A Dutch karting prodigy turned Formula 4 competitor, Rosanne Den Drijver has become the first driver from Westland ever to race in single-seater formula competition — and she’s doing it at seventeen.

EARLY YEARS

Born around 2008–2009 in Westland, a municipality in South Holland better known for its greenhouse agriculture than its racing pedigree, Den Drijver picked up karting at age eleven after her first experience in a hire kart at Van der Ende Racing in Poeldijk — a facility that bills itself as the largest indoor kart track in Europe [15]. The sport immediately took hold. Within a couple of years she had moved from recreational laps to competitive entries, joining PDB Racing Team and working her way into the GK4 Kart Series and the IAME Series Benelux [12][21]. The financial reality of the sport was not lost on her family: “For me and for my father, who supports me, karting is not so much a hobby, it is rather an investment,” she told Rodi.nl. “Because you want to go further in it” [10]. That framing — motorsport as a serious, purposeful undertaking rather than a weekend pastime — appears to have defined her approach from the start.

OTHER INTERESTS

Away from the circuit, she was enrolled in 3 VWO — the pre-university track in the Dutch secondary education system — at the time of a local profile interview, balancing competitive racing with a demanding academic programme [10]. She mentioned a possible interest in starting her own business someday, while acknowledging she hadn’t settled on anything yet: “I’m currently in 3 VWO so I still have some time” [10]. The dual commitment to education and elite sport says something about her environment; the Dutch VWO track is not a soft option, and maintaining it alongside international racing schedules requires a level of organisation that doesn’t tend to show up in results sheets.

EARLY SUCCESS

The first sign that Den Drijver was more than a quick karting hobbyist came at age thirteen at the Genk International Karting Circuit during a GK4 Kart Series round, where she raced in the Formula Honda 9 PK category [12]. In wet conditions — the great equaliser and the great revealer — she made her move at the start of the race: “I took the inside curve and immediately overtook five people. After that there were still some seniors in front of me and I overtook almost all of them too” [12]. She won the junior category, defeating all male competitors, and finished second overall [12][20]. She was thirteen. The fact that she was racing without her parents present at an international event did not go unmentioned: “I missed my parents of course, that made it a bit more difficult, but I was perfectly taken care of and guided by the team” [12]. That combination of competitive instinct and emotional self-awareness is not something most thirteen-year-olds can articulate so cleanly.

From there, her karting trajectory continued upward through the IAME Series Benelux, where she competed in the X30 Lady class [8][21][22] — a category she described as “the kings class of karting” [8]. Her appetite was clearly for the most competitive version of whatever category she entered. The regional press in Westland tracked her progress with genuine interest, running multiple profiles as she became an increasingly credible name in Dutch junior motorsport [10][11][20]. By 2024 and into 2025, her team and support network had begun taking steps toward single-seater competition, identifying Formula 4 as the next logical arena.

In April 2025, she tested a Formula 4 car in Barcelona [2], her first exposure to single-seater machinery. That session was followed in November 2025 by a more significant test at England’s Croft Circuit with JHR Developments — a team noted specifically for its track record of developing F1 Academy champions [13]. The sixteen-year-old made an immediate impression. Local reporting described her as someone who “learns extremely quickly” alongside displaying raw pace [13], and the broader Dutch motorsport press noted she had confirmed she belonged in the Formula 4 conversation [13]. The step from a kart to a single-seater producing speeds of around 230 km/h [1] is not a trivial one, and the fact that it was taken with visible competence rather than a cautious, slow-burn adjustment period was not lost on observers.

For the 2026 season, she secured a race seat with STEP Motorsport in the Nordic 4 Championship [1][3][6][11] — an eight-race series contested across Scandinavian circuits. It was her first full season in formula racing, and it did not take long to yield results. At Gelleråsen Arena in Karlskoga, Sweden, she claimed her first-ever Nordic 4 victory and, with it, her first win in Formula 4 machinery [5][7]. RACERS described it as part of “a breakthrough weekend for the female drivers in the Nordic 4 Championship” [5], placing her performance within a broader pattern of women making substantive inroads in the series rather than simply filling grid slots. She was seventeen years old.

NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS

• 2021–2022 (approx.): At age 13, won the junior category of the GK4 Kart Series round at Genk International Karting Circuit, defeating all male competitors and finishing second overall in wet-weather conditions [12][20].
• 2025: Completed her first Formula 4 test at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Spain [2].
• 2025: Impressed at Croft Circuit, England, during a Formula 4 test with JHR Developments — a team with an established record in F1 Academy driver development [13].
• 2026: Became the first driver from Westland ever to compete in Formula 4 [3][11].
• 2026: Claimed her maiden Nordic 4 Championship victory at Gelleråsen Arena, Karlskoga, Sweden, with STEP Motorsport [5][7].

INSPIRATIONS

Specific drivers or figures cited as direct inspirations do not appear in the available documentation. What does emerge from multiple interviews is a sense that her motivation is fundamentally internal and long-term — rooted in a family understanding that racing is an investment in a serious future, not a series of enjoyable weekends [10]. The goal of reaching F1 Academy is referenced by sponsors and team affiliations [1][23][26], suggesting that the broader ecosystem of elite female motorsport has shaped her trajectory even if individual role models aren’t named on record.

REPUTATION

The coverage of Den Drijver across Dutch regional media and motorsport outlets reflects a driver who has earned attention the old-fashioned way — by going faster than expected and doing it against male competition. The Westland regional press followed her karting career with evident local pride, noting her status as “the first Westlander ever in Formula 4” across multiple outlets [3][11]. Dutch motorsport reporting described her as demonstrating that she “belongs to the fastest of the Formula 4 field” after her Karlskoga performance [9][13], a meaningful distinction in a series that is by design competitive and developmental. Her November 2025 test with JHR Developments at Croft drew specific praise for her learning speed, not just her outright pace [13] — a characterisation that matters in single-seater racing, where the ability to interpret data and adapt quickly is as commercially valuable as a fast lap time. Within the Nordic 4 Championship, her maiden victory was framed not as an outlier but as confirmation of a pattern already visible in the results [5][7].

FUTURE GOALS/PLANS

The stated next milestone on Den Drijver’s career path is F1 Academy, the FIA-backed single-seater series for female drivers that feeds toward Formula 3 and Formula 2 [1][23][26]. Multiple sponsors are described as supporting her “journey to the F1 Academy” [1], indicating that this is not a vague aspiration but an active planning framework around which her 2026 Nordic 4 campaign is structured. Success in the Nordic 4 Championship — particularly a maiden victory in only her debut season of Formula 4 — positions her as a credible candidate for the step up. She remains enrolled in secondary school as she pursues these goals [10], which means the next two to three years will require her to manage the increasingly complex demands of both an educational and a professional racing career simultaneously. Given what she’s managed so far, that particular challenge probably doesn’t keep her up at night.

References:

Roos Racing – Rosanne Den Drijver Profile
Westlanders.nu – Rosanne Den Drijver gaat testrijden in Formule 4
Westlanders.nu – Rosanne Den Drijver: eerste Westlandse in de Formule 4
Rodi.nl – Westlandse Rosanne Den Drijver maakt indruk bij eerste Formule 4-test in Engeland
Racers Behind the Helmet – Rosanne Den Drijver Claims Maiden Nordic4 Victory
STEP Motorsport – News
Racers Behind the Helmet
Jong Talent Westland – Rosanne Den Drijver
Fotowalter – Rosanne Den Drijver
Rodi.nl – Op de pijp met Rosanne Den Drijver
Rodi.nl – Eerste Westlandse ooit in Formule 4: Rosanne Den Drijver zet grote stap richting top
RacExpress – Rosanne Den Drijver (13) verslaat alle jongens en wint op Genk
Westlanders.nu – Rosanne Den Drijver imponeert bij eerste Formule 4-test
Van der Ende Racing
Rodi.nl – Rosanne Den Drijver is alle jongens te snel af in GK4 Kart Series
IAME Motorsport – Rosanne Den Drijver Driver Profile
Kartcom – Den Drijver Rosanne
F1 Academy Official Site
Van Amersfoort Racing – News 2026