Solenn Amrouche grabs historic first Hoosier Formula Cup podium at Aragón
- MACIEJ JACKIEWICZ
- 5 hours ago
- 7 min read
Solenn Amrouche made history at Motorland Aragón by becoming the first woman to stand on the Hoosier Formula Cup podium with a P3 overall in Race 1, before charging from last on the grid to sixth in Race 2 and adding another P6 in Race 3 to wrap up a breakthrough weekend in her rookie single-seater campaign.
Solenn Amrouche scored her first ever podium in the Hoosier Formula Cup round at the Motorland Aragón. She also staged a great comeback in race 2, climbing from last on the grid to finish sixth.
Solenn Amrouche’s first ever single-seater season in the Hoosier Formula Cup began in March, at the Circuit Paul Ricard. Since then, she was constantly near the top, with a P5 finish at the French circuit. At Mugello, during the next round of the championship, she consistently finished within the top 10, concluding the weekend with finishes of P7, P6, and P8. At Portimão she improved on her season best finish, ending race 2 of the weekend in P4.
The weekend for the Aragon round started on Thursday with three paid practice sessions. The next day, another one was held in addition to two private practice sessions. Solenn Amrouche knew the track quite well, as she secured a class podium there, during her time in the Spanish GT Championship, but in these sessions she was able to gain experience on the track in her Tatuus F3 T-318 car.
"I arrived at the Circuit after nearly three months without driving my single-seater", Solenn explained. "But I was determined to score big points for the championship. I worked a lot with my Engineer, and my team was ready to provide me with a car setup that suited both my driving style and the track."
After getting to grips with the car on the tricky Spanish circuit, drivers headed for qualifying on Saturday morning. The first session began at 4:15 pm local time. The first flying lap for Solenn Amrouche was a 2:02.664, which put her in P5 overall.
Later she improved by nine tenths, but it was not enough to keep fifth position, as she was overtaken on the timing sheets and was classified in sixth. Despite a lock-up that flatspotted her front left tyre, Solenn managed to improve on the next flying lap, by one-thousandth of a second.
Her next lap was interrupted by Frédéric Boillot beaching his car in turn 9. A red flag was deployed and with two minutes to go it was the end of qualifying one. Solenn Amrouche finished the session in sixth overall and fifth in the Rookie class.
“For qualifying, I was aiming for P6, maybe even P5. My first qualifying session went relatively well. I wanted to go for another push lap to improve my time, but unfortunately, there was a red flag. So, I ended up P6.”, the French driver commented about her first qualifying session.
After changing her front left tyre she headed out for qualifying two. Her first lap—a preparation one—put her in sixth overall. The next one was two seconds better, but it was deleted for track limits violations. On her next lap she tried to overtake a slower car ahead and ended up making contact with the barriers at turn 12
She got going again, but with the damaged car she did not go out in the session anymore. With her best timed lap being the warm-up one she was classified last in the qualifying session, which meant she had a lot of work ahead of her in the second race of the weekend.
“For the second qualifying, I was determined to secure P5, but a driving mistake made me crash at the end of turn 12. I had time to return to the pits, but unfortunately, my team couldn’t repair the car in such a short time. So, I finished last in that qualifying.”, Solenn reflected after crashing out of qualifying.
Despite the qualifying incident the car was ready for the first race, which began at around 7 pm local time. She started the race in P6, and despite trying to go for fifth she remained in her starting position. The first lap was uneventful but on the next one, chaos broke loose. Firstly, Mateo Valente encountered an issue around turn 11. Later, Dylan Estre collided with Nano López in turn 16, causing the latter to spin.
All of this resulted in Solenn Amrouche advancing to fourth, but López who was classified in fifth after the spin was rapidly approaching the Lamo Racing Car driver. He made the move on her on lap 5, at the same moment as Dylan Estre received a 5-second penalty for track limits. The next lap saw two more penalties being applied: Estre got a 10-second penalty for causing the collision with López, while the Argentinian got a 5-second one for track limits.
At this moment of the race Amrouche was running in no man’s land, 5 seconds behind her closest rival and 5 seconds ahead of Aleksandr Burdo in P5. This remained the case until lap 9, when a Gentleman class driver and Amrouche’s teammate—Thierry Malhomme—spun and beached his Tatuus. This brought out the safety car.
Under neutralization the cars bunched up, which meant that with penalties for López and Estre Amrouche was provisionally running in P3. The safety car remained on the track until the end. The chequered flag waved and with that Solenn Amrouche scored her first ever podium in Hoosier Formula Cup. It was also the first ever female podium in the Formula class of Ultimate Cup European Series.
“I secured my first podium! P3 overall, P2 in the Rookie category! It’s the first time in the history of the Ultimate Cup Series in single-seaters that a woman has stepped on the podium. I managed to drive a clean race without mistakes, I’m very proud of my result, and I definitely plan to do it again.”, Amrouche said after scoring a historic result in the first race of Hoosier Formula Cup at Motorland Aragón.
After this huge success came race 2, which commenced on Sunday morning. After the incident in qualifying, Solenn Amrouche had to start the race in P12. She gained places in the opening corners, as Solenn climbed up to P7, but unfortunately, in turn 12, the French driver made a mistake and spun, which caused her to fall back again.
She however got back to P11 quickly, as Dylan Estre encountered a spin in the last chicane, but after that it was a big gap to the next car – Solenn had to gain 12 seconds over her teammate Thierry Malhomme in P10. But it took only 2 laps for her to bridge that gap and make a move on Malhomme on lap 4. A brief yellow flag appeared in turn 1, caused by Walter Rykart, but it did not have a big impact on the race.
On lap 5, while chasing Rykart for P9, Amrouche had another spin, this time in turn 16, but got going quickly and started pursuing the Swiss driver for ninth. Two laps later he ran wide in turn 15 and spun, which allowed Amrouche to move into P9. She instantly made another move, in this instance on Gilles Depierre in the first corner. The French driver was flying, and she made another successful overtaking manoeuvre again in turn 1, but on another of her compatriots – Frédéric Boillot.
Lap 9 saw Gilles Depierre, with whom Amrouche fought earlier on, have a spin in turn 16. Also around that time Alain Bucher, Amrouche’s teammate, received a 5-second penalty for false start, and that mattered for Solenn as she was around four seconds behind the driver with an Emirati license. But she did not plan to finish ahead of him just because of penalties, but on merit: she closed the gap to Bucher and overtook him in sector three of the last lap, ending the race in sixth overall, and fifth out of the rookies.
“I started from the back, but had a very strong start—after only 7 corners, I was already P7. Unfortunately, I spun and lost all my positions, forced to restart from the back with about a 10-second gap. But I stayed determined and focused. I managed to climb back despite another spin, though this time I didn’t lose much time, and I finished P6.
Another solid performance, despite my two big mistakes.”, she said after a great comeback drive in race 2.
Just two hours after the end of race 2 drivers headed out for the last session of the weekend – race 3. It was by far the most calm race of the whole weekend for Solenn Amrouche. She started it in P5, but lost her place at the start to Laurent Wuthrich. Then, she got overtaken in the last chicane by Dylan Estre.
For the next few laps she remained around one second behind Wuthrich running in sixth. On lap 6, she made a move on Wuthrich and advanced into position six. Just after that safety car was brought out as fellow Lamo Racing Car driver Alain Bucher stopped in turn 5.
The race restarted on lap 9, and it was a one-lap shootout to the finish line. The restart was clean and she was close to Aleksandr Burdo in P5, but was not able to make a move on the Frenchman. She finished the last race of the weekend in sixth – both overall and in Rookie class.
“It was rather uneventful. I just held my position, letting Dylan Estre through as he was coming back from last place. I knew fighting him would only cost me time since he was much faster.”, the driver explained after the conclusion of race 3.
“It was a weekend full of emotions—going from a failed qualifying session to my first podium on the same day. I’m starting to get a taste for the podium, and I fully intend to be back up there again.”, Solenn summarized the weekend, where she scored her first podium of the year.
Two rounds remain in the French Ultimate Cup European Series. The next one will be held at the twisty, former Formula 1 track – Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours. She knows the track well, having raced there in 2023 while driving for Vortex in the Ultimate Cup Series’ Endurance GT Touring Challenge. She finished the race on the 3B class podium, and she will try to make the best use of this experience to get replicate her success, this time in the Hoosier Formula Cup.
