South African motorsport’s future has a new face - and she’s already in the fast lane
Sixteen- year-old Chloe Stuart, a motorsport driver has made history as the youngest woman to win a Formula Vee title, and the first woman in over 50 years to claim the championship.
Image: Supplied
WHEN the visor drops and the red lights go out, everything else fades away. For 16-year-old Chloe Stuart, that moment between silence and speed is where she feels most alive.
Chloe isn’t just another young driver chasing a dream. The Gauteng-born racer is the youngest female ever to win a Formula Vee title, and the first woman in more than 50 years to do so.
Her love for racing began before she could even reach the pedals. At just eighteen months old, Chloe swapped dolls for a battery-powered car, and by seven, she was competing in karts with the encouragement of her father, Barry, a former endurance kart racer.
Chloe Stuart was recently honoured as Motorsport Personality of the Year at the 2025 TopGear South Africa Magazine Awards.
Image: Supplied
Starting in the SSS Prokart Midgets, Chloe advanced through the F200 and F300 classes. In 2022, she finished third in the F300 Championship before moving up to Formula M, where she won the Class C Championship, topped the Index of Performance, and was named Formula M Driver of the Year.
A year later, she proved her ability in difficult conditions by winning the Libre Invitational in Cape Town, a wet race that tested every driver’s skill and concentration.
Soon after, she stepped into the Formula Vee championship, swapping karts for a single-seater built for real wheel-to-wheel racing. It was a big shift - faster cars, closer competition, and no margin for error. She was also the youngest driver in the field and the only woman, but she settled in quickly and finished her debut season as Rookie Champion.
That same year, she represented South Africa at the Tillotson T4 Nations Cup in Spain, competed in the KZ2 Shifter Kart series, and in 2025 she joined Pablo Clark Racing as a development driver in a BMW E46 330i.
It didn’t take long for her work with the team to pay off. In 2025, she became the first woman to win a BMW M-Performance race in Class F and earned a step up to Class E. This year, she’s participating in the BMW M-Performance NA Cup, Class D. People in the paddock have started paying attention.
She now races with support from Pablo Clark Racing, Easy Equities, Autozone, LMS Electrical Contractors, Basically Branding and several other team sponsors, and is also featured regularly at motorsport events and exhibitions.
Away from the track, Chloe enjoys CrossFit and holds a brown belt in Karate. She also analyses telemetry data, reviews footage, and works closely with her team to understand every technical aspect of performance from tyre wear to aerodynamics.
Chloe Stuart is preparing to launch Racer Girl, her first fragrance.
Image: Supplied
Despite her busy schedule, she finds time to interact with followers online. Her Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram pages offer followers behind-the-scenes access to race-day preparations and track walks, as well as gym sessions and debriefs with her engineers.
Chloe's determination extends beyond the track. She’s preparing to launch Racer Girl, her first fragrance, and is also building Classic Cars by Chloe, a project focused on bringing old vehicles back to life with the help of a skilled crew.
Her focus now is on mastering Class D in the BMW M-Performance, NA Cup and building experience that will eventually take her into international competition. She may still be at the start of her career, but there’s no question she’s steering South African motorsport into a new era.