Irish racing driver Kayleigh Cole is setting her sights firmly on the GB4 Championship in 2026, with a clear objective in mind: becoming the top female driver on the grid and earning the elusive sponsored seat in F1 Academy for the 2027 season.
Speaking exclusively to Pit Debrief, Cole believes the momentum is shifting in her favour, driven by strong performances, renewed backing and a bold move to the UK.
“I suppose like it kind of brings me back to 2024,” Cole told Pit Debrief. “I was meant to join the GB4 grid with the same team that I’m hopefully going to be with this year. Unfortunately I joined a management team and a lot of setbacks put that to a stop.”
A stalled season in the dust
Cole’s 2024 season was meant to be a springboard into GB4, but it quickly became a year of frustration. Administrative hurdles, funding challenges, and managerial missteps combined to stall her momentum.
“My story’s out on social media anyway that people know about, but, it put it to a stop and it definitely affected me that year and I wasn’t in the car as much and it kind of wasted a year in my career really.”
Yet, in the face of disappointment, Cole used 2025 as a reset. With the backing of a sponsor, she secured a new F1000 car and returned to competition, showing plenty of glimpses of her potential on track.
“But then 2025, we kind of went in and we were like, we’ll just, we purchased a new car by a sponsor. I went racing in the F1000 with a brand new car and we done very well. We were winning the championship at one stage and we had a few hiccups and we became vice champion last year.”
Even with a strong performance, uncertainty over funding still loomed. “I kind of looked at it in a way last year that, 2024 was an upsetting year where I couldn’t get the funding for GB4 when I kind of got that hiccup. And then I thought going into 2025, ‘am I going to get the funding?'”
A bold move: relocating to the UK
Determined to take control of her career trajectory, Cole made the bold decision to relocate to the UK. She describes the move as a turning point — both professionally and personally.
“I think the main push for me going into 2026, having that thought and push on the dream of being on the grid and pursuing that career into F1 Academy definitely would have been my move to the UK.”
The move opened doors almost immediately. Connections with key figures in British motorsport, including Fox Motorsport, Jamie Stanley, and Paul McNeilly, provided guidance and support for Cole’s GB4 2026 aspirations.
“Ever since I moved to the UK, the amount of opportunities I’ve landed on my plate to, to pursue into the GB4 grid, like Fox Motorsport, Jamie Stanley, Paul McNeilly, all them guys behind the scenes are doing anything they can to help me get on the grid.”
A pre-Christmas test further demonstrated her progress. “I recently done a test day before Christmas and we were really quick in the car,” Cole said. “A lot of people over in the UK that I have connected with over the last few months can see how much of a passion it is for me.”
Social media, visibility and belief
Beyond the track, Cole has embraced the role of visibility in modern motorsport. Sharing her journey on social media has helped her attract both attention and support from fans and sponsors alike.
“A lot of people in Ireland as well can see how much of a passion it is for me,” she added. “They’re saying, Kayls, ‘start doing these videos, start plugging people on media. And honestly, maybe if I’d done it last year, I would have got it.'”
Now, with more time and focus in the UK, Cole is leveraging that support to build momentum. “But now that I’ve been in the UK and had a lot more time in my hands to concentrate on my career, it definitely has shown me that there’s people out there that want to support it. So I’m not going to stop until I get it.”
Sprint to GB4: building momentum at home
While Cole continues to pursue her GB4 ambitions in 2026, she has also launched the KCR Sprint to GB4-Road to F1 Academy, an event designed to raise awareness of Irish motorsport and bring the community together.
“So basically we were trying to get, as I said, working entirely hard behind the scenes, trying to get the funding for GB4.”
She explained, “now I’ve had a lot of meetings over the, over the course of a few weeks and everything’s looking really positive — it’s just trying to get everything in the pipeline.”
She added that the initiative also represents a shift from lower-budget seasons to campaigns with higher stakes. “It’s going from a season that was quite low and, you know, financially to a season that would be in terms quite high to companies that I’ve been with in the past.”
An idea born from community
The concept for the sprint came from family friend and motorsport veteran Guy Wynn, who encouraged Cole to build something that would have broader impact than a traditional fundraiser.
“There was a guy called Guy Wynn, and I would have helped his son a bit in karting and he’s been in the motorsport industry for quite a while. And he’s one of our good family friends and he came up with the idea and he said, look, what about a sprint?”
Cole is clear that the sprint isn’t intended to single-handedly fund her GB4 campaign. “But instead of making it like, it is going to be a fundraiser to help you get on the grid and it’s not going to get me on the grid. It’ll get me a bit of support, don’t get me wrong, and it has with the social media presence it’s held.
“But in a way that we kind of get the motorsport community together and kind of see what Ireland has to offer and what motorsport is because it’s not very known in Ireland, and it’s quite sad because it’s such a big plug in the world and it can do a lot for Ireland as well.”
Showcasing Irish motorsport
The sprint promises a diverse and competitive program, featuring simulators, car clubs, and championship racing from across Ireland, to help support Cole’s campaign for a spot in GB4 in 2026.
“So he was like, we’ll do a sprint. We’ll have simulators there, we’ll invite car clubs, we’ll invite championships from motorsport around Ireland. And the reach it’s got on social media is quite big. So we started pushing it a bit more.”
The event will feature on-track racing across 12 classes, from grassroots racers to more powerful machinery.
“So the sprint would basically consist of cars to go on track, win trophies between 12 classes on the day. But there’s so many people that have contacted me saying, we want to get involved. Can we bring our cars down?
“Like between boy races with Lexus’ to guys with F1 cars. So yeah, I know that it’s just a way of kind of getting my name out there. Cork is so small, but it’s also very big and people don’t know about me or don’t know about the sport at all.”
Giving girls a platform
With Irish drivers increasingly visible on the international stage, Cole believes the current landscape offers motivation and proof that progression is possible.
“Definitely. I think my biggest like selling point with the whole GB4, et cetera, would definitely have to be the F1 Academy.”
While opinions remain divided around female-only racing categories, Cole admits her own perspective has evolved over time. Having raced against male competitors for most of her career, she initially questioned the need for a separate platform.
“A lot of people don’t agree with the whole all girls series, but I personally at the start when W Series was brought out a couple of years ago, I kind of looked and I was like, well, we can race men — I’ve been doing it all my life, but then I can see what the initiative is.”
However, with experience has come a clearer understanding of the wider objective behind such initiatives. For Cole, the value lies not in separation, but in visibility and access.
“It’s getting girls on the platform that can get to like the likes of Formula 1 and Formula 2. Look, we had Sophia [Flörsch] in Formula 3 and she didn’t get to F1 and it is really hard.”
What makes the current model significant, in her view, is the way it places young female drivers on a global stage where sponsorship and long-term backing become more achievable.
“Don’t get me wrong. And it’s hard for males and females. But I think what F1 Academy are doing is putting girls on a global stage to help them get sponsors to further their career that they can’t go to F2 or can’t go to F3.”
Irish momentum on the international stage
With Irish drivers continuing to make their mark across the junior single-seater ladder, Cole believes the current wave of success has helped reinforce belief — both within the paddock and back home.
“It’s the cheapest way to kind of get a sponsor involved to go towards global stage. The likes of Alex Dunne, that definitely does help as well. You know, seeing that Irish drivers can get to there with the support they get.”
Cole pointed to the growing representation of Irish talent across multiple championships (including GB4 in 2026), with talents such as Conor Grant, Alex O’Grady and Jason Smyth as a sign of what is possible with the right backing.
“The likes of Conor, Alex and Jason as well — I’ve raced with them in the past and they’ve done very well on social media and stuff like that. So it definitely does help other Irish drivers kind of push and say, ‘well, if they’re there, I can be there as well.'”
Looking ahead to the future
Looking past GB4 2026, the prospect of Cole becoming the first Irish driver on the F1 Academy grid carries significance far beyond personal success.
“I don’t think like words can describe how much it means to me,” Cole said. “You know, obviously I’ve kind of raced for several years now. I had my ups and downs of seasons, as I said, but even racing in GB4 is a dream come true.
“As I was saying to a couple of people I met today with sponsors and stuff like, GB4, if I said that about four years ago when I was in karting, I would have been like, yeah, jog on. Like that’s not going to happen. But like the amount, as I said, the amount of support I’ve got on media over the last couple of days, I’m kind of like, wait, I think this is genuinely possible.”
For Cole, that visibility matters just as much as results. Seeing fellow Irish drivers progress through the ranks has helped normalise success at an international level, particularly for competitors coming from a smaller motorsport market.
How much it would mean to be in F1 Academy
Yet for Cole, the significance of F1 Academy extends well beyond personal achievement. Racing on a global stage alongside some of the biggest names in motorsport would carry powerful symbolism for the next generation watching from Ireland.
“In terms of F1 Academy, racing alongside the likes of McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes, I think that’s any little girl’s dream come true. And I think showing that on a global platform for other girls in Ireland, I think that’s a big thing for me as well. You know, there’s a lot of girls in Ireland karting at this stage and to show them that it’s possible to get where I am now and hopefully be on the grid for 2027.”
With more young girls entering karting across the country, Cole believes visibility can be the difference between aspiration and opportunity.
“I think that’s a bigger kind of achievement in itself, trying to show young girls over here that you can do it as well.”
You can keep up with Kayleigh Cole’s 2026 GB4 to F1 Academy project on both her Instagram and Facebook pages.
