Irish racer Sarah linked to McLaren.
Ireland's Sarah Kavanagh may be set to join the McLaren F1 team as a second test driver next season, if rumours in her homeland prove to be true.
The 28-year old Dubliner is awaiting news of whether she is to become the first woman in twelve years to join motorsport's top level after performing competitively in the privateer BOSS single-seater series ranks.
Ireland's Sarah Kavanagh may be set to join the McLaren F1 team as a second test driver next season, if rumours in her homeland prove to be true.
The 28-year old Dubliner is awaiting news of whether she is to become the first woman in twelve years to join motorsport's top level after performing competitively in the privateer BOSS single-seater series ranks.
Super-fit Sarah, who has raced a Jordan in the EuroBoss series for older F1 cars this year, has successfully completed a number of evaluations by the Woking-based team to assess her capabilities. Following detailed analysis conducted at the team's Physical Performance Laboratory, managing director Martin Whitmarsh is confident that Kavanagh could do the job.
"There is nothing in the results that suggest that Sarah could not drive a Formula One car right away," he said.
Further evaluation was carried out this week at the Pembrey circuit in Wales, where performance tests were carried out by the Carlin Motorsport Formula Three team, which steered Takuma Sato to championship victory this season and, ultimately, into a drive with Jordan for 2002.
The assessments were designed to determine Kavanagh's on-track performance relative to the new breed of drivers who are joining Formula One directly from Formula Three. Again, team boss Trevor Carlin revealed that the Irish woman was 'extremely impressive'.
In taking a different route to the top, Ireland's fast lady is another driver who is proving that the traditional Formula Three and Formula 3000 routes to Formula One stardom, are not set in stone.
"I've never had the money available to race a full championship of F3 or F3000, but what I have had has enabled me to race 90's Formula One cars for the last three years, and that's what gives me the confidence to stand up and say I can drive in F1," she said.
"Last month, Bernie Ecclestone told me to never give up and he was right. As a huge Senna fan, it was always my dream to drive for McLaren, and hopefully that might now happen", she said.
