12 July 2023

Last week I did something pretty amazing. Being invited to visit the Alpine Formula One Team’s factory and to attend part of the British Grand Prix weekend at Silverstone was a dream come true. I’m hugely grateful to Alpine and its Rac(H)er programme for the opportunity.

For three days, I enjoyed being submerged in an elite sporting environment at the top of motorsport. With my recent Swiss Championship OK Junior grand slam win in Mirecourt fresh in my mind, it was exciting to see what could be achieved if I continue to work hard and impress on the track.

As part of a group of young drivers, I started my visit last Wednesday by doing fitness tests at Enstone. We performed full-body tests, strength tests for our legs, and measurements of how much we could turn our heads. These were challenging, but it was good to measure my progress.

My favourite aspect of the trip was when I visited the Silverstone Circuit on Thursday. The scale of the track and the popularity of the British Grand Prix was incredible!

It was awesome to see the hard work happening in Alpine’s garage, and it proved the value of teamwork as there were so many people working on the cars. One of the most memorable things was seeing how every single drop of fuel in the cars is analysed and monitored.

I’m also hugely grateful for the time that Alpine’s Formula 2 and Formula 3 drivers spent talking to us during my visit. It was fantastic to meet Sophia Flörsch who is a member of the Alpine Academy. She is a huge idol of mine, being a fellow female driver.

Also, it was great to meet Victor Martins. He spoke about the importance of maintaining a positive mentality as a driver and how best to prepare during a race week. As Victor won his F2 feature race only a few days later, I’ll be putting his advice into practice!

Going behind-the-scenes made me appreciate the hard work that isn’t always shown by the television cameras.

Overall, the opportunity to take valuable advice from Alpine’s engineers, strategists, drivers, and athletes has left me feeling inspired and even more determined to maximise the rest of my karting season – beginning next weekend at Cremona for the Champions of the Future OKJ races.