The showcasing of emergent female racing talent that Extreme E has provided is well illustrated by Hedda Hosaas.
Two years ago, the 20-year-old was working as a mechanic at a Nissan dealership in her native Norway. Now she can count herself among the elite few who have got to call themselves a McLaren factory driver after making her debut for the papaya outfit at the Copper X Prix in Chile alongside veteran Tanner Foust.
“It’s unbelievable. It’s a huge honor to be with McLaren,” she tells RACER of her rise up the ranks. “I was a mechanic until I got the contract with Veloce as a development driver. Then I started to put my all into racing, I quit my job and went all in. Two years later I’m here with McLaren, which is unbelievable.”
Originally a motocross competitor before transitioning to rallycross, it was while racing in Denmark where she was spotted by her now-manager Ian Davies, who lined her up for a test with Extreme E team Veloce Racing.
“Her ambition and professionalism drew me to her and she didn’t really know how good she could be, if that makes sense,” Davies tells RACER. “She was happy to join the Veloce tests and just absorbed everything. She always got on well with Lance Woolridge, who took her under his wing. She was grateful for even a few kilometers in the car as a driver but sat as a passenger alot to observe the others, too.”
Since that initial test in 2021, Hosaas has served the vast majority of her racing apprenticeship under the spotlight on Extreme E’s world stage, climbing from the testing role with Veloce Racing to filling in at that team when Christine Giampaoli Zonca was injured at the 2022 season opener in Saudi Arabia. The brief cameo in the desert, which saw her go toe-to-toe with motorsport icon Carlos Sainz, earned her a call-up for JBXE where she remained for the remainder of that season and most of ‘23 before McLaren came calling.
It’s been a big platform for Hosaas to grow but one that she’s flourished in, benefitting from the endless amount of experience that surrounds her.
“It’s amazing because in Extreme E you get to be with drivers like Tanner — he has a lot of experience, you can learn from them, and also McLaren as a team,” she says. “Also, I’ve been with Andreas Bakkerud, I’ve been with Fraser McConnell, Kevin Hansen… you have so much to learn about drivers that have so much experience and Extreme E’s given females that chance.”
Giving female drivers the chance to race for big teams alongside vastly experienced male drivers has paid dividends. Already before the 2023 season, a 26 percent rise in female driver lap times was noted, and now it can be said that the competitive order isn’t completely clear cut between the genders.
“Yeah that’s true,” Hosaas agrees. “The females are up there with the boys, which is so good — it’s amazing to see.”