Charlotte “Lotta” Hellberg -Swedish with a Dutch passport - was an icon of 90s karting not only for the fact that she was one of the few girls, at the time, to have competed in such a competitive and selective environment. Engaged in the Top 100cc class such as the Formula Super A Lotta, she battled on an equal footing with some of the champions who remained in the history of karting and with others who then crowned their Formula 1 dreams from those small tracks such as Trulli and Fisichella to name a few.
The Patron of CRG Tinini, a Team with whom she raced for a long time, remembers her like this: «what was special in Charlotte was her driving style, unique. You were enchanted watching her drive: it almost seemed that she hadn't moved the steering wheel for so clean she was in her driving.» In 1996 she scored a stratospheric 39 ”811 in Lonato in the Euro Championship Final, and it is a real pity that she never boasted of a Title in those years, because the skills to do so were all right.
Today many girls are inspired by girls like her and Sophie Kumpen or Elisa Giordan, because from those years and on, the presence of women on the grid has become a more common fact and no longer a mere "note of color". There is still a long way to go, and being a fast girl is often not enough to create around yourself a project that includes all the steps of the supply chain up to the highest car racing goals. However, karting, with its technical simplicity and relatively affordable costs, at least in some categories, remains – proudly – a field where girls compete absolutely on equal terms… Thanks Lotta, we love you.
The Patron of CRG Tinini, a Team with whom she raced for a long time, remembers her like this: «what was special in Charlotte was her driving style, unique. You were enchanted watching her drive: it almost seemed that she hadn't moved the steering wheel for so clean she was in her driving.» In 1996 she scored a stratospheric 39 ”811 in Lonato in the Euro Championship Final, and it is a real pity that she never boasted of a Title in those years, because the skills to do so were all right.
Today many girls are inspired by girls like her and Sophie Kumpen or Elisa Giordan, because from those years and on, the presence of women on the grid has become a more common fact and no longer a mere "note of color". There is still a long way to go, and being a fast girl is often not enough to create around yourself a project that includes all the steps of the supply chain up to the highest car racing goals. However, karting, with its technical simplicity and relatively affordable costs, at least in some categories, remains – proudly – a field where girls compete absolutely on equal terms… Thanks Lotta, we love you.
