Catie Munnings

Catie is at the forefront of one of the most exciting generations and pioneering stages in motorsport development, combining environmental awareness, gender equality and green racing. Driving for the Andretti United Extreme E team, bringing together the legendary American Andretti Autosport name, with the highly accomplished United Autosport team - Catie is one of only 18 drivers, selected to race in Extreme E, a Championship that is changing the face of motorsport on the world stage - racing 2 tonne electric SUV vehicles in the most remote locations on the planet that have been damaged by climate change; the Greenland Ice Sheet, Arabian Desert, Amazon rainforest - all selected by a board of world leading scientists, who then regenerate the landscape and invest in the local charities in long term legacy programmes. Catie is at the forefront of the project, helping to plant 1 million mangrove trees in Senegal, sampling the black ice in Greenland, and protecting sea turtles in Arabia.

At just 25 years old, Catie is racing against some of the legends she grew up watching - Carlos Sainz, Sebastien Loeb, Jenson Button to name a few. In the inaugural season, finishing a race on every step of the podium, Catie showed the strength and resilience it takes to rise up and take on the challenge against competitors with far more experience to prove that when the stop watch starts, it’s just about performance under pressure. Pushing the engineering boundaries in a team of engineers, mechanics, and drivers to test new technology beyond the expected, powered by electricity that is generated by hydrogen fuel cell technology, meaning the only by-product is water. Taking this a step further, thinking outside the box and working as a team between her engineers, mechanics, and team mate to find the small margins that it took to win races. Catie works in a Championship that mandates that each team have a male and a female racer, where there is only one team result; the male and females efforts combined; all while maintaining sustainability at the forefront of their minds - “racing without a trace” - a zero emission, a carbon negative series. An avenue that Catie is passionate about, extending into her own life and media presence; moderating and hosting sustainability panels in the transport industry at Glasgows’ Cop26 world leader summit.

Catie’s career began straight at the deep end in the European Rally Championship, in her inaugural season, she won the FIA Ladies European Rally Championship making her the first Briton to win a European Rally title in over 49 years – all whilst sitting her A Level exams. She then moved onto the Junior World Rally Championship, whilst also presenting her own full time BBC kids tv show - Catie’s Amazing Machines, where she tested everything from jet planes, helicopters and F3 cars to snow plows, tanks and submarines - fulfilling her ambition of showing the younger generation what cutting edge technology means for the future, that they can do anything they love, and to be bold in their ambitions - especially with a female audience in mind.

Catie has ambassador roles for: UN Tolerance Day, Red bull, Gopro, Harley Davidson, The London Motorshow, Sean Edwards Foundation, Woman Of the Future, IAM Roadsmart, as well as finishing in the top 6 of The Sunday Times’ Young Sportswomen of the Year awards. Her passion for life and doing what you love is contagious. Having proven how much you can achieve in a year if you put your mind to it, she wants to inspire others to do the same.

Topics: Self belief, sustainability, pushing boundaries, diversity, competition mindset, Fear and mental resilience