The finalists for the fourth edition of the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission’s Ferrari Driver Academy-affiliated Girls on Track Rising Stars programme have been selected.
There are four finalists in the ‘Senior’ group, consisting of drivers aged 14 to 16, and they are competing to win a paid-for 2024 Formula 4 seat with Iron Lynx as well as entry into an FDA scouting shootout.
The ‘Junior’ group for younger drivers also has four finalists, and they are contending for a campaign in an international karting championship and with financial support from the FDA.
Recently the two groups have participated in a shootout and then a training camp at Italian track Franciacorta, with the senior group focusing on performance in F4 tests while the juniors have done more running in karts. The final will take place at Ferrari’s test track Fiorano.
The four senior finalists are Domenika Arellano, Joanne Ciconte, Alba Hurup Larsen and Mathilda Paatz.
Arellano is from Ecuador and made the Rising Stars longlist last year while in junior karting. She has remained at that level for this year, and has made the podium in Rotax Max Challenge Ecuador as well as racing in internatinal competitions in South America.
Ciconte has exclusively raced on her home turf of Australia, and is currently 24th in the national championship for KA3 Junior karts.
Danish 14-year-old Alba Hurup Larsen karts across Europe, and with one round to go sits 62nd in the IAME Series Italy’s X30 Junior standings but has come 12th in the Danish Karting League’s X30 Jr series, won a regional championhip in Zealand this year and won races in Sydsjællands Automobil Klub’s DASU Junior races.
She has also raced in IAME Series Sweden and come 43rd in the Sydsvenskans Kart Champion Cup’s Junior 125 class, while receiving the mentorship of Formula 1 driver Kevin Magnussen.
Paatz is another second-year Girls on Track Rising Stars nominee, and in 2022 she was a finalist in the junior group. She is 15, meaning she is already old enough to race in all F4 series, and currently races on OK karts.
She started 2023 with 56th place in the WSK Super Master Series, was 64th in the CIK-FIA European championship and is also racing in the Champions of the Future and WSK Euro Series. Last year she competed in the FIA Motorsport Games in junior karting.