RACHEL ROBERTSON Awaits Life-Changing F1 Academy Call After Rapid 3-Year Rise

September 10, 2025

by HEATHER DEWAR // from www.dailymail.co.uk

GRRL! SUMMARY:

Eighteen-year-old RACHEL ROBERTSON is waiting for the phone call that could change everything – whether she’s earned a testing spot in Susie Wolff’s F1 Academy. The Scottish driver has accomplished something pretty remarkable: going from complete motorsport novice in 2022 to Formula 4 testing in just three years. She’s currently sitting third in the Radical Cup championship after five rounds, and recently impressed during F1 Academy testing in Italy where she was only 0.35 seconds off the top driver’s pace – a gap that had the team asking “How did you do that?!”
The financial reality of motorsport hits different when you’re not from a “multi-millionaire family,” as Robertson puts it. Testing days cost over £7,000 each, and F1 Academy drivers needed £100,000 just to compete last year. That’s where TV presenter Gabby Logan stepped in with the first-ever “Gabby Grant” – £15,000 that funded Robertson’s crucial Formula 4 testing. Logan recognized something special in the determined Scottish teenager, noting her talent and work ethic in a sport that remains stubbornly male-dominated.
What makes Robertson’s story compelling isn’t just the speed of her progression, but her perspective on what it takes. She was the only girl racing in the senior category of the British Kart Championship, competing against drivers with 10-20 times more race experience. Now she’s chasing the F1 Academy spot that could prove “anything is possible” regardless of family wealth or racing pedigree. Her next milestone is the Formula One rookie test this month – the stepping stone that could lead to an F1 Academy drive and a shot at rewriting the narrative about who belongs in motorsport’s upper echelons.