Sophia Flörsch is a 21-year-old German racing driver, competing with Algarve Pro Racing in the European Le Mans Series.
Sophia began racing when she was just five years old and took part in many karting events across Europe. She made history by becoming the first female and youngest driver to compete in the 2008 SAKC Championship, and again a year later in the 2009 ADAC German Championship. She made this a hat-trick the following year in 2010, by competing in the European Championship, Easykart.
Six years ago, the German driver partook in the 2015 Ginetta Junior Championship season competing with HHC Motorsport. During her time in the championship, she became the youngest driver to win a Ginetta Junior race as well as being the first rookie to take two victories across the race weekend.
Unfortunately, as racing is such an expensive sport to partake in, Sophia’s time in Ginetta Junior ended prematurely when standing third in the campaign and leading the Rookie championship due to financial reasons.
A year later in 2016, she signed with the ADAC Formula 4 championship, competing with Motopark. During Sophia’s debut, she became the first female race driver to claim points in an ADAC Formula 4 race. A podium was within touching distance during her third race of the season when a collision with another car sent her tumbling down the field resulting in her crossing the line to claim fifth position.
Her journey with the championship continued into 2017 with BWT Mücke Motorsport where she took two podiums and two fastest lap times.
Sophia’s racing talents allowed her to move up the ranks into the FIA Formula 3 European Championship in March 2018. She first entered the championship whilst test driving a Van Amersfoort race car and four months later joined the racing team in the Netherlands at Circuit Zandvoort. Sophia claimed a point at the Red Bull Ring in Austria leaving her 22nd in the drivers’ standings.
Later in the year, Flörsch participated in the Formula 3 World Cup at the Macau Grand Prix. When racing on lap 4, wrongly displayed yellow flags were waved on the straight between Turn 3 and Turn 4, resulting in Jehan Daruvalareducing speed. Flörsch made contact with Daruvala due to this which caused a suspension failure at the front left of her car, forcing her into Sho Tsuboi. She was then launched into the air hurtling straight into the photographer’s bunker before falling back onto the ground. After the gut-wrenching incident, Flörsch was conscious, along with Tsuboi and both were taken straight to the hospital. As well as the drivers, two photographers and a marshal were medically checked over.
During the horrifying 172MPH incident, Sophia endured a spinal fracture whereby she needed 10-hour surgery the following day.
Sophia bravely got back behind the wheel in 2019 for the first time since the accident in Monza for a two-day testing event with Formula 3’s Van Amersfoort team. After an initial announcement that she would race for the team in the 2019 European Formula European Masters, Sophia and her team moved to compete in the Formula Regional European Championship to race with updated F3 machinery. At the end of the season, Sophia finished her campaign seventh in the driver’s standings.
Her racing career continued when she was selected to compete in the 2019 Macau Grand Prix. However, she did not finish this race due to a mechanical failure on Lap 8. During the 2020 racing season, she signed with Campos Racing for the FIA Formula 3 Championship to race with Alessio Deledda and Alex Peroni. At the end of a challenging year with many mechanical issues, she ended up 29th in the standings, with a personal best of 12th. Although only finishing 6 positions above last, Sophia made history by becoming the first female to race in the championship since the GP3 Series and the European F3 categories merged together.
At the start of 2020, Sophia earned international recognition winning the World Comeback of the Year award at the 2020 Laureus World Sports Awards in Berlin, after her shocking racing accident.
Whilst collecting the award Sophia said, “This is a dream come true to be honest.I’m very happy to be here and to be holding this in my hand now is a huge honour. Standing in front of you all, you are all my idols, and I look up to you all – it’s incredible! It was hard at times, but I always had the goal to come back in a race car which happened 106 days later.”
2020 continued to be a busy year for the 21-year-old as she made her debut in prototype racing. She also joined the Le Castellet 240 with W Series’ Beitske Visser for Richard Mille Racing Team in the LMP2 class of the 2020 European Le Mans Series. Her time with the team allowed her to partake in the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans, finishing in 9thbeside Visser.
Another year saw another championship for Sophia as she entered the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship with her team, finishing third alongside Ferdinand Habsburg and Richard Bradley. Sophia once again made history and allowed great female representation by becoming the first woman to finish on an overall podium in the series.
Alongside her championship racing she was asked to replace Deigo Menchaca at the season finale of the 2021 European Le Mans Series in Portimão. Her impressive championship appearances continued as she raced in the 2021 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters for Abt Sportline. During her time competing she completed 14 out of the 16 races and bagged 8 points.
Earlier this year she left the project making a full-campaign return to the European Le Means Series with G-Drive Racing, driving two of the team’s Oreca 07 LMP2 cars.
Sophia Flörsch is a great example of someone helping to rethink racing and never giving up. Her determination when battling through physical and mental hardships allows her to be a recognised and respected name in the motorsport industry. The importance of role models and racers to look up to continues to be of great significance and positive female representation in the motorsport industry is of huge value for those in it, and those wanting to join it.
Written by Caitlin Carroll.
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