Hopping into her first go-kart a little over a decade ago, 17-year-old Aiva Anagnostiadis never would have imagined that lap around the track would become the first step in her history-making motorsport career.
Following in the footsteps of Australian Formula 1 legends Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo, Aiva and her family left the sunny shores of Melbourne for the United Kingdom with their sights set on F1 Academy – a women’s only subsidiary of Formula 1.
“As soon as I stepped into the car, F1 Academy was the goal to keep going in my career,” she tells WHO. After proving herself in the F4 Indian Championship, Aiva campaigned among several teams for her spot on the 2025 F1 Academy grid – and one December afternoon, her dream was finally realised.
“It got to the end of the day and my manager said, ‘We’re going to have a meeting with [F1 Academy managing director] Susie [Wolff] and [competition manager] Delphine [Biscaye], but it’s going to go either way.’ I thought, ‘They’re only going to tell me you haven’t got the seat,’ but I thought, ‘That cannot be the answer.’”
After playing a three-month waiting game, Aiva was offered her race seat in partnership with luxury watch brand TAG Heuer.
“I had Mum with me on the call, and she was ecstatic. I was just smiling. I don’t think I said anything – I was just sitting there with a grin on my face,” she shared.
While her ascension to F1 Academy may have been the next logical step on the career ladder for Aiva back in Melbourne, the teen sensation did not anticipate just how much of an influence her move had.
“I didn’t realise how much of an impact it was going to have. When I was home, I went to the track with a couple of girls because they just wanted to get started [in motorsport] and I thought I’d go help. When they found out I was on the grid, I didn’t realise how happy and supportive all the girls were going to be, especially the younger ones.”
As she counts down the days until her first race in Shanghai on March 21, Aiva jokes that she is “excited about everything.”
“Just to race on a Formula 1 track, I think the atmosphere is going to be insane!”
She may no longer be hoping her lucky Talladega Nights socks take her to the top step of the podium, as she did when she was young, but if she could give her 6-year-old self a glimpse into her new life on the grid, she would remind her to “have fun and be really determined.”
“I think karting in Australia or anywhere, it’s quite tough to be a girl. Don’t worry about what people think and enjoy every moment, because they only come once.”
