If she wasn’t so famous as the world’s fastest Formuladriver, Alice Powell could easily have been a glamour girl. She’s got the styleand the chutzpah. This became more than evident when she visited Pune recentlyas part of a tie-up with a design school called FAD International. For thoseyoung students cued in to car sports, she was like an inspirational diva withher words of wisdom on how to make a career in racing. That apart, she alsomade it known that India fascinates her. “I am going to keep returning and mynext visit could be in February for the remaining two rounds of the MRF F2000series that will be held at the Madras Motor Sports Track in Sriperumbudur. Iwill probably also lead a vintage car rally planned by FAD Internationalsometime after February,” she says. Alice will at that time drive herRenault-powered Formula car.
Talking about her background, Alice says she learned todrive a car when she was just six years old and started karting at eight.“Since then I have not focused on anything else but driving cars,” she says. In2010, Alice made history by becoming the first female to ever win a FormulaRenault race and made more history by becoming the first female to win aFormula Renault Championship. Prior to that, she out-qualified former FormulaOne driver Martin Donnelly in the Ginetta G50 race at Oulton Park. “There’s nobetter feeling than that of victory,” she exults.
On the Indian turf, the 19-year-old Alice became the firstfemale Formula driver to race on the internationally acclaimed BuddhaInternational Circuit in Greater Noida last year. She was back this year totake part in the SIDVIN Festival of Speed. The ambitious woman that she is,Alice is now hopeful of making her way to the pinnacle of motorsport andbecoming the first female driver on an F1 grid for over 20 years. “Today carracing is a global sport. And it really feels great to get all the positivefeedback from my fans on Twitter and Facebook. It’s so morally encouraging,”Alice says.
However, she admits that becoming a motorsports driver is atough nut to crack. “It all depends on the money. Without my sponsors Iwouldn’t be able to go anywhere or race anywhere and that is the unfortunatefact at the moment. It is not a cheap sport and you need the right level ofbacking to go forward. No F1 team can afford to sponsor young drivers at theminute the way McLaren did with Lewis Hamilton when he was racing and gotpicked up at 12. No driver has got that at the moment because it is just soexpensive,” she says.
Elaborating about strategies that must be employed whileracing, Alice says: “The grids have become larger now and there are many morecars so that the competition level has increased and it becomes that muchtougher for all the drivers. Therefore, the start is really important becausewe don’t have pit-stops and don’t have the same strategies as in F1 since therace is a lot shorter. All this also leads to many incidents.”
As for clinching the first GP3 Series Drivers’ Championshippoint in the season finale at Monza in September, Alice says that it was a“productive session” as it helped her learn the track while she worked with herStatus Grand Prix team to set up the car and get to grips with the hard tyreoption. About future prospects, Alice is hopeful of remaining on the GP3 gridnext year. “Obviously I would like to stick with GP3. The new car is coming outnext year and it is going to be a lot more powerful with more grip as well. SoI am looking to get an investor or some kind of sponsorship to enable me tocontinue to try and get to F1 and do GP3 next year,” she says.
