'I started driving two years ago - now I've been signed up by McClaren'

"We are each driving the aforesaid car connected the aforesaid track. It is who wins astatine the extremity of the day."

Ella Lloyd, 19, is joining 1 of the biggest Formula 1 brands successful the satellite and said the practice would get much women into the athletics - some down the instrumentality and down the scenes.

An accomplished jock successful skiing and amusement jumping, Ella, from Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf is joining McLaren for its 2025 F1 Academy season.

Despite her success, she inactive gets "mixed views" from men successful the athletics and hopes her spot and an upcoming Netflix series pursuing immoderate of her peers, volition assistance overtake stereotypes.

Ella lone started driving 2 years agone but has already competed successful races each implicit the world, securing 4 podiums successful her past F4 season.

In 2025 she volition correspond McLaren wherever she volition beryllium 1 of 22 drivers aiming for success.

She said: "Its an astonishing accidental to beryllium progressive with McLaren and to beryllium connected the improvement programme.

"It's a afloat pistillate grid to effort and beforehand females successful motorsport, not conscionable successful driving but arsenic engineers and truthful on.

"Its going to beryllium a large jump, not successful presumption of car, but conscionable being successful F1 and the media but I'm acceptable for it."

The Netflix bid volition travel immoderate of Ella's peers successful their races and idiosyncratic lives and volition beryllium produced by Reece Wetherspoon's institution Hello Sunshine.

Ella is not successful the programme but said the practice to get women successful athletics was precise important for F1's future.

"There isn’t that galore females astatine a precocious level truthful determination aren’t galore [women] to look up and accidental 'I privation to get into it,' but F1 Academy is creating that.

"Seeing females compete, particularly connected the F1 weekend, is decidedly going to marque young females get into it."

She said, contempt proving their place, women inactive struggled to get the enactment of immoderate of their antheral peers.

"I person been competing against males this full twelvemonth connected F4 and its been beauteous affirmative and I've had rather a fewer podiums truthful determination is nary crushed we tin not beryllium arsenic bully oregon adjacent better," she said.

"When you're retired connected way they astir apt don’t similar being passed by females but erstwhile you're connected the way overtaking you're each determination to bash the aforesaid thing."

Despite this, she said does not consciousness the pressure: "My extremity is to spell to F1 but I americium conscionable making tiny steps each clip I get successful the car to borderline my mode person and person to the goal.

"It would beryllium beauteous astonishing to get that precocious [to contention successful F1] and it would animate much women to get into motorsports. Not conscionable driving but the mechanics and everything."

Ella puts successful a batch of hours of grooming but said she could not bash it without her family, who travel to each contention and way time to enactment her.

They adjacent person their ain peculiar routines.

"My mam plaits it successful 2 plaits truthful it goes straight betwixt my spine... She has ever plaited my hairsbreadth since truthful it's benignant of a contented now."

Her begetter Chris Lloyd is simply a Paralympic skier who was paralysed from the cervix down aft a rally car mishap successful 2011.

She said helium has ever encouraged her sporting ambitions.

"My household are ever determination with maine immoderate I americium doing. I can't convey them enough.

"He [dad] inactive gets precise tense erstwhile I get successful the car. I don’t deliberation helium likes it precise overmuch conscionable successful lawsuit thing happens."

In a occupation with truthful overmuch travelling, Ella said she ever makes definite to caput location erstwhile she is not testing, but she admits she does not "miss the rain".