Giulia Cesetti

**Giulia Cesetti** is an Italian racing driver who currently races with Williams Racing in the 2020 ACOC season. She is known for being the first female driver to compete in Formula 1 and the only female driver to win a race in any tier.

Cesetti has been known for her aggressive and sometimes erratic driving style. She gained the nickname "Roadblock" during her Formula 1 stint with Toro Rosso due to her perceived erratic driving. Despite her inconsistent performance, Cesetti has been recognized for her trailblazing achievements as a female driver in the male-dominated world of motorsports. Her success in Formula E in particular proves this, with several podium finishes and even a race win.

## **Career**

### Formula 1 (2017)

Cesetti began her racing career in 2017 when she signed with Toro Rosso to race in Formula 1, becoming the first female racing driver to compete in an ACOC event. Her season started off strong at the Australian Grand Prix, finishing a close P11 behind teammate Courtney Simpson, and she would score her first points at the second round, the Bahrain Grand Prix. She scored two more P10 finishes at the Austrian and British Grands Prix, two incident-heavy races, however the traction would unfortunately stop there for the Italian. She finished 21st out of 23 drivers with 3 points, half of her teammate Courtney Simpson. Cesetti's performance in her debut season was marred by several incidents of dangerous driving, and she was awarded a race ban at the Hungarian Grand Prix. This made her the first driver to be awarded a race ban in the history of the ACOC. She was replaced by reserve driver Alex Broster for the Belgian Grand Prix, and would return again at the helm of the Toro Rosso at the Italian Grand Prix. Cesetti would not score points for the rest of the season, and was not retained by Toro Rosso for the 2018 season after a very incident-filled season.

### IndyCar (2018)

In 2018, Cesetti moved to the United States to race in the IndyCar Series with Carlin Racing. She opened the season very strongly with three consecutive P5s at the Daytona Oval, Daytona Road Course and TT Circuit Assen. Unfortunately Cesetti wouldn't be able to score anything higher than P5 that season, with two more points finishes after Assen. Despite the lack of points finishes or podiums, things did go better for the Italian over in the USA, as she finished 13th out of 29 drivers with 33.5 points, beating her teammates Max Smitler and Krystof Beranek.

### Formula E (2019)

Giulia Cesetti's 2019 Formula E season started off with the Dubai ePrix doubleheader at the Dubai Autodrome. She finished sixth in the first race and her teammate Henry J. Brown achieved a podium finish. Cesetti then won the second race, the first-ever win by a female driver in the Formula E championship, which propelled her to the top of the driver standings.

In the next round in Montreal, Cesetti struggled and finished in 12th place, leaving her in second place in the championship standings behind Remus McGregor. In the following round in Mexico City, she finished in eighth place and scored four points, but her championship rivals finished ahead of her, causing her to slip down to fourth place in the standings.

Cesetti managed to finish fifth in the Hanoi ePrix, making up some ground on her championship rivals. However, her performance was overshadowed by Abrar Chaudhry's win, and she dropped to fifth in the championship standings.

In the next three rounds, Cesetti struggled to score points, finishing in 14th place in Okayama, 17th place in Le Castellet, and 11th place in Tangerang.

Cesetti managed to finish in sixth place at the Nürnberg ePrix, earning eight points and marking her first points finish in three races. However, she was mathematically out of the championship fight at this point. In the final round of the season, also held in Nürnberg, Cesetti finished in 20th place, her worst finish of the season. Despite this, she had an overall successful season, scoring 47 points and finishing in seventh place in the driver standings. Her season was highlighted by her historic win at the Dubai ePrix and her groundbreaking achievements as a female racing driver.

### Formula 1 (2020)

In 2020, Cesetti returned to Formula 1 with Williams Racing, replacing Maximilian Novikov who was sacked by the team at the end of 2019. She currently sits in 21st place out of 21 drivers with 0 points so far in the 2020 season, being outscored by her teammate Jozef Frederik Sütő who has scored 1 point. Cesetti has 4 DNFs to her name so far, the most of any driver this season. She's been involved in several incidents, including collisions with her teammate Sütő at the Hungarian and Spanish Grands Prix.