Bia Figueiredo Debuts on International Racing Scene
A1GP Shanghai Experience May Lead Brazilian Woman to Europe Sooner than Later
by Allan Brewer
allan@a1teamracer.com
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Bia Figueiredo at Shanghai. Photo: A1GP
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Brazil’s celebrated female driver Bia Figueiredo got her first taste of major international auto racing at A1GP Shanghai, China this week (April 13th-15th). The occasion gave the world a chance to observe the ambitious young woman that strives to give the car-crazy South American country its next motorsports superstar.
Bia Figueiredo is a woman race car driver from Brazil. She owns multiple “Golden Helmet” awards in her native country, a highly-respected prize given the auto racing-mad country’s best racers each year.
Bia began racing in karts, as did Brazil’s Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna before her. In fact, every major international automotive star from Brazil has karted their way to the top. That includes such names as Emerson Fittipaldi, Rubens Barrichello and Gil de Ferran as well.
Bia Figueiredo won a year-long struggle with her father to let her drive the notorious kart track at Interlagos, Brazil near her hometown of Sao Paulo. It wasn’t long before she was racing the best, entirely boy competitors and leading them around the Ayrton Senna Kartodrome to a humbling second place finish.
In her own words, it was a personal struggle not unlike that many American kids suffer with parents: "Well, my first contact with racing was when I was 6 years. I have started racing when I was 8 years after 2 years annoying my father to let me do it."
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Bia Figueiredo in A1GP. Photo: A1GP
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The twenty-one year old open-wheel racer emerged on the international scene first in April of 2007, when she became only the third woman ever to participate in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport racing series during an event in Shanghai, China.
Career Begins Arc Toward Fame Early for Bia
Though the weekend introduction was the first for many stateside fans, Figueiredo was the talk of the town in racing’s under-leagues long before. In 2004, The London Guardian sent writer Matt Rendell to visit this young racing sensation in her South American surrounds, and he reported back what everyone suspected:
“I first met Bia Figueiredo in May 2001,” he said. “She was 16 and her rivals in São Paulo’s kart scene—all male—had been suffering the obvious taunt for eight years: ‘Beaten by a girl...again?’”
“Now she is 19 and still winning. One day soon, the image of her long hair spilling out of her helmet could open motor sport to new audiences, sponsors and perhaps a whole new lease of life.”
“For in Brazil,” he continued, “she is being spoken of as the possible future of Formula One, the woman to transform an increasingly predictable sport.”
Racing for respected Formula Renault team owner Augusto Césario, Bia captured third place in the series’ 2005 championship. In the process she became the first woman to win a Formula Renault event in South America. She moved up in class to South American Formula 3 in 2006, ultimately finishing fifth overall.
Bia’s lifelong goal has been Formula One. Her racing manager is ex-Indy driver Andre Ribeiro, a contemporary of Emerson Fittipaldi. Ribeiro’s goal is to put her into a top F1 seat if he can, and her talent is great enough.
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F-Renault Victory, 2005. Photo: JTovar
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“Formula One is a pressure cooker,” he told Rendell in 2004. “You’ve got to be very skilful, very intelligent and you’ve got to have a little bit of an animal instinct.”
“Can Bia succeed there?” he asked. “Formula One is looking for two things: money and talent. If she can perform, and find a sponsor, she will have a spot there.”
Bia admits she has some more preparatory work to do before sitting across the grid from Alonso or Raikkonen, but the desire to pursue a career in Formula 1 is definately in her heart and her mind. She plans to build her life around whatever it takes to be a success in the arena of the world's fastest drivers driving the world's fastest cars.
"We want to build an infra-structure for me in the UK this year," she said. "I would live there and prepare myself to do the 2008 Britsh F3 Championship. Maybe an opportunity of doing something else could appear, but I don´t think I am prepared yet to do F1 or Indy."
Suburban Beauty Belies a Heavy Right Boot
Her brown eyes and straight brunette hair, slim build and serious expression suggest an aloof, self-conscious purpose; but when she smiles, Bia is a beautiful young lady with a lead foot and fast on her mind.
The name “Bia” is a contraction of Beatriz Ana. Her father is a Sao Paulo psychiatrist and her mother an oral surgeon. Her older sister, Ana Luisa, is a linguist. The family lives in a well-off neighborhood of the city some distance from the decidedly down-at-the-heels “Favela Manuel de Teffe” surroundings of Bia’s Interlagos playground.
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Bia Contemplates Shanghai Drive. Photo: A1GP
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In sport clothing provided by sponsor Puma, and hair highlighted delicately by a well-healed head-grooming sponsor, Bia could easily pass for an American coed at a public university. Her CD player, according to Texas Monthly’s Mimi Swartz, reflects musical taste from Shakira to Nellie Furtado to Shania Twayne.
However, the desire to go fast—dangerously and incomprehensibly fast to most of us—focuses Figueiredo on a solitary purpose that eschews boyfriends and the frivolity of youth. In Swartz’s words:
“Ana Beatriz Figueiredo (pronounced Fee-gay-REE-do, though in Brazil she’s just getting famous enough to be known by her nickname, like Pelé or Ronaldinho) is currently on a mission to become not merely the most successful female Formula One driver but the first female Formula One world champion.”
“In the process, she hopes to bring back the era of great Brazilian drivers that ended with the…death of the greatest of all, Ayrton Senna, on an Italian racetrack in 1994.”
Figueiredo has visited the United States as an exchange student and lived here briefly, polishing her English into a native’s accent. She attends a Sao Paulo community college where the class-size is small and her schedule custom-fit to her racing and fitness routine.
Bia’s as modernly proper as any American woman, a finding no more aptly illustrated than Swartz’s discovery that Figueiredo on the winner’s podium “refused to accept her trophies from bikini-clad babes, like the boys, but instead asked a family friend to do the honors.”
Bia's talent has been steeped in a crucible of racing-as-religion unlike any in America. Like a promising young high school athlete in basketball or football, she's basked in the media attention that athletic prowess commands but she's also made sacrifices to promote her dream of reaching the next level.
She recently broke up with her boyfriend, and claims she hasn’t the time to worry over the loss. With a high public profile already she doesn’t need a mistake in her personal life to overshadow her striving for sponsorship.
"Actually it has the good things of it and the hard ones...", she said. "People expect a lot of me and are always asking about my future. We don´t have a definite plan yet about what I am going to do this coming year. Its hard to lead with the anxiety of all the fans, sponsors and family."
Before you start thinking she's wringing her hands at the thought of leaving her native Brazil for another continent, and the rigors of an existence pursuing a ride at racing's highest level, remember that this is what she lives for.
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Bia Exits Pit Row in Shanghai. Photo: A1GP
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It shows in her thoughts on why she continues in this incredibly demanding sport, with its challenging fiscal architecture. "I think the thing I most enjoy is the challenge of being faster than anyone," she said, clearly reveling at the siren call of speed. "What I most dislike though is how hard it is to continue racing without sponsors or money."
"I believe you have to like it a lot," she said as her first advice to any young woman who aspires to this career-path. "It's hard to grow up in the world as a race car driver while being an woman. You will have to pass through a lot of obstacles, but with determination and talent you will get there."
A1GP a Stepping-Stone to Future
Figueiredo’s stated goal in the fall of 2006 was a ride in European Formula 3, which may be prompted by a strong showing in A1GP. Her South American team, Formula Cesario, maintains a British Formula 3 presence full-time, a fact not lost on Figueiredo.
Whatever her series future, one thing’s obvious to even a casual observer: the more horsepower the better for this driven young racer. The emotion in her words after her first lap in Shanghai was palpable when she said, “The (A1GP) car has so much power, and it is fast!”
“I came into the pit box smiling because it was a really great experience driving this car. The circuit is very good; the first corner is very fast. Unfortunately I had just ten laps but everything went well so I hope I can drive the car again.”
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Bia Figueiredo. Photo: A1GP
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With a growing expatriate driver population in the Indy Pro Series, Figueiredo might be tempted to race in America as well, though her roots are in European-style road racing—deeply so—and will be tough to uproot.
‘It was fantastic and the speed was very impressive,” she said, still beaming about her seat time in the Lola. “It was a big difference from the car I’m used to in South American Formula Three.”
“I was very confident and towards the end of the session my speed was okay. It was about getting confidence and the next opportunity I get I’ll know the car and will be able to push more.”
“I’d love to do more A1GP. It would be great. I would be available for Brands Hatch if they asked me, but let’s see.”
The A1GP race in Brands Hatch, England begins Friday, April 27th with a rookie practice, followed by a one-hour open practice. There is a one-hour practice on Saturday, April 28th, prior to qualifying which is comprised of four 15-minute sessions with the best two laps for each driver establishing the grid. The week will culminate on Sunday, April 29th, with the 20-minute Sprint Race in the morning and the 70-minute Feature Race in the afternoon.
The A1GP race in Brands Hatch can be seen in the USA, Canada, and Mexico on Wednesday, May 2nd at 2PM on the Speed Channel.
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