The latest addition to McLaren's driver development programme won't have to wait long to make her debut in McLaren colours - as F1 Academy debutant Ella Lloyd will drive for its Formula E team in testing at Valencia next month.
Lloyd - who made her F1 Academy debut as a wildcard entrant with Prema in Singapore last month, scoring two top-10 finishes - will replace Red Bull-bound Bianca Bustamante in the ART-run McLaren entry in 2025.
She had several competitive showings in this season's British F4 series, taking third at Donington Park and a trio of second-place finishes at Silverstone, Knockhill and Brands Hatch, alongside making her F1 Academy debut.
The 19-year-old told The Race that she considered the McLaren move to be "pretty unreal" in the context of only making her car racing debut two years ago.
"To be in this position is amazing and I'm determined to make the most of it with a lot of preparation," said Lloyd, who is managed by 2003 Le Mans winner Guy Smith and fellow sportscar racer Andy Meyrick through their Greenlight talent agency.
"I didn't really think I'd have an opportunity so early on like this. With the Formula E test, I'm really grateful for the opportunity that McLaren have given me here.
"I've done a day in the sim and there will be more, so I can't wait to get started."
Lloyd’s immediate emphasis will be on F1 Academy next season but she is also aware of keeping options open further down the line, including in Formula E, which has had three female racers - Katherine Legge, Simona de Silvestro and Michela Cerruti - in its decade long history and is now putting a fresh focus on giving opportunities to women, headlined by an all-female test session at Valencia in November in which each team is expected to field two cars.
"I wouldn't say I have a direct path in my career for the next few years, to be honest," Lloyd said.
"Formula E is obviously a great option. Doing the test in a few weeks is going to be a real eye-opener into what could be possible, so I've just got to take it step-by-step and see what comes my way."
McLaren F1 business operations manager Stephanie Carlin described Lloyd as having "great talent and potential" and added she had "already cemented herself" in F1 Academy with her ninth- and sixth-place finishes on her Singapore debut.
"We're excited to see what she can do with us," said Carlin. "We look forward to supporting her development."
Why Formula E must take Lloyd seriously
An up-and-coming female racer such as Lloyd is exactly the kind of driver that Formula E and one of its teams, in this case McLaren, should be targeting to promote.
It's often been felt that young women are lost to motorsport because they are never discovered or, more pertinently, never have the chance to be discovered in the first place.
Lloyd has racing roots: her father Chris, who represented Great Britain in skiing at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Paralympics, was a rally driver before that, and her brother races in Ginettas.
But she only got her first taste of anything particularly competitive on four wheels - having found success of her own in both skiing and showjumping - at a 2018 FIA Girls on Track event at Silverstone.
This initiative is starting now to have tangible results in various areas of motorsport and will be extended within Formula E with a programme at the Valencia test for up to 400 local young women, who will have the chance to watch and engage with the women driving in the test while participating in workshops aimed at accelerating careers across the whole motorsport spectrum.
The Valencia test has a much more solid footing than the token previous event held in Riyadh in 2018. On that occasion, some teams didn't even bother to field women at the promoters' test, which was given a strong marketing push the day after the first-ever single-seater race in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
That race being held just after women had been legally allowed to get behind the wheel of road cars in the country meant that Formula E felt it had to hurriedly get together some women for the test, which on the day felt more symbolic than meritocratic.
Six years on and Formula E has carved out a properly organised all-female test that will involve dedicated run programmes during the afternoon of Thursday November 7, the final day of the Valencia test, with all of the teams set to field two drivers.
As revealed by The Race earlier this month, Jamie Chadwick, Alice Powell (below), Abbi Pulling, Marta Garcia, Chloe Chambers, Sophia Floersch and Jessica Edgar will also have seats at the test, meaning that some of the world's best female drivers will be in one place at the same time and going through a proper evaluation process.
But that will just be one part of it, as considerable media activities will also be involved.
There is a longer-term strategy behind Formula E beginning a progressive programme of getting more female competitors into the world championship on varying levels as it aims to 'remove barriers and expand opportunities for women' in its paddock and on its grid.
"We also recognise that one test will not solve the longstanding issue, but we have to start somewhere, knowing there is a long way to go and making sure we're making proactive, consistent steps that continue to make forward progress," said Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds, who approved the initiative.
"As a motorsport with an almost-equal split of male and female fans, as well within Formula E including my executive and director teams, we believe it's only right that our drivers and wider ecosystem is representative of those that follow and support the sport."
There will be some leeway for licence requirements, with The Race discovering that the usual FE minimum of an International B licence will be relaxed and that an International C holder may be admitted by the FIA with the validation of the driver's national motorsport body.
The female testers will also be allowed to use the same tyre allocation as the regular drivers plus one additional allocated set of Hankook tyres.
