Eight female co-drivers will contest the season-opening Rally Serras de Fafe, Felgueiras, Boticas, Vieira do Minho e Cabeceiras de Basto this week, including Spain’s Sara Fernández.
The 37-year-old is beginning her pursuit of a third consecutive FIA European Rally Championship for Co-Drivers having stepped up from national level to the ERC’s top division via a Junior ERC campaign with Efrén Llarena.
And it’s Fernández’s success that has served as an inspiration for Julia Thulin, who has been recruited to co-driver fellow Swede Pontus Tidemand during the 2023 ERC season.
“To see women in motorsport is always something because we are not a lot of them,” said 25-year-old Thulin, who made her ERC debut co-driving Robert Virves to the ERC3 win on ORLEN Rally Poland last season before going on to navigate him to the FIA Junior WRC Championship title on EKO Acropolis Rally Greece last September.
Thulin continued: “It doesn’t matter who it is, just that by competing in the sport they are setting a benchmark that we can also do it and we need to prove it. I am really happy to see we are eight girls in Fafe this year, it’s so much fun and I hope it will inspire some other girls younger or older to also come and join us.”
Italians Tania Canton and Virginia Lenzi, Jeannette Kvick from Denmark, Mathilde Margaillan from France, Austrian Ilka Minor and Portugal’s Inês Ponte (pictured below) complete the line-up of women co-drivers competing in the ERC.
Rally Serras de Fafe, Felgueiras, Boticas, Vieira do Minho e Cabeceiras de Basto runs from Friday 10 March to Sunday 12 March. All stages will be shown live on WRC+ and the new Rally.tv platform.
Click HERE for more on the FIA Women in Motorsport initiative.
Finland
Italy
Hungary