Six female drivers are set to race in this weekend's Indian Racing League opening race at the Hyderabad street circuit: here are the updated teams' line-ups after a few late changes.
The first edition of the Indian Racing League will get underway this weekend with the first of the four events. Five teams were initially announced – each one with an international female driver, one international male driver and two local racers. One further team was announced in due course – with also a few driver changes. The six teams – Hyderabad Blackbirds, Goa Aces, Speed Demons Delhi, Bangalore Speedsters, Chennai Turbo Riders and Godspeed Kochi – are representing Indian biggest cities, in an attempt to drive Indian communities to root for their respective cities and further develop India's motorsport interest. The cars will be run centrally by Wolf Racing, the Italian manufacturer of the Wolf GB08 Thunder prototypes used for the championship. A lightweight almost formula-like single-seater powered by a 220hp engine, the GB08 Thunder is also employed in the Italian Sport Prototype Championship, where its success always resulted in packed grids. Lola Lovinfosse, Gabriela Jílková and Nicole Havrda were the first female drivers announced – followed by Célia Martin, whose arrival in India was delayed by the release of her visa. Drivers gathered at Madras International Circuit on 14th November for pre-season testing, which went underway in rainy conditions. Bianca Bustamante joined the talent pool, in place of the initially-announced Emily Duggan for the Bangalore team. 17 year-old Bustamante, from the Philippines, was part of this year's W Series field – and will be joined by another racer from the all-female championship as Aurélia Nobels could not receive her visa in time. 15-year-old Nobels had just completed the FIA Girls On Track - Rising Stars selections at Maranello, Italy, as one of the four finalists for a place in the Ferrari Driver Academy. She should be replaced by Fabienne Wohlwend, 25, from Liechtenstein, who joins the Godspeed Kochi team. Wohlwend – a W Series podium finisher and pole-winner, finished sixth in the 2019 and 2020 seasons of the all-female F3 Regional series, then ending 10th in 2022 for team CortDAO. She is the 2018 Ferrari Challenge World Champion and has extensive experience of both single seaters as well as GT racing. Alongside Célia Martin, Wohlwend was also part of the all-female effort "Girls Only" at the 24H of the Nürburgring Nordschleife. Sharing the wheel of a BMW M4 GT4 with Martin, Pippa Mann and Carrie Schreiner, Fabienne was third in class. The Indian Racing League calendar features 4 race weekends – two at Hyderabad and two at the Madras Circuit in Chennai. The schedule for the upcoming weekend has not been released yet.
Full Line-Ups:
Hyderabad Blackbirds
Lola Lovinfosse
Neel Jani
Akhil Rabindra
Anindith Reddy
Goa Aces
Gabriela Jílková
Raoul Hyman
Sohil Shah
Amir Syed
Speed Demons Delhi
Célia Martin
Mitch Gilbert
Akash Gowda
Shahaan Ali Mohsin
Chennai Turbo Riders
Nicole Havrda
Jon Lancaster
Parth Ghorpade
Vishnu Prasad
Bangalore Speedsters
Bianca Bustamante
Oliver Webb
Anshul Gandhi
Rishon Rajeev.
Godspeed Kochi
Fabienne Wohlwend
Jordan Albert
Nikhil Bohra
Ruhaan Alva