Formula 1 and many of the other famous motorsport series were not turning wheels in anger in the opening month of the year. But there were still plenty of series that were. Amongst these were the infamous and legendary Dakar, the Asian Le Mans Series and a host of regional single seater and off-road categories. Success wears many guises. That is apparent in the following list, the very nature of some of the series featured and, of course, the women in motorsport on this list and what they were endeavouring to achieve.
“It was a tough race for me, just like it was for the other 900 crews, and the Dakar is something we choose — we choose to throw ourselves into this challenge, which I think is mostly a personal thing. I think it’s one of the few sports I do where the result doesn’t completely matter to me; what mattered was being able to finish, and for me that is a huge win.” – Irene Saderini
The Paddock Chronicle takes a look back at some of the women in motorsport who stood out in particular amongst the opening melee of racing in January of 2026.
Sara Price
When you look back at the Dakar of 2026, Sara Price is one of the immediate standout names that comes to mind. Four stage wins and nine more podium finishes begins to describe just how fantastic her Dakar was this year.
Competing in the Stock Class with a Land Rover Defender alongside her navigator Sean Berriman, Sara barely put a foot wrong all Dakar – although it’s highly doubtful that any of it ever felt easy.
“While the win will always be the goal, I’m incredibly proud of our second place finish and my first Dakar podium.” – Sara Price
After two weeks in the Saudi Arabian desert, Sara finished P2 overall. It’s an incredible achievement that perfectly encapsulates why the American has been one to watch in recent years. Moreover, it gives us a great tease of what we might be able to expect from Price in the years to come – both at the Dakar and elsewhere.
Puck Klaassen
Puck originally made her debut at the legendary event in the Dakar classic back in 2024, alongside her father, Sebastiaan. This year however, Puck teamed up with Argentinian Augusto Sanz for her third Dakar outing.
It proved to be the Dutch driver’s most successful outing to date. Klaassen became just the fifth woman in history to win a stage of the Dakar – doing so at the end of Stage 3. She follows in the footsteps of Jutta Kleinschmidt, Cristina Gutiérrez, Sara Price and Dania Akeel.
“We kept going and managed to have clean stages every day. The competition was crazy high. I’ve never experienced such hard core racing and it’s made the sport so much more enjoyable. So taking all of this it’s so cool to see how far we’ve come as a team, I’m happy we kept it together and were able to finish with only one bad day.” – Puck Klaassen
Another victory followed after Stage 8. A further two trips to the podium by the end of the Dakar came too. At just twenty three years of age, there’s a lot of racing left in Puck’s career. If she continues as she has been, there’s a real chance that Puck could win the Dakar one day.
Dania Akeel
Another driver on this list to compete in this year’s Dakar was Dania Akeel.
The Saudi Arabian meant business from the word go. She finished on the podium immediately at the end of Stage 1 with a P3 result. Impressively, another six visits to the podium followed after that. But sadly the win at any point of the Dakar eluded her.
“7 stage podiums, 1 minor crash, one too many punctures…and a top ten finish P8 – crossing the line with a broken turbo at 30kph. What a way to reach the end.” – Dania Akeel
However, P8 overall come the end of the Dakar was still enough to impress everyone. It also reaffirmed her status as a driver to keep a firm eye on in the future as she continues to go from strength to strength.
Emily Cotty
The 2026 UAE 4 Series kicked off in Abu Dhabi in January. Over forty drivers took part, eachlooking to make a name for themselves. One of the ones to actually do so was British driver Emily Cotty. In just the second race of the year, she found herself on the podium, having finished in an impressive second place.
Having raced in a myriad of other single seater series since 2024, it’s fantastic to see that progress happening. Hopefully results like this catch the attention of other teams and series as we get further into 2026 and beyond.
Sunniva Rudi
Domination is the only word that can be used to describe how Sunniva Rudi performed in the opening round of the Norwegian Rally Championship. As the co-driver to Karl Peder Nordstrand, Sunniva proved to be fundamentally crucial to their campaign as the pair won all nine stages of the race!
This achievement is further proof that you don’t have to go far out of the mainstream series of racing in any discipline to find female drivers and co-drivers putting on phenomenal performances worthy of all of our attention.
Chiara Battig & Mathilda Paatz
The Formula Winter Series got underway in Estoril with thirty one drivers taking part in the first three races of the 2026 campaign. After a challenging first two races, third time really proved to be the charm for both Battig and Paatz. The Swiss and German drivers ended up on the podium together in the final race of the weekend. Battig came home in second and Paatz in third.
Rebecca Busi
Rebecca Busi’s Dakar experience in 2026 could be easily described as a continuous case of character building. Plagued with car trouble every other day or so, any progress she made up to each respective point would then be essentially wiped out.
“We sweated it from the first stage to the last, but we did it; we crossed the finish line. It wasn’t the Dakar we were expecting. There have been more moments when the finish line seemed impossible than when it seemed near.” – Rebecca Busi
But despite this, the Italian Stallion didn’t let this get her down. On the days where there weren’t major issues with the car, Rebecca embodied her motto of “Eat Pasta, Driver Faster” by overtaking what can only be described as mind blowing number of cars (often sixty to seventy a day) – multiple times across the thirteen stages.
P28 overall in the Challenger Class won’t be what Rebecca was looking for. Not will it be a fair representation of her capabilities. But her never say die fighting attitude is a perfect example of why she belongs both in off road racing – and the Dakar itself.
Notable Mentions
Esther Merino
Competing in the M1000 class of the 2026 Dakar, Esther Merino is a very noteworthy mention to add to this list. Consistent P6 finishes early on were then bettered to her first podium result in Stage 6 where she finished in second place. Four more podium results came her way before the Dakar’s end, including a stage victory on the penultimate day.
Helen Tait Wright & Marcella Kirk
If you were following the Dakar at all in 2026, it will have been very difficult to avoid hearing about this dynamic duo. Helen and Marcella were the first British women’s team to compete in and complete the Dakar. Driving a Land Rover 110 Td5, that was built in house, in the classic category of the legendary event, they soon became fan favourites. The pair finished consistently in P70s and P80s in their class and completed the gruelling challenge in P83 overall.
Irene Saderini
“I’ve always followed the Dakar — I even made a documentary about Fabrizio Meoni (a Dakar legend) that’s on Amazon Prime. I’ve dreamed of the Dakar forever, and in 2023 I finally got up close: I started helping with bike support at the live race and ended up competing myself.” – Irene Saderini
In 2026, Irene competed in the Dakar Classic as a Co-Driver. She finished inside the top ten on multiple occasions throughout the rally. Irene got as high as P11 after only the third stage and at the end of the tenth, was only one place away from a podium finish.
Then, on the very final day of the Dakar, the racing Gods smiled down on Irene and her team. They were rewarded with a P2 finish on the very final stage. It’s one of the many stories woven into the tapestry of the mythical, yet somehow real, race that makes fans fall in love with it time and time again. Nothing is ever over until it’s over and in motorsport, that sentiment is never more true than it is in the Dakar.
Amna Al Qubaisi
Competing in the 2025–26 24H Series Middle East at the Dubai Autodrome, the occasion marked Amna Al Qubaisi‘s first time competing in a 24 hour endurance race. As is often the case with this form of racing, finishing alone is its own reward and this time, it was one that was denied to the Emirati Racing Driver.
With less than four hours to go, an untimely puncture caused Amna to lose the rear of the car and spin off track. Frustratingly, she was running in P3 at the time, driving for Rossa Racing and while the team were able to repair the damage, further contact, this time from another car, ended their race. Credit must be given where its due and for a 24 hour endurance debut, Amna can still take away some silver linings from the event. No doubt she’ll come back stronger in the future.
Feature Image: Rebecca Busi