Lisa Billard earns full-time seat in F1 Academy at ART GP with Gatorade support
- RACERS
- 22 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Lisa Billard will step up to a full-time seat in F1 Academy with ART Grand Prix in 2026, continuing her partnership with Gatorade after a very encouraging 2025 Wild Card appearance at Singapore.
Lisa Billard will step up to a full-time seat in F1 Academy with ART Grand Prix in 2026, continuing her partnership with Gatorade after a very encouraging 2025 Wild Card appearance at Singapore.
Regarded as one of the most promising young female talents in junior single-seaters, the 16-year-old French driver completed a point-scoring season in French F4 and made a strong impression as the Wild Card entry at the Singapore round of F1 Academy, where she demonstrated front-running pace and became the first Wild Card of the year to qualify inside the top five.
Her move to a full-time programme comes alongside renewed backing from Gatorade, whose support forms part of the brand’s ‘Fuel Tomorrow’ initiative aimed at empowering young female athletes, expanding access to sport and providing science-driven hydration, nutrition and recovery resources.
Gatorade will offer Billard elite-level sweat testing, tailored hydration and nutrition plans, as well as recovery protocols as she prepares for her first full season in the all-female championship.
“Single-seater racing pushes your body to the limit. You can lose up to 4kg of fluid, burn huge amounts of calories, and race in hot temperatures. So, working with a brand like Gatorade and GSSI to understand my hydration and recovery couldn’t be more important. I’m so excited to take on my first season of F1 Academy in 2026, with the support of Gatorade behind me,” Billard said.
Gatorade’s renewed involvement comes amid new research revealing that while 58% of women surveyed recognise their unique physiological needs, only 38% believe female athletes receive equal attention — and just 28% of girls aged 14-25 feel confident fuelling their bodies for performance.
Billard’s rise in single seaters has been rapid; starting her career in karting at seven, she worked her way through the French national ranks, becoming the first female driver to win a race in the French Junior Karting Championship and emerging as a finalist in the FIA Girls on Track – Rising Stars programme.
In 2023 she joined Alpine’s RacHer initiative and continued to impress, finishing third in the French Junior Karting Championship before graduating to single-seaters in late 2024 with a partial French F4 campaign once old enough. Signing with the Iron Dames program, Billard returned to French F4 for her first full season in 2025, and delivered consistent progress, scoring two ninth-place finishes at Spa and Le Mans and capturing the Female Trophy as the highest-ranked woman among the six female drivers in the championship.
Her international breakthrough moment came at Singapore, where, supported by Gatorade, she qualified an outstanding fifth on her F1 Academy debut and displayed top-tier pace, only missing out on strong race results due to technical issues. That performance placed her among the top Wild Cards of the season, an initiative introduced in 2024 which has already helped drivers such as Nina Gademan, Alisha Palmowski, Ella Lloyd and Esmee Kosterman transition into full-time seats.
With ART Grand Prix and Gatorade backing her first full campaign, Lisa Billard now follows Kosterman as the second Wild Card from 2025 to graduate to a full-time F1 Academy drive.