A karting prodigy and Ginetta Junior race winner who survived a 2018 Macau crash, raced at Le Mans and now works as an Opel Formula E test driver.
Sophia Florsch is a German driver who took a test role with Opel's Formula E team in 2026. As a teenager she won Ginetta Junior races, and she survived a serious 2018 Macau crash before finishing third at Portimao in 2021.
Sophia Florsch is a German racing driver who works as a development driver for Opel's Formula E team. She has raced in Formula 3, the DTM and the FIA World Endurance Championship, and she has finished on the podium in ADAC Formula 4 and the European Le Mans Series. She was also the youngest race winner in the Ginetta Junior Championship and the first woman to score points in the FIA Formula 3 Championship.
Who is Sophia Florsch and how did she start racing?
Sophia Florsch was born on 1 December 2000 in Grunwald, Bavaria, and grew up around Munich. Her schooling was at Oberhaching Grammar School, and she lives in Pullach today. Karting, skiing and windsurfing are among her hobbies, and she has named Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher among her on-track heroes.
She began karting in 2005 and raced in various events across Europe through Kart Sport from 2008 to 2014. She became the first female and the youngest driver to compete in three series of that period: the 2008 SAKC Championship, the 2009 ADAC German Championship and the 2010 European Easykart Championship. Red Bull also scouted her during this time.
In 2015 she moved into the Ginetta Junior Championship with HHC Motorsport, collecting two wins and two further podiums in the season. She became the youngest driver ever to win a Ginetta Junior race and the first rookie to win both races in a single weekend at Thruxton. Financial issues ended her season at the midpoint, when she was third in the championship and leading the rookie standings.
A karting prodigy who became Formula 3's first female points scorer of the modern era, then recovered from a serious Macau crash.
How did Florsch progress through single-seater racing?
In 2016 she signed with Motopark for the ADAC Formula 4 Championship, racing a car she called Hugo. Her debut race made her the first woman driver to earn points in an ADAC F4 race. She came close to a first podium in only her third race, but a collision in the closing laps left her fifth.
The following year she drove for ADAC Berlin-Brandenburg in a pink car sponsored by BWT. Her first podium came at the Sachsenring, and she repeated the result at Hockenheim, where she also set two fastest laps. Those results gave her a platform for a step up to the FIA Formula 3 European Championship.
In 2018 she joined Van Amersfoort Racing for the European Formula 3 championship. After a steering failure while running seventh at the Nurburgring, she scored her first point with tenth at the Red Bull Ring. The Macau crash came at the end of that season.
In 2019 she raced for Van Amersfoort in the Formula Regional European Championship, after the planned Formula European Masters series folded. The team struggled, but she ended the season seventh overall, scoring in every race and setting a quickest lap at the Red Bull Ring.
What happened at the 2018 Macau Grand Prix?
On lap four she made contact with Jehan Daruvala, who was slowing for yellow flags that had been shown in error on the straight. The contact caused a front left suspension failure, and her car flew sideways into the Lisboa Bend, through the catch fencing and into a photographers' bunker before landing back on its wheels.
She was conscious after the crash, but she was taken to hospital along with Sho Tsuboi, two photographers and a track marshal. She was diagnosed with a spinal fracture and went through surgery lasting almost ten hours the next day. Team owner and principal Frits van Amersfoort said the surgery was successful and that there was no fear of paralysis.
She returned to Macau in 2019 with HWA, but a mechanical failure ended her race on the eighth lap. In 2023 she finally finished the race, in eleventh position and ahead of both of her teammates.
What did Florsch achieve in endurance racing and the DTM?
In 2020 she combined her FIA Formula 3 commitments with a debut in prototype racing. At the Le Castellet 240 she drove a Signatech car for the all-female Richard Mille Racing Team in LMP2, and she also finished ninth at the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans alongside Beitske Visser and Tatiana Calderon.
In 2021 she continued with Richard Mille in the FIA World Endurance Championship, taking five points finishes and a best-of-season sixth at the 8 Hours of Bahrain. She also took a call-up at the European Le Mans Series finale at Portimao, where she came third alongside Ferdinand Habsburg and Richard Bradley. It was the first ELMS podium for her team and the first overall ELMS podium by a woman since 2013.
That same year she raced in the DTM for Abt Sportsline, backed by Schaeffler. She was the only Audi driver to run the Schaeffler steer-by-wire system, and she scored eight points from the last six races of her rookie GT3 season. In 2022 she joined G-Drive and then Algarve Pro Racing, finishing second on debut at Paul Ricard, but a puncture, a yellow flag and a pit-lane start ended the team's run.
At the 2022 Le Mans 24 Hours her car stopped at the start-finish line because of a sensor issue. She restarted it and crawled back to the pits, but the team lost five laps and its podium chances. They climbed back to fifth in the LMP2 Pro/Am class. She took a test and development role with Algarve Pro Racing in 2025 after a two-year break.
What has Florsch said about women in motorsport?
Florsch has been a vocal critic of women-only racing series. She opposed the W Series from its launch in 2019, calling it a step back for sport and not the right way to help women in motorsport. After its collapse she criticised later women-only projects, including the F1 Academy, which she described as segregation.
She is also a brand ambassador for Schaeffler and backs the causes Wings for Life and Dare to be Different. In February 2020 she won the Laureus World Comeback of the Year award, and she has been invited twice as a guest to the International Motor Show Germany.
Career summary at a glance
| Season | Series and team | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Ginetta Junior (HHC Motorsport) | Two wins; youngest race winner in the series |
| 2016 | ADAC Formula 4 (Motopark) | First woman to earn points in an ADAC F4 race |
| Following year | ADAC Formula 4 (ADAC Berlin-Brandenburg) | First podium at the Sachsenring; another at Hockenheim |
| 2018 | FIA Formula 3 European (Van Amersfoort Racing) | First point at the Red Bull Ring; Macau crash |
| 2019 | Formula Regional European (Van Amersfoort Racing) | Seventh in the standings; points in all 24 races |
| 2020 | FIA Formula 3 (Campos Racing) | 29th of 35 drivers; best finish twelfth |
| 2020 | 24 Hours of Le Mans (Richard Mille Racing) | Ninth overall |
| 2021 | European Le Mans Series (Algarve Pro Racing) | Third at Portimao |
| 2021 | DTM (Abt Sportsline) | Eight points in the last six races |
| 2023 | FIA Formula 3 (PHM Racing by Charouz) | First female to score points in the series; seventh at Spa |
| 2023 | Macau Grand Prix (Van Amersfoort Racing) | Eleventh place, the first finish of her three attempts |
| 2026 | Formula E (Opel GSE) | Test and development driver |
What is Florsch doing now?
In 2026 Florsch joined Opel's GSE Formula E team as a test and development driver. The role connects her to the category after her earlier attempts to race in Formula E were disrupted, including a 2018 test selection that was lost after her Macau injuries.
She has also spent time in the Alpine Academy from 2023 to 2024 and continues to be a public voice on the place of women in motorsport.
Formula 3 and the 2020 season in more detail
Florsch first tested FIA Formula 3 machinery at Portimao in March 2018, and in early July that year she joined Van Amersfoort Racing from round four at Zandvoort. In October 2019 HWA selected her for the FIA Formula 3 post-season test in Valencia, and in early November she was confirmed for the Macau Grand Prix.
In 2020 she signed with Campos Racing to partner Alessio Deledda and Alex Peroni. Her arrival made her the first woman to race in the series since the GP3 Series and European F3 classes were merged, and she finished 29th of 35 drivers with a best result of twelfth.
Setbacks in 2022 and 2024
In 2022 she was due to race for G-Drive Racing in the European Le Mans Series, but the team withdrew because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Algarve Pro Racing took the cars over independently and signed her, along with the Formula 2 podium finisher Bent Viscaal.
In 2024 she was scheduled to drive for Nissan at a women's test in Valencia. The event was disrupted by the Spanish floods, and the new Madrid date clashed with a prior commitment, so she withdrew.
Team WRT, HMD and the 2025 season
After the 2021 season she took part in the post-season World Endurance Championship rookie test in Bahrain, racing for the newly crowned LMP2 champions Team WRT, and she led both sessions.
In December 2024 she signed with HMD Motorsports for the 2025 Indy NXT series, but unexpected budget problems meant she had to end that season abruptly after just one race.
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