Emma Gilmour, first woman to drive for McLaren, on leaving prestigious motor racing team

Emma Gilmour says she has no regrets after her stint with McLaren. "I rode the wave for as long as I could and thoroughly enjoyed it all."

Rally exponent Emma Gilmour had a bittersweet end to her 2023. The New Zealander became the first woman to become a full-time driver for McLaren in their Extreme E category, but after two years her services at the iconic racing brand are no longer required.

“This opportunity was still amazing despite what happened [no drive in 2024],” Gilmour told the Weekend Herald. “To be the first woman to race for McLaren, and the first woman to leave McLaren, is not too bad a record to have.

“Going to Goodwood and driving Denny Hulme’s CanAm and other great experiences has been surreal. I still can’t believe it really happened and it’s been such a fairy tale to have been involved with McLaren.

“With Extreme E I got to see amazing parts of the world that many people don’t. I always knew it couldn’t last forever, so I rode the wave for as long as I could and thoroughly enjoyed it all. No regrets at all.”

Gilmour and co-driver Tanner Foust have driven together since the team’s launch in 2022 and in that time achieved a couple of podiums. Their best championship finish was fifth in season two and the Kiwi is pretty chuffed with her results racing for NEOM McLaren XE.

“It was a bit of a frustrating season this year. We finished last year with quite a bit of momentum and for whatever reason this season just didn’t happen as we hoped.

“I don’t know if it was the new format, which took a few things out of your control. You needed to have a really quick car off the line and we never really got that sorted and were always battling a bit.

“We still managed to get a podium in Scotland, so that was a positive.

“The car was feeling really good in the build-up to the Sardinian round until it rolled over on me. The problem was you never really got much time to sort the car out and if it wasn’t quick straight away you were on the back foot.

“Being the third season now, all the teams were pretty well matched and a lot depended on what ball draw you got. Speed didn’t really come into too much, more depended on your group draw,” said Gilmour.

Not one to take a little rejection lying down, Gilmour is now focusing on next year with a full-on assault of the New Zealand Rally Championship in her Citroen C3 Rally 2 car. Rather than trying to fit the NZRC around her former international commitments, Gilmour will be aiming to improve on her best finish of second place (three times over the years) in the series and get that elusive championship win.

“I haven’t done a full New Zealand rally campaign for a very long time and I’m really looking forward to it, especially in a competitive car like the Citroen.

“I bought it after the New Zealand round of the WRC and Hayden Paddon has been running it for me.

“My first event in it was the Otago rally where we finished fifth in it. We were supposed to do the last two events this year, but with my head injury [Extreme E rollover] we decided not to do them.

“I’m really looking forward to racing the whole championship next year and hoping for a good result.”