Silvía Bellot
Silvia Bellot is an ambassador for the ‘FIA Women in Motorsport’ organisation and the director for Formula 2 and Formula 3. Her career, however, began marshalling in 2001, when she was 16. She has been a steward in a number of national and international series, including the FIA World Rally Championship, FIA World Touring Car Championship, Formula 2 , Formula 3, F3 World Cup in Macau, GP2, GP3, DTM, Euro Formula and World Series.
In 2009, she took part in the FIA trainee stewards’ program for GP2 and F1 and just three years later she was awarded FIA Outstanding Official in recognition of her motor sport career. She made her first appearance as an F1 steward in 2011 at the Turkish GP, which led to her being an FIA Formula 1 steward for nine consecutive seasons. In 2017 she decided to combine her duties as an F1 steward with her role as Deputy Team Manager for an IndyCar team.
Finally, in 2020 she became the first female race director in the FIA, being responsible for the FIA Formula 2 and Formula 3 Championships. She is also an Ambassador of the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission, on which she represents the female volunteers and officials.
Laura Davies
Laura Davies is an Aerodynamics Design Engineer for a Formula 1 team associated with a particular drinks company! Also an 8 year serving army reservist in the Royal Armoured Corps, the Royal Wessex Yeomanry. Laura has previously worked for the likes of Ben Ainslie racing in the 35th America’s Cup, Bloodhound SSC and Dyson Automotive. She enjoys sailing, skiing and bouldering.
Natasha Firman – Formula Woman
Natasha Firman is the winner of the inaugural Formula Woman championship in 2004. Following this unique and marvellous achievement, she then raced as a works driver for Mazda in the RX-8 winning the European Endurance Racing Championship for 2 years running.
Currently, she is working with Formula Woman and is proud to be one of the Ambassadors for them and their re-launch this year. Formula Woman is an organisation that ran a successful competition in 2004 where over 10,000 applications were received from women of all backgrounds. They are back after 16 years to search for the next female motorsport champion!
Nicole Drought
Nicole Drought is Ireland’s top female race driver and competing on a level playing field against men. Having grown up surrounded by rally cars, her father was a keen competitor, it was inevitable that she would join motorsports. Nicole is a graduate of University of Limerick. Nicole was named as Irish Sportswoman of the Year 2017 by sportswomen.ie.
After meeting the founder Nicci Daly, Nicole became an ambassador for Formula Female, an initiative to encourage more girls into Motorsport, not only as drivers, but as engineers, managers etc.
In 2016 Nicole became the first woman to win the Irish Touring Car Championship, competing in both in 2015 and 2016. She was then invited by the Sean Edwards Foundation to test a Porsche 911 GT3 at the famous Paul Ricard circuit in the south of France. Subsequently, named as the international Foundation’s first ever Irish SEF Ambassador. Nicole is the reigning Class 1A Endurance Trial Champion, winning in both 2018 and 2019. She made history once again demonstrating US based Irish expat John Campion’s Formula 1 car at Mondello Park during the Mondello Historic Festival.
After being signed by John Campion to his CJJ Motorsport team, Nicole made the leap to GT racing in the UK, competing in a 425bhp Porsche 718 GT4 in the Dunlop Britcar Endurance Series. Nicole came second in the class 4 Championship, with 5 podiums and 3 wins, just 8 points behind the class winner. Unfortunately John Campion passed away in October from leukaemia but Nicole has vowed to race on in his memory and is currently working to raise funds to continue her rise through the ranks.
Laura Byrnes
Laura Byrnes is a first generation Australian-Irish dirt track racer determined to break down barriers in Motorsport. Laura shows that your background, size and gender don’t matter as much as you believe – motorsport is for everyone. Based in Perth, Western Australia, Laura is in her rookie season of Late Model racing for Red Shamrock Racing after spending the last 15 years in multiple other divisions.
Hannah Powers – Women in Motorsport Ireland
Hannah Power runs Women in Motorsport Ireland which is Ireland’s largest platform that Empowers, Inspires & Supports Women of all ages in all disciplines and aspects of motorsport. Hannah’s love of motorsport started from a young age, with her dad being a rally driver and Hannah spending every spare second in the shed helping with building cars. Always in the middle of it all, she knew she wanted to work in motorsport.
Hannah studied Marketing & Sales in GMIT, a different route to most when getting involved in motorsport. In January 2019, Hannah joined the Women in Motorsport Ireland Team and has now been running the organisation single-handedly for over a year.
A love of both Motorsport & Business has helped Hannah in building the brand and creating it into the success that it is today. Having competed in a number of rally sprints in 2020 in the co-drivers seat, Hannah hopes to continue that into 2021 and have a go behind the wheel too! Hannah has also recently set up her own freelance motorsport and automotive marketing agency, H.P.M Motorsport & Automotive Marketing, which she hopes to grow and expand in 2021.
