Alice Elizabeth Fraser Powell (born 26 January 1993) is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English ...

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

. In 2010, she became the first woman to win a

Formula Renault Formula Renault are classes of formula racing popular in Europe and elsewhere. Regarded as an entry-level series to motor racing, it was founded in 1971, and was a respected series where drivers can learn advanced racecraft before moving on to hig ...

championship and in 2012 became the first woman to score points in the

GP3 Series The GP3 Series, or GP3 for short, was a single-seater motor racing series launched in 2010 as a feeder series for the GP2 Series, introduced by GP2 organiser Bruno Michel. GP3 followed the entire European leg of the Formula One series and th ...

. In 2014, she returned to racing in Formula Renault and added to her championship victories by taking first place in the International Class of the 2014 Asian Formula Renault Series. In 2019, Powell was one of the 18 women selected to compete in the inaugural W Series championship. During the course of the season's six races, Powell took four podium finishes, including a win at the series finale race at

Brands Hatch Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, United Kingdom. Originally used as a grasstrack motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently hos ...

, and finished third in the championship standings. Following an enforced hiatus caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic, Powell returned to the W Series for the 2021 championship and won the opening race of the year, at the

Red Bull Ring The Red Bull Ring is a motorsport race track in Spielberg, Austria, Spielberg, Styria, Austria. The race circuit was founded as Österreichring (translation: Austrian Circuit) and hosted the Austrian Grand Prix for 18 consecutive years, from t ...

Racing career

Formula Renault

Powell was born in

Oxford, England Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the U ...

. She learned to drive at the age of six, and started her career in

karting Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on fu ...

two years later. In 2009, at 16, she drove in the Michelin Formula Renault UK Championship, becoming the youngest female driver in a Formula Renault race. Powell finished the year as runner up for the Young Star Award at the Women of the Future Awards. She was also awarded the British Women Racing Drivers Club GoldStars 'Elite' category Award. Powell set a record in the fourth round of the 2010 Formula Renault BARC Championship by becoming the first woman to win a

race in the UK, and later in the year became the first woman to win a Formula Renault championship. During the 2010 season Powell's race engineer was Sarah Shaw. Powell and Manor returned to the Formula Renault UK championship in 2011, but failed to win a race and finished the season in 9th place in the championship. Powell returned to Formula Renault three years later, driving for FRD Motorsport in the International Class of the 2014 Asian Formula Renault Series. During the 11 race season Powell took five class victories, four of which were also outright race wins, and won the class.

GP3 Series

On 16 April 2012, after only two test days in the GP3 car, it was announced that Powell would drive for the

Status Grand Prix Status Grand Prix is a former motorsport team registered in Canada. Team history Based in Silverstone the team was formed in 2005 to run the A1 Team Ireland franchise in the new A1 Grand Prix series. The team's founders were former Jordan Grand ...

team in the 2012

. On 9 September that year she finished 8th in the 2012 Monza GP3 round sprint race, and in doing so became the first female points scorer since the inception of the GP3 Series in 2010.

Formula 3

Powell joined F3 Cup for 2013 having been unable to continue in the GP3 Series. She took part in the opening round of the 2013 British Formula 3 season at

Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is about from Towcester on the former A43 main road, from the M1 motorway junction 15A and about from the M40 motorway junction 10, Northampton, Milton Keynes and B ...

, driving the Mark Bailey Racing run Dallara F306, which she also raced in the

MotorSport Vision Formula Three Cup The MotorSport Vision Formula Three Cup is a national motor racing series that takes place primarily in the United Kingdom, with a small number of events in mainland Europe. It is a club racing series aimed towards amateur drivers and aspiring ...

. In the 2013

, Powell finished second in the championship behind Alex Craven, having won five times during the season including three of the first four races.

Formula 1

On 12 November 2014 Powell was reported as trying to raise funds to drive a

Caterham Caterham () is a town in the Tandridge District of Surrey, England. The town is administratively divided into two: Caterham on the Hill, and Caterham Valley, which includes the main town centre in the middle of a dry valley but rises to equa ...

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship ...

car, in a free practice session at the end of season Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The Caterham team had gone into administration in October 2014 and had not attended the previous two Grands Prix. It was later reported that Powell had abandoned the idea as it was unlikely that the appropriate superlicence could be obtained.

Formula E

In 2020, it was announced that Powell, now an ambassador for Dare to Be Different, would take part in the Rookie Test after the 2020 Marrakesh ePrix, driving for

Envision Virgin Racing The Envision Racing Formula E Team is a British motor racing team based at Silverstone Park and majority-owned by Chinese wind turbine manufacturer Envision Energy that competes in Formula E. Currently, the two drivers are Nick Cassidy and S ...

, partnering

Nick Cassidy Nick Cassidy (born 19 August 1994) is a New Zealand racing driver, currently competing in Formula E for Envision Racing, and in the World Endurance Championship and Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters with AF Corse. He has won the 2017 championship ...

. Powell later became the Simulator and Development Driver for the team beginning in the 2021-2022 season.

MRF Challenge

Powell signed up to compete in the first race of the 2015-16 edition of the

MRF Challenge MRF Challenge is an open-wheel motorsport formula based in India organized by Madras Motor Sports Club Madras Motor Sports Club is an Indian auto racing club founded in 1952 and based in Chennai, India. Madras Motor Sports Club with it ...

. At the first round in Abu Dhabi, Powell scored four top ten finishes out of four races, with a best finish of eighth in the final race, after being out of single seaters for nearly a year.

W Series

Powell participated in the inaugural W Series Championship in

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. She won the season-ending race at

along with three other podium finishes, finishing 3rd overall in the standings. Powell returned to W Series in 2021 competing with the newly formed Racing X team. Powell dominated the first race of the season at the

, taking her first pole position, setting the fastest lap and leading every lap to take the race win. Powell finished the season with 3 wins, 5 podiums & 132 points as she went on to finish runner-up to

Jamie Chadwick Jamie Laura Chadwick (born 20 May 1998) is a British racing driver who races for Andretti Autosport in Indy NXT. She won the inaugural W Series season in 2019, before retaining her title in 2021 and 2022. She currently holds the records for ...

. Powell won the

and

Zandvoort Zandvoort () is a municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is one of the major beach resorts of the Netherlands; it has a long sandy beach. It is bordered by coastal dunes of Zuid-Kennemerland National Park and the Amsterda ...

rounds and finished 27 points behind champion Chadwick.

Commentary career

Powell joined the Sky Sports

Formula 2 Formula Two (F2 or Formula 2) is a type of open-wheel formula racing category first codified in 1948. It was replaced in 1985 by Formula 3000, but revived by the FIA from 2009–2012 in the form of the FIA Formula Two Championship. The name r ...

commentary team when the 2020 season resumed in July 2020, after delays and cancellations due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

Personal life

Powell attended The Cotswold School. In 2013, she was included in the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

series '' 100 Women''.

Racing record

Career summary

^† As Powell was a guest driver, she was ineligible for points.

Complete GP3 Series results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete W Series results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete WeatherTech SportsCar Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) ^† As Powell was a guest driver, she was ineligible for points.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Powell, Alice 1993 births Living people Sportspeople from Oxford English racing drivers English female racing drivers Female racing drivers British Formula Renault 2.0 drivers British Formula Three Championship drivers Formula Renault 2.0 NEC drivers Formula Renault BARC drivers GP3 Series drivers Asian Formula Renault Challenge drivers BBC 100 Women W Series drivers Ginetta GT4 Supercup drivers Ginetta Junior Championship drivers Carlin racing drivers MRF Challenge Formula 2000 Championship drivers WeatherTech SportsCar Championship drivers Manor Motorsport drivers Status Grand Prix drivers Meyer Shank Racing drivers Formula Palmer Audi drivers Chris Dittmann Racing drivers