THE STORY OF ALBA LARSEN
i recently listened to her podcast episode with dr, and it's the most i have heard about her story, so i decided to write a summary in english of what she shared.
alba has grown up around racing, but she never thought she'd be a racing driver herself. she went to the same school as jan magnussen's two youngest children, luca and millie, and their families were good friends. as a child, her family went on holiday to the united states with the magnussens to watch jan race. alba did not pay attention to the racing, and was busy just playing in the garages with her sister and jan's children. after the race, kevin magnussen, jan's oldest son, babysat them as their parents went to a party after the race.
originally, she wanted to become a professional handball player, but during the pandemic in 2020, the sport shut down as contact sport is banned. at 11 years old, she was invited to try out luca magnussen's kart one day as the track was one of the few places still open. as soon as she started driving, alba was instantly hooked. the kart was an older model and luca was getting a newer one, so her dad bought the kart from jan for her and her sister to share, so they had a fun activity and escape during the pandemic.
alba started driving more, and her dad bought her a kart of her own, when she wanted to start racing against others. at 12 years old, and in her very first race, she qualified 26th but finished 16th, and the rush of overtaking others led her to fall even more in love with the sport. she improved fast, and in the span of 3 years of competing, she won several races and karting championships. alba also set a few track records on sjƦlland, two of them still standing.
she started getting noticed due to her results in karting, but since her family is not rich, she had to rely on sponsorships to keep racing, using her dad as a mechanic to save money. with the support of the magnussens, jan and kevin as mentors, and jan's brother as a mechanic, new opportunities started opening up for her.
in 2023, alba randomly heard about the girls on track competition one day and managed to apply the day before the deadline. she was one out of 8 girls chosen from a pool of 400+ drivers from 50 countries to take part in a test and shoot-out in italy. she was surprised to be selected, and her family and her decided to just take it as an experience and did not have too many expectations. during the entire preparation for the competition, they believed the test would be done in karts. only a week before the test, she was informed that the test was happening in f4 cars. at this point, alba had never driven a car before, and the car could go 240 km/h whereas her kart only went up to 120 km/h.
during the test, alba stalled multiple times in the beginning, having never had to deal with a clutch before. despite being new to cars, she steadily improved over the three days of the test, and ended up being selected for the final, where 4 girls will compete for the win. she prepared better for the final, working on improving her fitness to get physically stronger, as that was what she had been told to work on. however, two days before the final competition is set to begin, she got the flu. the first days of the final were mental and physical tests, and alba did not inform the fia about her having the flu, as she was afraid she'd be sent home without a chance to compete. she completed the tests while secretly ill. during a fitness test, she was close to throwing up, but luckily the equipment broke during the test, and they stopped that specific test early. instead, they just asked her how much longer she could have continued, and alba lied and said she could have gone on for far longer.
after a few days, she was feeling better during the driving part of the test, and did well despite her recent illness, and improved quickly by following the directions of her engineer. on the final day of the test, she was told they have to do a long run, an entire race distance, which alba immediately dreaded as she was still recovering from illness and is tired after some hard days. she did not think she could do it physically, but after some coaching, she went into it with the mindset that she would give everything she got left in the tank.
as soon as she went out on track on the final day, she just floored it and quickly went well over 200 km/h for the first time in her life. alba knew that she would have to be pretty consistent, and every lap she should do numbers similar to the previous one. about halfway through the race, alba felt sure that she would be able to drive the entire race distance. they had an experienced female driver as a reference point driving at the same time as the girls, and alba was able to match that driver's lap times for some of her laps. weeks later, it was revealed that she was the winner of the competition, and she was declared the fastest girl in the world in her age bracket.
now she has a seat in f1 academy, and have got some more race experience in various stints in f4. she will become a part of the ferrari academy in 2026. alba wants to become a f1 driver, even while admitting there's a greater chance of failure than success, but she has belief in herself and wants to give it everything to get there.
