Coming off her best qualifying and race results of the season, Alexandra Hervé aims to build on her 2023 progression at the wheel of the Formula Renault 2.0 as well as the Tatuus Formula Regional cars to end her second year in race cars on a high, as the 17-year-old French driver targets to move up the single seater ladder.
Young French racer Alexandra Hervé is contesting her second season in single seaters, after graduating from karting in 2022. The 17-year-old is currently fourth in the championship standings of the Formula Renault Cup by TTE series - a France-based championship that employs the highly-formative Formula Renault 2.0 machinery.
Hervé's second year in the series has highlighted a notable progression, as she is coming off both her best starting position to date - a third place in qualifying at Magny Cours - as well as her best result of the season, having finished fourth overall and scored a pair of podiums in the rookies' classification on the same weekend.
But her single seater experience has progressively developed with a couple of appearances in the Ultimate Cup, where she first stepped up to the bigger and more powerful Tatuus Formula Regional car. In a double program, Hervé had in fact the chance to compete in the Challenge Monoplace series at Navarra and Hockenheim, where she got up to speed with the car and barely missed out on a podium.
Her quick rise on the French single seater scene suggests that the Frenchwoman might be targeting a seat in the all-female F1 Academy series in the future, as the track time and cost effective appeal of the series has resulted in several young female drivers stepping up their junior formulae involvement.
Hervé started her racing career in 2015 in karting, before rising up through the ranks of the French Female Championship, as well as the Championnat de France Junior and the IAME Ladies Cup, where she finished fifth in 2021.
In August 2021 Alexandra had the opportunity to test the Renault 2.0 machine - which represented a big step forward for the then-16 year old driver. Promising performances followed, and Hervé found herself on the grid of the Formula Renault Cup of the Trophée Tourism Endurance series: despite lacking testing compared to the opposition, she would eventually finish ninth among 30 entries, also securing her first podium in car racing at the Coupe de France in Le Mans.
Entering her second year in the series, Hervé aimed higher - and she has been consistently delivering ever since. At the beginning of April at Circuit du Val de Vienne, Alexandra focused on getting back in the rhythm after months of inactivity: after scoring a P6 and P8, she found good speed at Lédenon, where she charged through in race 2 after a hectic first lap.
A further step forward was made at Circuit Paul Ricard in June: Hervé found speed straight from practice and she carried momentum into qualifying, setting the fourth fastest time. Two sixth place finishes were her strongest results of the season up until that point.
Her improvements continued at Dijon-Prenois; on a track where she had struggled in the past - as well as hard on tyre wear - Hervé turned the bad memories around and had another strong weekend, with another P6 in race 2 after a technical failure in race 1.
Meanwhile, her appearances at the wheel of the Tatuus T318 Formula Regional car had clearly proven to be beneficial, as Hervé - who had been working on both her driving as well as her fitness - immediately felt at ease with a car that is traditionally very physically demanding: a pair of fourth places at Navarra and more sixth places in Hockenheim proved her adaptability and were helpful experienced once she returned to the Formula Renault 2.0 machine after the summer break.
“The goal was to discover a new car, heavier and more powerful than the FR2.0, and two new circuits", she explained. "I learned to really go for it 100%, to adapt to imperfect conditions and to push hard regardless"
"In the end, I think this experience helped me turn a corner. I realised that when I found myself back in my usual single-seater.“
And, indeed, the September round of the TTE series would prove to be another turning point for the young driver, who topped her best qualifying at Magny Cours with a third place and then went on to secure her new personal best of the season with P4 in both races. With two rounds to go, Alexandra sits fourth in the points' table, with 770 points.
Next up will be Nogaro in two weeks' time, before the season finale at Le Mans in November. The goal, Hervé explains, is to build on this progression curve and potentially attract the attention of the F1 Academy. Surely, her growing experience at the wheel of formula cars will play in her favour.
For now, she will focus on carrying momentum into the final round of the season and aim for more top five finishes, while she'll also start her studies at the ESCP Business School in Turin, Italy. Her multifaceted ambitions are features of a high-achiever, and Alexandra Hervé is ready for all the new challenges.