Alisha Palmowski on young female talent, becoming GB4 Vice Champion and making her F1 Academy debut

In her career so far, Alisha Palmowski has accumulated a range of achievements, climbing the motorsport ladder from karting through to Ginetta Juniors and single seater racing. Having competed in the Daniel Ricciardo Series in her karting career and winning the Ginetta Junior Scholarship in 2022, making her debut in the category the same year and staying there for 2023.

In 2024, Alisha competed in the GB4 Championship with Elite Motorsport, as well as taking part in the Formula E Women’s Test and joining F1 Academy as the Wild Card entry for the penultimate round of the year in Qatar.

Silverstone caught up with Alisha to learn more about her career so far and how she hopes to influence other girls and young women in motorsport.

Growing up as a young girl in Manchester, Alisha always had the influence of motorsport around her, but it was totally by chance that she got involved in the sport herself. Alisha’s great grandad, Mario Palmowski, was actually a BriSCA F1 Stock Car racing driver, and it’s from him that she believes her passion came from.

“Although I never got the chance to meet him, I believe I had racing in my blood growing up,” she says. “Just always watching racing on the TV, Formula 1 was always on and I went to a few British Grand Prix races at Silverstone, just to watch.

“I always enjoyed it but never realised, being a female in the sport, that it was an avenue available to me, just due to the lack of representation.”

It was when she was nine years old, during the school holidays, that Alisha went karting for the first time, just as something fun to do when she was staying with her grandparents at their local indoor track.

“When they said I was going karting, I’d never even heard of a go kart,” Alisha says. “I didn’t even know what it was so it was totally by chance but I absolutely loved it and was hooked instantly.

“I wasn’t that quick and didn’t have a clue about racing lines but I just loved it.”

From falling in love with karting on that initial visit, Alisha continued to return to the same indoor track and joined local karting championships, getting quicker and gaining more confidence. Even though she didn’t think it could be a career at the time, she continued karting as a hobby, joined by her parents at the track each weekend.

“My dad always really loved motorsport and loved cars so he was really enjoying the journey with me, but I was never pushed into racing if I didn’t want to,” Alisha remembers. “My mum and dad made it very clear that this was just a bit of fun to do at the weekend and if I enjoyed it, then brilliant, but if I didn’t, I’d stop.

“Both my mum and dad have been to every single race I’ve ever done, so I’m extremely lucky with that.”

The support from her parents, as well as her interest in Formula 1 from watching it at the weekends and idolising Jenson Button, thinking it was so cool that she was karting like he once did, created the mixture of influence that meant Alisha kept going and kept progressing in a kart.

When Alisha was karting, there were only a handful of other girls at the track but having attended different karting events now that she’s older and things are changing, Alisha has seen the change in numbers already.

“We know that motorsport is a male-dominated environment, but I can’t say I’ve ever had any negative experiences because of it,” Alisha says. “When the helmet goes on, the car doesn’t have a gender and we’re all out there fighting for the same thing, fighting for the win, so I believe we should all be treated equally and I believe I have.”

Alisha spent her first two years of racing in karts in corporate local indoor championships, like Daytona Manchester and Daytona Tamworth, then, when she was 11, Alisha decided to progress onto a national championship. She got her own kart and joined the Daniel Ricciardo Series, jumping straight into juniors.

“I became the junior rookie champion in my first year which was a great bonus because when I was 11 years old, I was competing against 15-16 year old boys, so that was a huge highlight,” she says. “Daniel Ricciardo actually came to a round in 2019, so we met him at Whilton Mill and he encouraged us all so that was amazing.”

In 2020 and 2021, Alisha became Vice Champion in karting and she spent four years in the championship, each year making more progress.

“It was just an upwards trajectory really so instead of one moment that stands out, just overviewing that experience and how we progressed really gave me confidence and believe that if we stick at this, I’m actually getting somewhere.”

Alisha entered the Ginetta Junior Scholarship for the first time in 2020, the biggest scholarships at junior level and in the UK, as well as almost worldwide, one of the biggest prizes a young driver could win. Alisha and her family had pinpointed that Ginetta Juniors was the place to be, especially with the drivers who have passed through the series including Lando Norris and Jamie Chadwick, but the budget to compete in the series is massive, and one Alisha and her family could only achieve with the scholarship.

“We kept getting further in each round so the hope was starting to build up, knowing it was my only opportunity to be on the grid next year,” she says. “When we didn’t win, my main emotion was happiness which sounds bizarre, but I finished fifth overall, which I couldn’t believe out of 60 drivers.

“I was the highest female by quite a margin, so I was over the moon. We’d done so well to get so far.”

The following year, Alisha entered the scholarship again, and as she was reaching the maximum age to enter, it was her final chance to succeed and win the financial support she needed for a season on the Ginetta Juniors grid. She felt more pressure the second time round, knowing it was her final opportunity, but she made it to the final shootout, where each driver’s name is pulled from a hat in the order of their final laps to decide the winner. Alisha’s name was pulled from the hat last.

“I stood on the embankment to watch every other driver go out and do their laps, with my helmet on, ready to go, knowing that this is make or break for my whole career so it was really nerve racking,” she says. “When they announced me as the winner, it was just a mixture of shock and happiness, just disbelief really, because it was our only chance of ever getting into cars.

“Winning the scholarship is my career highlight and it always will be, no matter what I go on to achieve, because without winning the scholarship, I wouldn’t be in single seaters now. It’s all a chain reaction.”

Alisha joined the Elite Motorsport outfit for the 2022 Ginetta Junior season and then had the opportunity to test the GB4 car with the team after a successful year of learning and progressing in closed wheel racing. Once she finished her time in Ginetta Juniors, Alisha had to make the decision between going down the GT route or the single seater route. She tested a Porsche Cayman and a Porsche Carrera Cup car, but she also had the opportunity to test the GB4 car with Elite in Valencia.

“It just became clear to me then, instantly, that it was where I was meant to be,” Alisha says. “I completely adapted to the single seater, I was on the pace from the get go and I came off with the biggest smile on my face.

“I’ve been the happiest ever in a race car this year than I ever have been, I just really feel at home.”

Alisha competed in the 2024 GB4 Championship with Elite Motorsport. After not managing to win a race in Ginetta Juniors in 2023, it had been a long time since she won a race, and in her GB4 debut at Oulton Park, Alisha took her first win in the series and made her first trip to the top step of the podium this year.

“To win my first ever race in a single seater was the biggest confidence boost for me,” Alisha says. “Just to have the inner self belief that I was new to it and I hadn’t got the experience but I was able to get in the car and get the job done straight away was great.”

An exceptional rookie season in GB4, Alisha finished her 2024 campaign second in the championship with 422 points. Overall, she took three wins, three second place finishes and five third place finishes. Alisha raced at Silverstone across two rounds in GB4 and took a trip to the podium at each visit, but she has raced at the circuit prior to this year.

“A stand out moment for me was when I first drove Silverstone in 2022 in Ginetta Juniors,” she says. “I drove the full GP circuit and just driving round, seeing all these corners, all these moments that I’d seen from Formula 1 just came flashing back, so to realise it’s actually real and I’m here now is surreal.

“Not many people get that chance so I’m just grateful that I’ve got the opportunity. It’s such a special place to be at. I love every lap I drive around Silverstone.”

Alisha is also part of the BRDC Rising Star programme and visited Silverstone earlier this year for the British Grand Prix, where she watched the race from the BRDC Clubhouse in the vicinity of some of the drivers she’s followed whilst growing up, like David Coulthard, Johnny Herbert and Jenson Button.

“I’m so honoured and privileged to have been recognised to be part of the Rising Star programme, because the calibre of drivers that are members, Rising Stars or SuperStars, it’s such a high standard,” she says. “It’s such a prestigious club so I’m over the moon. It’s such a great opportunity to network and be around such a great group of people that I really idolise and respect.”

Alisha’s aim is to progress to the highest level of motorsport possible for her, whatever that may be, and to be a role model for young females because when she was five years old and watching F1 on the television, she didn’t even realise that racing and motorsport as a whole was something she could ever be involved in,

“There are so many opportunities, whether it be in engineering, as a mechanic, a driver,” she says. “Whether it be me or another female, if we can just get a role model towards the pinnacle of motorsport so the situation that happened to me isn’t replicated in the future, so the younger generation can see representation of themselves and can see that they can get involved with it.”

Alisha is cementing her place as a female role model in motorsport too, not only with her achievements this season in GB4, but by taking part in both the Formula E Women’s Test and the Qatar round of F1 Academy.

Held at the Circuit del Jarama in Madrid, the Women’s Test was a first for Formula E, and Alisha joined Envision Racing for her first outing in the new for Season 11 GEN3 Evo race car.

“To participate in Formula E’s first all-women’s test amongst some of the strongest female talent in motorsport was just awesome,” she says. “The GEN3 Evo car is completely different to anything I’ve previously driven or experienced so it was a huge learning curve; it’s a completely different ballgame to most forms of motorsport with all the different technicalities, and the whole experience has given me a huge amount of respect for the FE drivers and engineers.”

Even though the test was difficult for Alisha’s side of the garage after changes were made to the car which meant she lost the first hour of testing and a red flag during the session meant she didn’t have the chance for a full power run, it was an experience she’ll never forget.

Shortly after the Formula E test, Alisha was announced as the F1 Academy Wild Card entry for the Qatar round at the Lusail International Circuit on Grand Prix weekend. Joining PREMA, like all Wild Card entries for 2024, Alisha made an incredible debut, finishing P3 in FP2, the best finish for any Wild Card driver this year, she qualified P6 and P4 and, in race one, finished in P5. Unfortunately, however, for Alisha on her debut weekend, the second F1 Academy race in Qatar was cancelled due to barrier damage, meaning she didn’t get the chance to race again.

“We struggled during Qualifying and the first race with severe graining which hindered our pace but nevertheless, I learned so much and I’m so grateful to everyone at F1 Academy for giving me the chance to show what I can do,” Alisha says. “I’m gutted the second race was cancelled but to have the opportunity to race on the F1 Academy grid as a support series for Formula 1 was a dream come true.”

Alisha announced her exciting 2025 plans soon after her debut weekend on the F1 Academy grid, sharing that she will be joining the series full-time for the upcoming season. She’ll be looking to fight for the title with Campos Racing, supported by Red Bull Racing, as part of the Red Bull Academy Programme.

Like many young drivers, Alisha would love to be a Formula 1 driver.

“I’d love to make it to Formula 1 and I’d love to be World Champion, but just to have had a successful career in motorsport, if I can look back in 30 years and my job was a racing driver, then for me, that’s been a success,” Alisha says. “A successful career would just be that I’m happy, I’m enjoying it and still in motorsport, to have a successful career in racing.”