First Indian Woman To Race Ferrari Internationally,And Nobody Saw this Coming | Diana Pundole

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She was a schoolteacher from Pune. A mother of two. Someone who had never sat in a racing car before 2018. And Nobody Saw this Coming.
On August 18, 2024, Diana Pundole made history at the Madras International Circuit in Chennai — becoming the first Indian woman to ever win a national championship in Indian motorsport. Not in a women’s-only category. Not in a separate league. She competed directly against men, wheel to wheel, lap to lap — and she won.
Her story didn’t start on a racetrack. It started in a classroom. Diana was a teacher before she discovered her passion for speed. In 2018, she was selected for the JK Tyre Women in Motorsport programme — a moment that changed everything. From her very first race, she showed something that no one could teach: raw, fearless instinct behind the wheel.
She trained on some of the most iconic circuits in the world — Monza in Italy, Mugello in Tuscany, and the Dubai Autodrome. While other racers had years of head starts, Diana was quietly building, improving, and closing the gap. Season after season, podium after podium, she was becoming someone the boys on the grid could no longer ignore.
And then came 2024. The MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Car Racing Championship. The Saloon Cars category. A full season of competition against some of India’s most experienced drivers — all of them men. Diana didn’t just participate. She dominated. She clinched the championship title and made history that no one can ever take away.
After the win, she said: “I didn’t touch my phone because I wanted to focus on this weekend’s races. I can’t describe the feelings now, but I’m very happy, of course.”
That’s the quiet fire of a woman who had already decided she was going to win long before anyone else believed it.
But she wasn’t done. In November 2025, Diana Pundole stepped into another chapter of history — becoming the first Indian woman ever to race a Ferrari in an international championship. She took the wheel of a Ferrari 296 Challenge in the Ferrari Club Challenge Middle East, competing across the most prestigious circuits in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. A track-focused Ferrari with a twin-turbo V6 engine, advanced aerodynamics, and telemetry systems. Racing among the best in the Middle East. Representing India. Wearing the Prancing Horse.
She said it best herself: “Being part of the Ferrari Club Challenge Middle East as the first Indian woman is a proud moment not just for me but for women in Indian motorsport.”
Diana credits her late father for igniting her love of speed. Every lap she drives, every barrier she breaks, she carries him with her.
She is a teacher. A mother. A national champion. An international Ferrari racer. And she built all of it from scratch, in a sport that had never made space for someone like her.
India has produced warriors in cricket, in badminton, in wrestling. Now it has one on the racetrack too.
Her name is Diana Pundole. And Nobody Saw Her Coming.
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