Equal’s CEO, in the press release. “Our programme will be highly relevant to young female drivers with potential, applying the latest in sports science to their age and gender.”
More Than Equal’s goal is to “find and develop the first female F1 world champion,” and this includes addressing the barriers to entry women face in motorsports: stereotypes, lack of financial sponsorships and the gender performance gap. Increasing grassroots participation is one step towards that goal, building off of its “Inside Track” report from last year.
Four more drivers, who will “benefit from further development before joining the full programme” were selected for More Than Equal’s Driver Preparation Programme. According to the announcement, these drivers are younger than 13 years old and come from Italy, Japan, Poland, and the United Kingdom.
Meanwhile, Motorsport Week sat down with More Than Equal Board Member and Strategic Advisor Kate Beavan. Beavan boasts over 20 years of experience in F1’s legal, licensing and GSR projects and is the perfect person to help More Than Equal navigate what is a male-dominated arena.
“I remember having a conversation with the BBC and saying to them, ‘well, you know, you didn’t cover women’s sport, you didn’t show any women’s sport, and they said, ‘well, because we didn’t think anyone would watch it.’ And I was like, ‘well, they’re watching it now.’ So it’s a little bit of chicken and egg, isn’t it? You need people to believe in it and invest in it and cover it and then it will help it rise in popularity and all the good commercial stuff that comes from that.”
The field has been narrowed to nine finalists for the 2025-26 IMSA Diverse Driver Development Scholarship. The recipient, to be named later this year, will receive benefits worth more than $250,000 to assist them in competing in an IMSA owned and operated series starting next season.
The IMSA Diverse Driver Development Scholarship promotes and empowers drivers from a variety of backgrounds and experiences to participate in an IMSA series. The scholarship includes substantial financial assistance from IMSA and several of its corporate partners, as well as other industry resources, to elevate drivers from diverse backgrounds. The recipient uses this assistance to compete in a full season of competition in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge or the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge, with additional benefits extending to a second year of racing for that selected recipient.
The nine finalists for the fourth annual IMSA Diverse Driver Development Scholarship were selected from a pool of candidates who submitted their applications starting in February. The list of finalists consists of six men and three women, five of whom were finalists in past years. Listed in alphabetical order with hometown, here are the 2025-26 finalists (*-designates a finalist in a previous year). You can see the full list here.
Speaking of IMSA, RAFA Racing Club has signed a multiyear agreement with IMSA, with the partnership focusing initially on the IMSA Diverse Driver Development Scholarship program, encouraging and promoting those with demonstrated racing aptitude to advance their careers.
Through the partnership with IMSA, RAFA will enhance the IMSA Diverse Driver Development Scholarship that awards an annual two-year scholarship for an up-and-coming driver to race in an IMSA owned and operated series. Among the benefits that RAFA will add to the scholarship program are $25,000 in financial assistance to each recipient, as well as leading an e-learning module for all scholarship finalists. In the future, recipients will have the opportunity to train at the club’s Human Performance Center.
“Our mission at RAFA Racing Club is to make motorsports accessible to all, and especially to help those with the talent to reach the top levels of racing achieve their goals,” said Martinez, founder of RAFA Racing Club. “The IMSA Diverse Driver Scholarship program aligns with that vision, pushing racing ability above financial means. We’re proud to be a part of this program, not just once but for a number of years into the future as these great racers join us to Race As Family Always.”
The Skip Barber Racing School has unveiled a new partnership with Margay Racing and their spec Ignite Karting program. As part of this partnership, Skip Barber Racing School will integrate elements of its longtime partnership with IMSA (International Motor Sports Association), including access to IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship events to select drivers in Ignite Karting.
“Driver training and development is at the heart of everything we do at the Skip Barber Racing School,” SBRS Chief Marketing Officer Dan DeMonte said. “Our schools, private coaching programs, and Skip Barber Race Series have been producing champions for half a century. Through our partnerships with both Margay and IMSA, we are creating a path that identifies prospective talent, extracts that potential, and allows them to flourish on the global motorsports’ stage.”
Motorsport UK announced a partnership with Nottingham Trent University and the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS) to offer a fully-funded PhD position, focusing on talent development across motorsport and other sports. The researcher will work closely with Motorsport UK’s Academy Team, encouraging more aspiring girls into karting, exploring talent development across a range of environments, including what it takes to be an elite athlete and how best to support and develop these candidates.
Katie Baldwin, Head of Competitor Development, Motorsport UK, comments, “Understanding the pivotal role that sports science plays on athlete development is not only fundamental for our coaching programmes, but also working alongside Nottingham Trent University and TASS will enable us to knowledge share and ultimately ‘road test’ what works to create healthy talent development. This is also a crucial period for us as the bulk of existing research, which is limited as it is, is on male athletes, so this programme will enable us to better understand the requirements of female athletes.”
Interested applicants can find out more via this link
BlackBook Motorsport sat down with ex-Formula One engineer Rob Smedley to discuss the reasons motorsport has historically fallen short on gender equality, what initiatives are being implemented to rectify that, and why lowering the barriers to entry will help improve representation.
“There’s a lot of debate as to whether females can ever actually make it in Formula One, and I think the community as a whole has a responsibility to prove that one way or another,” Smedley explains. “If people like me who are evangelists of females in motorsport are wrong, there’s no problem with that – but let’s try and prove it first. Let’s find the best [drivers] that we possibly can, put them in Formula One, and see if they can compete.”
As I mentioned last week, there is much debate on how best to develop female race drivers. Forbes looks at how the F1 Academy is revolutionizing Formula 1 racing.
“Sometimes in life, you just need to see it to believe it,” says Susie Wolff, Managing Director of F1 Academy, on the transformative power of visible role models in the traditionally male-dominated world of motorsports. Her words, shared at the recent Women Who Rokt Summit at the Miami Grand Prix, are emblematic of a broader shift within the sport— the growing recognition of the need for greater gender equality and representation. This changing tide is at the heart of F1 Academy’s mission to revolutionize motorsport and inspire a new generation of female talent.”
Speaking of F1 Academy, the series has revealed it will get the Drive to Survive treatment as Netflix announces a new docuseries about the all-female racing series.
Managing Director of F1 Academy, Susie Wolff, said: “We want to be the rocket fuel that drives female participation in our sport, both on and off the track. To have the F1 Academy docuseries launch globally with Netflix is not just a huge step forward in visibility for our mission, but also a resounding statement about the momentum and demand for women’s sport. We want to inspire and empower the next generation of young women, and Netflix will open up F1 Academy to a global audience of existing and future fans.”
Racer looks at how Formula E’s rookie test preps drivers and teams for what’s next. “As a team we get zero in season testing — it’s not like we can go off and do stuff — so that for us means that this day is critically important,” Andretti team principal Roger Griffiths tells RACER. “We don’t come here to just let a couple of young guys have a taste of Formula E and have some fun and see how quick they are.”
Staying with Formula E, The Race reports that plans to hold an all-female Formula E test have been verbally agreed between teams for later this year as part of the promoter’s push to get female talent into future race seats during the Gen4 era from 2026.
“Usually, the bottom line is who’s going fastest, and give them the chance. You could also say that about an engineer, the engineer that’s going to make the car go faster or win the race, OK, is she getting the opportunity to learn? They want the opportunity, consistent opportunity. So, test days, I don’t think are the whole answer, it’s real but I think a lot of it is that people need to realize why it matters and it matters because it’s ultimately going to make for better racing. How cool would that be?”
While NASCAR’s Drive For Diversity program marks a milestone with some major reasons for optimism but plenty of work still to do, NASCAR racer Ryan Vargas has taken to racing in NASCAR’s European series to build up his career.
“You know, at first there was a bit of hesitancy just because it’s an entirely different thing,” Vargas said. “We’re talking apples to oranges here in terms of the type of racing that we’re looking at. But, when we laid it all out and we looked at, ‘Hey, here’s everything that comes along with it. Here’s, you know, everything that goes into this’. They came back to me, and they were like, ‘Ryan, you know, this actually makes sense. Let’s go ahead and try it.’”
Some wise words from Enzo Mucci in the video above. “Obviously a pro racing driver is a person who can drive quickly, but just as importanly they can also perform on demand and maximise themselves every time they hit the track. Make sure you can do this.”
NXT Gen Cup, the world’s first electric junior touring car cup, will join DTM, Europe’s premier and best-known racing series, for an intense total of 12 races across four race weekends from July to October in 2024. NXT Gen Cup features an arrive-and-drive concept, with a full season available for 55.000€ – including a robust education package in sponsor relations, company economics, PR and media relations, social media and much more.
The brand-new Ligier JS F422 hit the track for the first time last weekend as F4 U.S. launched their 2024 series. On a positive note the first race was green flag the whole time. On a less positive note there were only 8 cars on track. Race Director Scott Goodyear explains what to expect this year and why he is so positive while Feeder Series takes a more analytical approach in explaining what challenges the series faces in North America.
With the news that PHM Racing announcing that their F2 and F3 teams had been rebranded as AIX Racing, Feeder Series looks at how this affects the team’s mission of driver development as team owner Paul Müller retains the F4 side of the squad.
“Per the mission statement on PHM’s website, the team focuses on ‘dedication and skill over financial ability’ and ‘support[s] talented drivers that might not otherwise be able to compete’. Müller also placed a focus on job security for engineers and mechanics.”
Author: Mark Boudreau
Mark is the publisher of Motorsport Prospects. As a former lawyer, he applies his legal background and research skills to assist race drivers by showcasing the resources they need to make their motorsport careers happen.
