Woman Spotlight Wednesday: Ella Stevens
- Annalise Huang
- 5 hours ago
- 3 min read
Written by Annalise Huang, Edited by Morgan Holiday
Women have played an influential, though often unrecognized, role throughout the history of motor racing. Many have taken to the wheels of motorsport machines, while numerous figures have worked tirelessly on the sidelines in various roles, shaping the motor racing world to the present day.
Woman Spotlight Wednesday aims to take a look at the tales of these superwomen, who have surpassed various hurdles to reach where they are today. Today, we feature a promising young driver whose accomplishments at such a young age are making waves in the racing world.
Ella Stevens is a nineteen-year-old British driver from Kingswood, Gloucestershire. Her groundbreaking achievements in the karting world have propelled her recent career to new heights.
Karting Career
Stevens began her karting career at a young age. At the age of six, she had her first go-around at a track in Wales–a monumental turning point in her life that inspired her to pursue racing.
“I was a bit scared at first but I got used to it and got faster and faster. It’s very exciting,” Stevens said in an interview with CNN. “My favorite part is probably the speed, it’s always something to look forward to when you go out on track.”
Indeed, Stevens’ speed was more than notable. Just four years later, when she was 10 years old, she won her first major racing series and became a British karting champion.
Her karting accomplishments exploded from there, making history as the only woman to ever win in the UK’s premier karting class. More recently, she became the Vice-Champion in the 2025 British KZ2 Karting Championship.
Future in F1 Academy
In September 2025, Stevens shocked the racing world with her exemplary results at the F1 Academy Rookie Test. In its inaugural year, the series brought 18 prospective female drivers to the Circuito de Navarra in Spain to establish potential seatholders and Wild Card entries for the 2026 F1 Academy season.
Stevens’ pace and levelheadedness on track was on full display, topping timesheets and establishing the fastest time of all the chosen drivers.
On 17 November 2025, McLaren announced that their F1 Academy team would be represented by Stevens, along with British F4 Champion and 2025 F1 Academy driver Ella Lloyd.
Stevens’ entry as McLaren Oxagon, operated by Rodin Motorsport, expressed excitement for their upcoming campaign.
“Ella joins us as a rookie with enormous potential,” said Rodin Motorsport Sporting Director, Benn Huntingford, in the team’s announcement. “We’re excited to support her first year in F1 Academy and help unlock the performance we know she’s capable of.”
The Path Forward
Observing exceptional promise in Stevens’ results, McLaren did more than recruit her for a highly anticipated F1 Academy campaign. Stevens was also introduced as part of McLaren’s Driver Development Program.
Zak Brown, the CEO of McLaren Racing, expressed his enthusiasm about the new young women introduced to the program. “To now have three talented young female drivers in our Driver Development Program is really exciting, and I cannot wait to see them hit the track,” he said.
Stevens is joined by two other female drivers, Ella Lloyd and Ella Häkkinen.
“Recently I have been seeing a lot of girls getting into karting,” Stevens said in an interview with CNN. “I’ve seen quite a few on the weekends I go racing on the same grid as me, which is a change.”
Stevens' road forward is promising, not just as an individual athlete, but for the future of young women in motorsport as a collective.
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