Belén García Espinar (born 26 July 1999 in

L'Ametlla del Vallès L'Ametlla del Vallès () is a village in the Provinces of Spain, province of Province of Barcelona, Barcelona and autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain. The municipality covers an area of and the population in 2022 was 9,020. References

...

) is a Spanish

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

and

pole vault Pole vaulting, also known as pole jumping, is a track and field event in which an athlete uses a long and flexible pole, usually made from fiberglass or carbon fiber, as an aid to jump over a #bar, bar. Pole jumping was already practiced by the ...

er. She is a Spanish F4 and

LMP3 A Le Mans Prototype (LMP) is a type of sports prototype race car used in various races and championships, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA SportsCar Championship, European Le Mans Series, and Asian Le M ...

race winner, and came fifth in the W Series in 2022. She currently competes in the

European Le Mans Series The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the fo ...

for

DKR Engineering DKR Engineering is a Belgian-owned Luxembourgish racing team and preparation firm, which competed in the FIA GT1 World Championship. The company was founded in 2004 by Kendy Janclaes as a branch of the PSI Experience racing team from Belgium. A ...

Biography

Belén García was born and raised in

...

, a small village near the city of

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. Her parents José Luis and Pilar run motorsport timing compan
Al Kamel Systems
her father also being a professional rally driver. In conjunction with her racing, García is also a competitively-registered pole vaulter with Club Atlètic Granollers. García placed 5th at the Catalan

U20 U20 or U-20 may refer to: Naval vessels * * , a sloop of the Royal Navy * , a submarine of the Austro-Hungarian Navy Other uses * Great truncated cuboctahedron * Meizu U20, a smartphone * Roland U-20, a synthesizer * Small nucleolar RNA S ...

Athletics Championships in 2018 with a jump of 3.15 metres.

Career

Karting

García began karting in 2015 in the Spanish Karting Championship, where she finished 10th in 2018 in the Senior-KZ2 class.

Lower formulae

She made her professional single-seater debut a year later, competing in the 2019 F4 Spanish Championship for Global Racing Service. She became the first woman to win a

Formula 4 FIA Formula 4 (F4) is an open-wheel racing car category intended for junior drivers. There is no global championship, but rather individual nations or regions can host their own championships in compliance with a universal set of rules and speci ...

race in Europe at just her second attempt at the

Circuito de Navarra Circuito de Navarra is a motorsport race track that opened in June 2010 near Los Arcos in the Navarre region of Northern Spain. It is a permanent road course that hosted the Superleague Formula series and the FIA GT1 World Championship. Histo ...

, but only managed a best result of seventh after that. She eventually finished the season 15th overall on equal points with

Nerea Martí Nerea Martí (born 2 January 2002) is a Spaniards, Spanish List of female racing drivers, racing driver. She previously raced in GT CER (Spanish Championship) with BMW Motorsport, BMW Promotion Motorsport, W Series (championship), W Series and F1 ...

, thus beating her to the female trophy on countback. She also received a call-up to race for Team Spain at the

2019 FIA Motorsport Games The 2019 FIA Motorsport Games was the first edition of the FIA Motorsport Games held at ACI Vallelunga Circuit, Campagnano di Roma from 1 November to 3 November 2019. The games were won by Russia. Summary It featured 2019 FIA Motorsport Games G ...

, as their representative in the Formula 4 Cup, where she finished 6th, from 12th on the grid.

W Series

The Catalan driver qualified for the W Series, a

Formula 3 Formula Three (F3) is a third-tier class of open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held in Europe, Australia, South America and Asia form an important step for many prospective Formula One drivers. History Formula Three (adop ...

championship for women, in 2020. She was set to twin this with participation in selected rounds of another Formula 3 championship, the

Formula Renault Eurocup Formula Renault Eurocup was a Formula Renault motor racing championship. Eurocup raced only on European circuits. It served as a support series to the Formula Renault 3.5 Series as part of the World Series by Renault from 2005 to 2015. Renault S ...

. However, following the cancellation of the 2020 W Series and the withdrawal of Global Racing Service from the

2020 Formula Renault Eurocup The 2020 Formula Renault Eurocup was a multi-event motor racing championship for open-wheel, formula racing cars held across Europe. The championship featured drivers competing in 1.8 litre Formula Renault single-seat race cars that conform to ...

due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, she was left without a drive for the season. She then opted for a temporary return to karting, finishing 7th overall in the KZ category of the Spanish Karting Championship, ahead of former Formula 1 driver

Roberto Merhi Roberto Merhi Muntan (born 22 March 1991) is a Spanish racing driver, who competes in the GT300 class of Super GT for LeMans. Merhi competed in Formula One at 14 Grands Prix in . Merhi previously competed in Formula E for Mahindra and who ...

. García also raced in the final round of the Spanish Endurance Championship at

Ciudad del Motor de Aragón Ciudad () is the Spanish word for "city". Ciudad or La Ciudad may also refer to: * La Ciudad (archaeological site), Hohokam ruins in Phoenix, Arizona * La Ciudad, district of Durango City, Mexico * ''La ciudad'', a novel by Mario Levrero published ...

, driving for NM Racing Team along with her father, in a Ginetta G55 GT4. They finished 6th in race 1 and 10th in race 2 overall but were ineligible for championship points. In 2021, García made her debut in the W Series, while also racing part-time in the

Formula Regional European Championship The Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine (FRECA) is a FIA-certified Formula Regional, regional European Formula Three, Formula 3 racing series. On 12 October 2018, it was announced that the Italian autosport regulator Automobile Club ...

with G4 Racing as preparation. She starred in the W Series season-opening round 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 ...

, where she qualified 3rd, dropped to 9th after running wide at turn 6, and then climbed back up to finish the race 4th. However, she was unable to replicate such performance in the remainder of the year, eventually finishing 10th in the standings with 28 points. García continued racing in the W Series for

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

. Paired with fellow Spanish driver

at the Quantfury team, García proved a much more consistent force, as she scored points in six of the seven rounds that took place before the season was called off in October due to financial issues. She secured her first series podium at Le Castellet in July with 2nd place, and finished the season fifth in the standings, ahead of Martí.

Endurance racing

After the cancellation of the remaining 2022 W Series rounds, García switched to endurance racing. She made her LMP3 debut at the Le Mans Cup season finale at

Portimão Portimão () is a city and a municipality in the district of Faro (district), Faro, in the Algarve region of southern Portugal. The population in 2022 was 63,079 in an area of 182.06 km2. It was formerly known as Vila Nova de Portimão. In ...

in October, racing for CD Sport alongside Chinese gentleman driver Huilin Han. A lengthy red flag period meant she effectively had little more than 20 minutes of driving in the race, where they finished 17th, but she later described the experience as "a lot of fun" and said she was "looking forward to driving a car like that again". She had her second LMP3 experience four weeks later, racing for Graff in the

Ultimate Cup Series The Ultimate Cup Series is an auto racing series formed in 2019. This endurance championship mainly takes place in France, with rounds elsewhere in Europe. The Ultimate Cup Series is a program comprising multiple endurance and sprint championshi ...

season-ending four-hour race at

Paul Ricard Paul Louis Marius Ricard (; July 9, 1909 – November 7, 1997) was a French industrialist and creator of an eponymous pastis brand which merged in 1975 with its competitor Pernod to create Pernod Ricard. Ricard was also an environmentalist and t ...

. García proved to be quick from the start, as she led the first practice session by more than a second over newly crowned champion Lucca Allen. Issues in qualifying meant she —along with bronze-rated teammates Eric Trouillet and Sébastien Page— had to start from tenth place, but by the end of the first hour they were already in the lead, and the trio ended up taking the win with a healthy 76-second margin. García set the second fastest lap of the race, a mere tenth of a second slower than LMP3 veteran Matt Bell. García remained with Trouillet and Page for her first full-time campaign in endurance racing, coming 14th in the 2023 Asian Le Mans Series in one of Graff's

Ligier JS P320 The Ligier JS P320 is an LMP3 Le Mans Prototype. It was created by Onroak Automotive, and named in partnership with former French driver Guy Ligier. It was built to meet ACO Generation II LMP3 standards, and can be built through an update kit for ...

LMP3 cars. She also continued in the 2023 Le Mans Cup, partnering amateur driver Mark Richards at 360 Racing. After a hesitant start, the pair managed three top-5 finishes from the last three rounds. She also made a one-off Prototype Cup Germany appearance at the

Norisring The Norisring is a street circuit in Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as a motorcycle racing venue in 1947 and named in a 1950 competition to win a light motorcycle, the track became known as a sports car racing venue in the 19 ...

for Van Ommen Racing by DataLab. Racing with her boyfriend Xavier Lloveras, she finished second in race one and came within 0.001 of the overall fastest lap. García ended the year on another high, topping the timesheets in the

ELMS The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the fo ...

rookie test at

with

García formally stepped up to the

in 2024, joining forces with Wyatt Brichacek and Alexander Mattschull at DKR. She achieved her maiden series podium in only her second outing at the 4 Hours of Le Castellet, but persistent issues with her driving position in the Duqueine D08 led her to abruptly split with DKR on the eve of the

Spa-Francorchamps The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (), informally referred to as Spa, is a motor-racing circuit located in Francorchamps, Stavelot, Wallonia, Belgium, about southeast of Spa. It is the current venue of the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix, ho ...

race. Having initially evaluated a

gap year A gap year, also known as a sabbatical year, is a period of time when students take a break from their studies, usually after completing high school or before beginning graduate school. During this time, students engage in a variety of educatio ...

for 2025, García accepted a late offer from ANS Motorsport to contest the NP02-spec European Endurance Prototype Cup.

Karting record

Karting career summary

Racing record

Racing career summary

^† As García was a guest driver, she was ineligible to score points.

Complete F4 Spanish Championship results

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

Complete FIA Motorsport Games results

Complete Formula Regional European Championship 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) ^† Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as they completed more than 90% of the race distance.

Complete Le Mans Cup results

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

Complete Asian Le Mans Series results

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

Complete European Le Mans Series results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) * – Ineligible for points having failed to meet minimum drive time. ^* Season still in progress.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia, Belen Spanish racing drivers Spanish female racing drivers 1999 births Living people Spanish F4 Championship drivers W Series drivers Spanish female pole vaulters People from Vallès Oriental Racing drivers from the Province of Barcelona Athletes from the Province of Barcelona Formula Regional European Championship drivers FIA Motorsport Games drivers Karting World Championship drivers Graff Racing drivers Asian Le Mans Series drivers Le Mans Cup drivers European Le Mans Series drivers 21st-century Spanish sportswomen