Alice Powell on WEC: “It is 100% somewhere I want to race in the future”
W Series star Alice Powell recently took to the wheel of the Richard Mille Racing Oreca 07 LMP2 car at the FIA WEC’s official rookie test.
Powell, 28, who is from Oxford in England became the first woman to win a Formula Renault championship and was also the first female to win points in GP3. This year she finished runner-up in W Series behind Jamie Chadwick – who was also testing LMP2 machinery over in Bahrain.
After testing the LMP2 car, Powell was full of praise for the team and for the car itself. She took up the story: “I’m huge thankful to Richard Mille Racing and Signatech – it was a wonderful opportunity, and I went into it really wanting to make the most of it which I think I did. I didn’t know what to expect from the car at all really and I hadn’t been to Bahrain before, so there were a lot of unknowns."
Powell completed 31 laps in Bahrain and peaked with a 1m53.578s best.
“There were lots of new things that I experienced in that 90 minutes I had with the car and I really enjoyed it," she continued. "It opened my eyes quite a bit. It’s probably one of the fastest [cars] in a straight line I’ve ever driven. I experienced some fuel saving, which I’ve never had to do before too so there was lots of new things that I experienced.”
Regarding her future, Powell was in no doubt that endurance racing would be an option for her: “I love the WEC and it is 100% somewhere I want to race in the future. You’d be mad not to, especially with the boom we are seeing in endurance racing right now.”
