Scot Chloe Grant gets F1 Academy seat 16 | 03 | 2023
SCOTTISH TEENAGER Chloe Grant will contest the inaugural all-women F1 Academy Championship. The 16-year-old from Perth has signed a deal with the multi-championship winning ART Grand Prix team, writes Jim McGill.
Grant is the only Scot to compete in the new series, which was founded by Formula One. The first year features 21 races at seven circuits, all famous Grand Prix tracks, culminating in the season finale alongside F1’s United States Grand Prix in Texas in October. (Related: Scot Sandy Mitchell gets all-Pro Euro Lambo seat)
Overseen by Oban’s Susie Wolff, who is the F1 Academy’s managing director, the series aimed at developing and preparing young female drivers to progress to higher levels of competition.
“I’m really excited to contest the forthcoming 2023 F1 Academy season,” Grant, who began karting in 2013 at The East of Scotland Kart Club at Crail in Fife and became the youngest driver to gain a Motorsport UK Junior Racing Driver Licence in Scotland in 2020, explained. (Related: Mitchell returns to British GT for 2023)
“To continue my single-seater racing career on a competitive grid, and with the best support from ART Grand Prix, is everything I could wish for.
“They have tremendous history and I look forward to seeing what we can achieve together. It's a privilege to join their long list of successful and talented drivers.
“F1 Academy presents a great opportunity for us female drivers to develop our careers in this new F1-supported championship with the season finale in front of the F1 grid at the US F1 GP.”
Grant, backed by Laser Tools, Aberdeen-based John Clark Motor Group, Kevin Cuthbert PT and Fierce Racing, will pilot her 150mph single-seater racer, the car used globally in the Formula 4 championships and powered by turbocharged engines delivering 165bhp, at the season’s opening triple-header in Austria next month.
The championship then visits Valencia and Barcelona in Spain, Zandvoort in Holland, Monza in Italy and Paul Ricard in the South of France before the final round in Texas on October 22/23.
Before that, the young Scot will get her first test of the F1 Academy car in Spain when the 15-car grid comes together prior to the season’s opening race on April 28/29.
Related: Mitchell named Lamborghini factory driver
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Jim McGill