Lilou Wadoux: the female 'UFO' driver who's come out of nowhere

The young racer is described by her team as a “UFO” who came out of nowhere to catch the eye of Alpine in one of its national series.

“Last year she did the Alpine Elf Europa Cup and won one race at the end of the championship, so Alpine proposed for her to do an evaluation test in Bahrain,” says Signatech CEO Guiseppe Bizzoca.

“She did very well in the test, and we know that we have a lot of capacity and possibility to improve Lilou was during the next season. We are proud of her and we trust in her.”

Not that she appears particularly bothered, as Alpine-Signatech team manager Philippe Sinault explains.

“Even though she’s the youngest and has least experience, I have to say Lilou is special,” he says. “She brings serenity because she’s so clearly so focused on the target, and is not afraid of making a mistake, talks well with her engineer.”

Ogier chips in to support Sinault, with no faint praise from a rally legend.

“I’m impressed with how she behaves aged 21,” he says. “If I remember myself, I was not even racing at all at this age! She doesn’t care about anything else around her, she just focuses. Lilou has a kind of confidence in her – she doesn’t think too much and just does what she has to do.”

Cutting a small, slight figure belies a clear steeliness about Wadoux, who already clearly senses what she needs to do to earn a permanent place in the paddock, and restore the team’s faith in her.

“Lilou is probably one of the first key drivers that really is looking forward to a career in endurance and not having other goals elsewhere,” Mille says.

“In her we have found a little diamond. It’s important to have a driver next to her [like Milesi or Ogier] who can show that altogether we can do so many amazing things.

“I think also by having a mixed team [instead of the all-female team like last season], you can change the image of it being a male-dominated sport, and open doors to women.

“This is not just marketing, we’re not looking at having equality in the internal teams or just having any female driver – for me it has to be the right one.

“We need to find a way to bring more role models for young girls into racing, to believe in motor sport and want to do it.

“There is a lot of work to do – it’s not only a question of money it is way more than that, but we’re on the right way.”

There’s a long road ahead for Wadoux if she’s to make a career centred around Le Mans, a race she remembers watching as a child.

However, if she listens of the advice of Ogier, she should be on the right track with Richard Mille.

“I think she’s doing a pretty good job,” he says. “I’m sure she can have a good career here if she gets the real opportunity, because we all need a bit of time.

“Of course it cannot come from one day to another – with very little experience in racing, but from my point of view she’s doing very well.”