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In a groundbreaking second for motorsport, 28-year-old Swiss racing driver Laura Villars has thrown her helmet into the ring for probably the most prestigious place in worldwide automotive sports activities.
Her announcement to run for President of the Fédération Internationale de l’Car (FIA) marks the primary time within the group’s 120-year historical past {that a} girl has sought its highest workplace.
Who Is Laura Villars?
Born on August 29, 1997, in Switzerland, Laura Villars represents a brand new technology of motorsport management. Removed from being simply one other formidable candidate, she brings a novel mixture of racing credentials and entrepreneurial imaginative and prescient to the desk. Her racing resume spans a number of prestigious sequence throughout Europe and the Center East, demonstrating each versatility and dedication in one of many world’s most demanding sports activities.
Villars has carved out her place in motorsport by sheer benefit. With 58 race begins throughout top-tier sequence, together with the Final Cup Collection F3R, F4 UAE, Ferrari Problem Europe, and Ligier European Collection, she’s confirmed herself on tracks from Monaco to Abu Dhabi. Her standout achievement got here in 2023 when she completed fifth total in her first full season within the Final Cup Collection F3R – a exceptional feat that showcased her pure expertise and fast improvement as a driver.
What units Villars other than many presidential candidates is her energetic involvement within the sport she seeks to manipulate. At present competing within the Ligier European Collection JS P4 with Workforce Virage in 2025, she’s not a retired figurehead however a driver who understands the present challenges going through motorsport individuals.
Her worldwide expertise is spectacular: from the glamorous Ferrari Problem Europe Trofeo Pirelli AM (the place she competed for the Girls Trophy within the 296 Problem) to the high-speed ovals and road circuits of F4 competitions within the UAE and Saudi Arabia. This various racing background offers her firsthand perception into the worldwide nature of recent motorsport and the various challenges confronted by totally different racing sequence.
“My ambition is a governance that’s extra democratic, extra clear, extra accountable, and open to ladies and new generations,” Villars has said. “I strongly consider that motorsport wants variety and innovation to maintain inspiring youthful generations worldwide.”
Her Story in Automotive Historical past
Villars’ candidacy represents extra than simply one other election: it’s a seismic shift in an trade that has lengthy struggled with variety and illustration. The FIA, based in 1904, has been led solely by males all through its historical past. From its early days governing the Paris-to-Madrid race to its present function overseeing Method 1 and international motorsport security requirements, the group has wielded monumental affect over automotive sport worldwide.
Her marketing campaign slogan speaks to elementary change: “The FIA should as soon as once more be the federation of golf equipment and license holders.” This displays a rising sentiment inside the motorsport neighborhood that governance has develop into too centralized and disconnected from grassroots racing.
Revolutionary Imaginative and prescient for Motorsport’s Future
Villars’ platform reads like a manifesto for modernizing motorsport. Her proposed “FIA Eco-Efficiency” label would acknowledge sustainability management: a vital situation because the automotive trade grapples with environmental challenges. This initiative may rework how racing sequence method their carbon footprint and environmental duty.
Her dedication to increasing the Girls in Motorsport program, together with the favored Ladies on Observe initiative, addresses one in every of motorsport’s most persistent challenges. The proposed FIA Younger Leaders Academy would create pathways for the following technology to enter not simply as drivers however as engineers, staff managers, and officers.
Maybe most importantly, her imaginative and prescient positions the FIA as a “international benchmark in sustainable mobility and street security.” This growth past pure motorsport governance into broader automotive management may redefine the group’s function within the twenty first century.
For automotive lovers and the broader automotive neighborhood, Villars represents a bridge between motorsport’s heritage and its digital, sustainable future. Her entrepreneurial background suggests she understands learn how to interact youthful audiences who could also be extra inquisitive about sim racing, electrical automobiles, and sustainable efficiency than conventional combustion-engine racing.
Her emphasis on transparency and participatory governance may democratize motorsport in ways in which profit membership racers, novice drivers, and native racing communities. Too typically, FIA selections have appeared disconnected from the weekend warriors and membership racers who kind motorsport’s basis.
The Election Panorama
The December 12, 2025 election in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, can be fiercely contested. Incumbent Mohammed Ben Sulayem seeks a second time period, whereas former FIA steward Tim Mayer has additionally introduced his candidacy. Villars faces the problem of convincing nationwide sporting authorities – the FIA’s voting members – that her imaginative and prescient of inclusive, clear governance outweighs some great benefits of expertise and established relationships.
At 28, Villars embodies the generational change sweeping by motorsport. Whereas critics would possibly query her relative youth and administrative expertise, supporters argue that contemporary perspective is precisely what the FIA wants. Her technology grew up with social media, environmental consciousness, and expectations of company transparency that older motorsport leaders generally wrestle to grasp.
Her candidacy comes at a pivotal second for motorsport. Method 1 enjoys unprecedented international reputation, however questions on sustainability, accessibility, and governance transparency proceed to problem the game’s leaders. Electrical racing sequence like Method E are gaining traction, whereas conventional producers make investments closely in electrical car improvement.
The Highway Forward
Whether or not Laura Villars wins or loses, her candidacy has already made historical past. She’s forcing conversations about illustration, transparency, and motorsport’s future that may in any other case stay in paddock whispers. For a sport that prides itself on pushing boundaries and embracing innovation, having a younger girl problem the established order appears completely applicable.
Her marketing campaign represents a referendum on what motorsport ought to develop into within the subsequent decade. Because the automotive trade transforms itself round electrical automobiles, autonomous driving, and sustainable mobility, having leaders who perceive these modifications turns into essential.
For the worldwide automotive neighborhood, Villars’ candidacy presents hope that motorsport governance can evolve as quickly because the expertise it oversees. Win or lose, she’s already confirmed that the way forward for motorsport management doesn’t should seem like its previous.
