Women in motorsport: Meet the teams rewriting the rules

Women in motorsport are no longer waiting for permission to compete at the highest level. Two all-female teams backed by global tire company Giti Tire are proving, race by race and rally by rally, that the cockpit has no gender.

Whether it is the ferocious endurance circuit of the Nürburgring in Germany or the GPS-free expanse of the Moroccan Sahara, Giti’s Angels and the Giti Gazelles are showing what happens when talent, preparation, and fearlessness walk through the paddock door together.

Why women’s motorsport matters more than ever

For most of the twentieth century, motorsport operated as an almost entirely male world. Women who tried to compete were often dismissed, overlooked, or simply never given the machinery to show what they could do. That is changing, but change in motorsport rarely comes quickly.

The statistics remain stark. Female racing drivers make up a small minority of competitors in most international series. Female engineers, mechanics, and team managers are rarer still. When an initiative deliberately sets out to change all of that at once, it is worth paying close attention.

That is exactly what Giti Tire did when it launched not one but two entirely different women’s motorsport programmes, each operating in a completely different discipline, each making history in its own right.

Giti’s Angels: Breaking records in the Green Hell

A historic first at the Nürburgring

The Nürburgring Nordschleife in the Eifel mountains of Germany is not a place where newcomers simply turn up and survive. Stretching over 20 kilometres with blind crests, dramatic elevation changes, and weather that can turn from sunshine to ice fog in a single lap, it has earned its nickname, the Green Hell, many times over.

In over a century of racing at this famous circuit, no all-female team had ever competed there. That changed in March 2019, when the Girls Only Racing Team, nicknamed Giti’s Angels, made their debut in the VLN Endurance Championship. The team was historic not just because its drivers were all women, but because its entire operation was female: the drivers, the mechanics, the pit crew, the team chief, and the team manager, every single person in that garage was a woman.

And they did not arrive quietly. Three drivers shared a Volkswagen Golf TCR, ran at the front of their class for most of the race, and finished second in the SP3T class on debut. They also recorded the fastest lap of any competitor in their category that day.

The team behind the helmets

The driving pool for Giti’s Angels has included some genuinely talented racers. Carrie Schreiner, Jasmin Preisig, Ronja Assmann, Celia Martin, and Laura Kraihamer have all represented the team across different seasons. Behind them, team chief Ellen Lehmann and team manager Nicole Willems built the organisational structure that made it all possible.

Nicole Willems described the team’s first 24 Hours Nürburgring appearance as an emotional moment and understandably so. Competing in one of the world’s most gruelling endurance races, in a team where every role is filled by a woman, is not a small thing. It is, in the truest sense of the word, groundbreaking.

Still racing, still winning: The 2025 update

The Girls Only programme did not fade after its debut season. By 2025, it had evolved into something even more ambitious. At the 57th ADAC Barbarossapreis, the ninth round of the prestigious Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS), Carrie Schreiner and Janina Schall drove a BMW M4 GT4 under the banner ‘Girls Only. Ready to Rock the Green Hell.’ They qualified fourth, finished fifth in the SP8T class, and Janina Schall successfully defended her lead in the NLS Ladies Trophy.

But perhaps the most significant development was the launch of the Girls Only Talent Pool: a structured programme giving emerging female drivers their first experience on the Nordschleife. Elena Egger, Carmen Kraav, and Julia Ponkratz all raced in the debut outing. Team principal Matthias Möller described it as a solid foundation for expanding the proportion of women in the NLS for years to come. That is not marketing language. That is pipeline building, and it matters enormously for the long-term future of women in the sport.

The Giti Gazelles: Navigating the Sahara without GPS

The most unique women’s rally on earth

If Giti’s Angels represent the world of circuit endurance racing, the Giti Gazelles represent something entirely different: a desert adventure that has been redefining women’s motorsport since 1990.

The Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles is the original all-female off-road rally raid. It is held in Morocco, runs for 15 days entirely off-road, and operates under a rule that immediately separates it from almost every other motorsport event in the world: no GPS is permitted. Teams must navigate using maps, compasses, and roadbooks, with success measured not by outright speed but by the accuracy and efficiency of each team’s navigation plan. It is the only event of its kind to hold ISO-14001 environmental accreditation.

Giti Tire announced its partnership with the Giti Gazelles team in March 2021, ahead of the rally which ran from 17 September to 2 October that year. The event had been moved from its original May date because of travel restrictions, but the team was undeterred.

Meet Helen and Sue: The women behind the Gazelles

The Giti Gazelles brought together driver Helen Tait Wright and navigator Sue Alemann, along with their Land Rover Defender 110, which the team had named Priscilla.

Helen grew up on an English farm and has spent her professional life in the design world. She is a self-described car fanatic who says being behind the wheel is her happiest place. The 2021 Rallye des Gazelles was her second participation in the event.

Sue Alemann is from New Zealand, where she first learned to navigate on the waters around Auckland. A consultant by profession and an adventurer by instinct, she brought offshore sailing navigation experience to the desert for the first time. The Sahara was her first navigation rally.

Priscilla was fitted with Giti’s 4×4 AT70 all-terrain tires, enabling the team to handle both on-road transit and the extreme off-road terrain of the Moroccan desert. Based in France, Helen and Sue travelled throughout Europe in preparation before heading to North Africa.

More than a race: Community at the heart

What makes the Giti Gazelles partnership particularly compelling is what sits alongside the competitive element. Giti Tire used the partnership to sponsor community support projects connected to the rally, including environmental initiatives and educational support for communities in rural Morocco. The event’s ISO-14001 environmental accreditation is not a footnote — it is central to its identity, and the Giti Gazelles team embraced that fully.

Key aacts about Giti’s Women’s Motorsport Programmes

Here is a quick summary of what makes these teams genuinely significant:

Giti’s Angels launched in 2019 as the first ever all-female racing team at the Nürburgring, including an all-female crew and management.
On debut, the team finished second in class and recorded the fastest lap in their category.
The programme expanded in 2025 with the Girls Only Talent Pool, actively developing the next generation of female racing drivers.
Janina Schall leads the NLS Ladies Trophy standings, demonstrating that the team competes on merit, not novelty.
The Giti Gazelles competed in the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles, a no-GPS, 15-day all-female desert rally in Morocco, first held in 1990.
Their Land Rover Defender 110, Priscilla, ran on Giti 4×4 AT70 all-terrain tres throughout the event.
Both programmes are backed by Giti Tire Group, headquartered in Singapore, with roots in the tire business going back to 1951 and operations in more than 130 countries.

Frequently asked questions about women in motorsport

What is the Giti Girls Only Racing Team?

The Girls Only Racing Team, nicknamed Giti’s Angels, is an all-female motorsport team launched by Giti Tire in 2019. Every member of the team, from drivers to pit crew to management, is female. The team competes in the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS) in Germany and has entered the iconic 24 Hours Nürburgring race.

Who are the drivers in Giti’s Angels?

The team’s driver roster has included Carrie Schreiner, Jasmin Preisig, Ronja Assmann, Celia Martin, Laura Kraihamer, and Janina Schall across different seasons. Carrie Schreiner and Janina Schall drove together at the 2025 ADAC Barbarossapreis, with Schall leading the NLS Ladies Trophy.

What is the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles?

The Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles is a unique all-female off-road rally raid held annually in Morocco. It began in 1990, runs for 15 days, and forbids the use of GPS. Teams navigate using traditional maps and compasses, with the goal of covering the shortest possible distance rather than the fastest. It holds ISO-14001 environmental accreditation, the only rally of its kind to do so.

Who are the Giti Gazelles?

The Giti Gazelles are Helen Tait Wright and Sue Alemann, an all-female driver and navigator duo backed by Giti Tire. They competed in the 2021 Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles in their Land Rover Defender 110, named Priscilla, fitted with Giti 4×4 AT70 all-terrain tires.

Who is behind the Giti Tire women’s motorsport programmes?

Giti Tire Group, headquartered in Singapore, with roots in the tire industry going back to 1951. The company now operates in over 130 countries worldwide. The motorsport partnerships are part of a broader commitment to diversity, women’s empowerment, and real-world passenger car tires testing under competitive conditions.

Are women competitive in endurance motorsport?

Absolutely. The Girls Only team has demonstrated this directly. On their Nürburgring debut in 2019, they recorded the fastest lap in their class and led the race for the majority of the event. By 2025, Janina Schall was leading the NLS Ladies Trophy standings. These are not participation results, they are competitive results earned in one of the most demanding racing environments in the world.

Why this story will only get bigger

One of the most important things about both programmes is that they are built for the long term. The Girls Only Talent Pool, launched in 2025, is not a PR exercise. It is a structured development pathway designed to feed new female talent into competitive motorsport year after year. The Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles, now in its fourth decade, continues to attract women from across the world who want to test themselves in one of the most demanding navigation challenges on the planet.

Giti Tire’s investment in these programmes is also doing something quietly important behind the scenes. Every race weekend produces tire performance data under extreme real-world conditions. That data feeds back into product development, ultimately improving the tires that everyday drivers use. The Angels are not just making history, they are also making better road tires for the rest of us.

Women in motorsport have always had the talent. What has changed is the infrastructure, the investment, and the visibility. Giti’s Angels and the Giti Gazelles are proof that when a company backs women properly with real resources, real machinery, and real ambition, the results follow.

The road ahead

The stories of Giti’s Angels and the Giti Gazelles are not footnotes in motorsport history. They are the opening chapters of something much larger. One team is building a pathway for the next generation of female racing drivers at one of the world’s most famous circuits. The other has proven that a driver, a navigator, a Land Rover named Priscilla, and a set of all-terrain ti

res can take on the Sahara and come back with something to say about it.

Whether you are a seasoned motorsport fan or someone who has never watched a race in your life, these are the stories worth following. Because women in motorsport are no longer a conversation about potential. They are a conversation about results.