Alexandra Vateva makes impressive Porsche Carrera Cup Germany Debut at Red Bull Ring with rookie podium

Bulgarian driver Alexandra Vateva impressed on her Porsche Carrera Cup Germany debut at the Red Bull Ring with two promising drives in the extremely competitive field, finishing second among the rookies in race 1 and also securing her first top 20.

Photo credits: Porsche AG

Bulgarian driver Alexandra Vateva impressed on her Porsche Carrera Cup Germany debut at the Red Bull Ring with two promising drives in the extremely competitive field, finishing second among the rookies in race 1 and also securing her first top 20.

In her pink-and-white Iron Dames-supported Proton Huber Competition Porsche 992 GT3 Cup machine, the Bulgarian showed good potential in two hard-fought races in Spielberg, making a successful step up from the Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux, where she had previously competed.

Vateva has rapidly risen through Porsche’s racing ranks, progressing from a Porsche Cayman GT4 in 2023 to a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup in 2024 as part of the Porsche Sports Cup Deutschland Talent Pool Program, where she collected podiums. She impressed with a one-off outing in the Porsche Sprint Challenge Benelux at Spa-Francorchamps, scoring double class victories and even clinching an overall win in race two, before closing her season with a standout endurance victory at Hockenheimring.

In 2025, Vateva made history as the first female driver to compete in the Porsche Cup Middle East, achieving several class podiums and an overall top-five finish, before starting her campaign in the Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux. At the season opener in Spa, Vateva battled for the overall top ten and scored a rookie podium, then had another positive outing at the Hungaroring, again running close to the top ten and adding a third rookie podium after finishing third in race 2 at Zandvoort.

With two rounds to go, Vateva announced she would halt her Benelux campaign, and later joined Proton Huber in the highly competitive Porsche Sixt Carrera Cup Germany.

Over her debut weekend, Vateva quickly found rhythm, running close to the top 20 already from the opening sessions and finding time in each outing. In official practice she clocked a 1:33.230, continuing to make progress, with cars ahead just thousandths of a second away.

Qualifying, however, proved more challenging in mixed weather conditions; she set a 1:33.850 to secure P22, which was nevertheless encouraging on her first-ever weekend in the series, just two seconds off pole position.

Photo credits: Porsche AG

Starting P22 in Race 1, Vateva made a great start, took the inside line, and managed to gain positions, but then was boxed in at Turn 2 and shuffled back to P24. She recovered to P22 on lap 2 as Essmann and Schrey ran into trouble.

The Iron Dames-supported driver stayed with the pack, close to Marvin Klein, and picked up another position when Ferreira went off and spun at the final corner. While the recovering Schrey moved back ahead, Vateva repassed Tuccaroglu and held P21, running competitive times in the 1:33.2s, quicker than a few cars ahead, while also defending against Tuccaroglu’s fightback.

On lap 8 Ariel Levi went off into the gravel, bringing out the safety car. At the restart on lap 13, Vateva snatched P20 just before Seyffarth dropped a wheel on the grass and spun at full speed into the barriers, being collected heavily by Warhurst. Vateva avoided the crash and moved up to P19, second among the rookies, before the race was eventually red-flagged. It was an impressive result on debut, as she claimed a rookie podium and a top-20 finish.

"It just feels so surreal that I'm actually on the grid [in Germany]. I still can't really believe it, but I'm very happy," Vateva said.

"Race one obviously I had the rookie podium. I never even imagined going into my debut race in Porsche Carrera Cup Germany that I’d be standing on the rookie podium. So it's extremely emotional, pure happiness and excitement."

Photo credits: Porsche AG

In race 2 on Sunday morning, Vateva started from P21. Another good start from the Bulgarian saw her take the outside line, avoid contact with smart driving, and settle into P22.

She was then shuffled down to P23 at Turn 5, but remained in the pack. With Spreng dropping down, she regained P22 and, while defending from Greif, she stayed within a second of Biksrud ahead. In the compact midfield group, she held fifth in the rookie classification.

Over the course of the race, Vateva improved her lap times, closing in on Biksrud to just two tenths by lap 10, and then picked up P21. She continued to improve sector times and battled Essmann and Biksrud while simultaneously defending from Schrey.

When Freymuth hit trouble and Klein spun after contact with Ghiretti, Vateva kept it clean and seized the opportunity to move up to P19.

Unfortunately, on lap 15 she went off after a strong first half of the race, battling with Schrey and Greif. She managed to rejoin, albeit a lap down. The race stayed green and she eventually finished P22, still showing strong pace and racecraft.

"The weekend was an extremely positive race weekend I would say," Alexandra said. "I'm very happy with the outcome, and I'm taking home the positives, because there were so many this weekend. But overall the first thing is that I felt extremely good in the team — I just felt really at home."

"In terms of race two, I would say if I don’t look at the result — because obviously it's not where I'm aiming to be — it was definitely a good race, because I had some extremely intense fights with the other cars."

"When I look back at the race weekend I can definitely see that there’s pace, which makes me so happy", she continued. "I think if it wasn’t for the difficult and mixed conditions in qualifying, maybe I would have started both races a bit further ahead, but there’s definitely pace. It just feels really good because now, after such a positive race weekend, I’m going into Hockenheim with so much more confidence."

Vateva will now head to Spain at Navarra, having been selected for the first-ever F1 Academy rookie test, before focusing on the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany season finale at Hockenheim on 3–5 October, where she will aim to build on the experience and momentum from her debut.