Lisa Billard earns F1 Academy Wild Card entry for Singapore GP
- RACERS
- 6 minutes ago
- 3 min read
After a point-scoring French F4 campaign and an impressive F1 Academy rookie test, 16-year-old Iron Dames driver Lisa Billard will make her F1 Academy debut as Hitech TGR’s Wild Card entry at the Singapore Grand Prix, with Gatorade support.
Iron Dames driver Lisa Billard will make her F1 Academy debut this weekend at Singapore, as the Wild Card entry for the sixth round of the all-female championship.
The sixteen-year-old from France made her single-seater debut in 2024 in the French Formula 4 Championship and has just completed her 2025 French F4 season, where she scored points and claimed two top-ten finishes.
Billard, who also took part in the inaugural F1 Academy Rookie Test two weeks ago at Navarra—impressing immediately with her speed—has now been selected as the Wild Card entry for the upcoming Singapore Grand Prix, where she will compete with Hitech TGR with backing from Gatorade, the beverage brand that had also supported F1 Academy’s wild card entry at the Canadian round in Montreal with Mathilda Paatz.
Billard began her racing career at the age of seven in karting, progressing through the French national championships and becoming a finalist in the FIA Girls on Track – Rising Stars programme in the junior category. She also became the first female driver to win a race in the French Junior Karting Championship.
In 2023 she joined Alpine’s RacHer programme while continuing in karting, finishing third in the French Junior Karting Championship. The following year she stepped up to single-seaters, making her French F4 debut in 2024 at Magny-Cours after turning 15, contesting the final three rounds of the season. She steadily progressed across those events, with a personal best of 16th on debut and four top-20 finishes.
In 2025, Billard joined the Iron Dames stable and returned to French F4 for her first full-time campaign, immediately showing competitive pace and regularly running close to the top ten. Despite strong one-lap speed, misfortune in the early rounds—including a crash while fighting for a podium—prevented her from scoring early points. She came close with an 11th place at Dijon before finally breaking into the top ten at Spa-Francorchamps, where she finished ninth in Race 3 to secure her first points.
She continued to battle just outside the top ten at Magny-Cours and Lédenon before delivering another strong weekend at Le Mans, equalling her season’s best with ninth place in Race 2. Billard ended her season with two points and the Female Trophy title, emerging as the top performer among the six female drivers entered in the 2025 French F4 Championship.
Now, Billard will make her F1 Academy debut at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore—a notoriously challenging venue where she will aim to showcase her talent and target points, following in the footsteps of Esmee Kostermann, who became the first Wild Card driver to finish in the top ten this year.
The Wild Card initiative, launched in 2024, has proven highly successful in giving up-and-coming female talents the chance to earn full-time opportunities, with several drivers recruited from regional F4 series. The system has already helped drivers such as Nina Gademan, Alisha Palmowski, and Ella Lloyd secure full-time F1 Academy seats in 2025.
This year, Shi Wei, Farah Al Yousef, Ava Dobson, Mathilda Paatz, and Esmee Kostermann have been the five previous Wild Card entrants in the third Hitech TGR car, and now Billard will have her chance to impress under the eyes of the F1 paddock.
