Beth Lestrade
Elizabeth "Beth" Anne Lestrade (London, England, United Kingdom, August 16th 1990) is a British female automobile racing driver She is currently attached to the Euromotor International team at the F1 Rejects Indy Championship Series, where she races since the series' inception, in 2015.
Lestrade has a diverse and broad career, despite her background being from open-wheel racing. She also had experience at touring car, endurance racing and other kinds of 'alternative' racing series.
Early Life
Born in London, Lestrade come from a family with a different tradition than racing. Many of her relatives, including her father, grandfather and sister, works with Scotland Yard or have any kind of involvment with any branch of British law enforcement. Because of that and her unique last name, similar with the character from Sherlock Holmes series, she gained the nickname of 'The Inspector Lady'.
Her first forays into racing were into karting, at the tender age of 12, racing at indoor tracks around London. Soon, she jumped into proper championships, winning a few races, but not achieving a championship trophy. In 2007, Lestrade decided to further advance into the racing ladder, joining Formula Ford GB with ACER Motorsport. With ACER, she ran mostly at the midddle of the pack, conquering a few points to finish the championship just under the top 10.
She kept herself with Formula Ford GB in 2008, now joining Kevin Mills Racing. Despite her season kicked off well with a win and two podiums, the year was clearly of up and downs to the young Londonian, who handled several DNFs and low position finishes at the second part of the season, killing her momentum.
Formula 3
Lestrade took part in a test session at Brands Hatch in December 2008 with a British Formula 3 car, and impressed the media and team owners with her commitment, speed and knowdlege of the car's handling. Within days from the test, she signed a deal with Carlin Motorsport to race the 2009 F3 season. The year started with two mediocre stints at Oulton Park and the first Silverstone round, but she recovered at Rockingham, finishing 5th in the first race and 6th in the second one, also scoring the fastest lap in the process. At Hockenheim, Lestrade again showed her trade, finishing 4th and 8th. Despite retirements at Snetterton, she recovered well at Donington Park, with 5th in both rounds.
Her momentum slowed down at Spa, where she only got a 15th place in the second round after crashing in the first one. Back at Silverstone, she scored 7th and 10th places before heading to Portimão, where Lestrade came close to her first podium on both races, but had to conform herself with 4th and 6th finishing places. Her season finished in Brands Hatch, where a retirement and a 9th capped off the season.
Carlin approached her at the end of the season with a deal for another year at British F3 or join the team in the World Series by Renault, as several other WSbyR and GP3 Series teams went looking for Lestrade to join their teams. Her decision was to stay at Carlin, but moving to the GP3 with them.
GP3 Series
2010
Lestrade was one of the many ones to join the newcoming GP3 Series, with the experienced Carlin stable. She said the moment was "perhaps the best of her life and I am amazed to be where the Formula One cars are. I am very confident that I am going to pick this opportunity with both hands"´.
However, her first races were marred with disappointing results, retiring in both Spanish races and at the first Turkish meeting, finishing 12th in the second race. Her comeback happened at Valencia, finishing 7th and 5th for her first points in the series. However, a collision with Adrian Quaife-Hobbs in the first race at Silverstone, plus a 12th in the second race at the British home round killed an opportunity of a momentum.
Another round of disappointment came at Germany, where transmission failures and a tangle with Josef Newgarden ended soon her weekend. She rebounded at Hungaroring, showing raw speed and intelligence to finish both races in the 6th place. The momentum was kept for the first Belgian race, where she attained an impresssive 4th place, but another collision, this time with Daniel Juncadella, took her out early of the second race. Monza season-end round wasn't good to Lestrade either, only achieving an 11th place in the second race.
2011
For 2011 season, Beth moved from Carlin to Addax Team, in hopes to make a shot for the title. However, things started bleak in the Turkish round, as she retired from both races with engine and transmission troubles. At Montmeló, she rebounded scoring top-10 positions in both races, culminating with a sprint race podium in Valencia.
Lestrade arrived in England condfident to take a shot for winning the British rounds, however a crash in the first Silverstone race harmed her performance at the second race, where she was restrained to the lower places. Another rebound came in style in Nürburgring, where she scored points in both races, being lauded by German motorsport press for her performances, especially for fighting for the first place at the Feature Race.
Hungary was as 'tale of two races' for the British lady driver, again scoring points in the first race, only to retire the second after crashing. She couldnt recover herself in Spa-Francochamps, finishing next-to-last in the first race and quietly retiring the second one. Rumours of not racing the last round at Italy were killed as Lestrade arrived at Monza, where she nearly stepped into podium at both races, however managed to grab 5th and 4th places.
Between series
Lestrade failed to find a GP3 seat for 2012 season and had to leave the series. However, her open-wheeler story couldn't finish that soon. She found a seat at Zele Racing in Auto GP series, where she raced the Monza round. The first race was uneventful and she finished in a lowly 11th. In the second race, she battled for the points, but faded in the end to cross the line as 9th placed.
The Britishwoman tried her hands with BTCC, joining a privateer team set by her family with a Toyota Avensis. She took part first in Thruxton round, to a less than perfect outing. She rebounded later at Oulton Park, where she picked top-15 places at second and third races. At Croft, however, a crash at the first race made her withdraw the later sessions.
Beth missed Snetterton round, recovering from her injuries, but she returned at the Avensis wheel in Knockhill, handing another anonymous effort at Scottish lands. Another round missed was the Rockingham one, as Lestrade filled another session with Zele Racing at Auto GP, earning two top 10s at Infineon. She returned, however, to the last two rounds, with top-15 efforts at Silverstone, but engine troubles and a crash at Brands Hatch.