“My name is Pippa Mann.”

“C’mon, it’s rude to ask a woman her age! The internet exists, and if anybody really wants to know, they can go look it up!” [Laughs]

“It feels like it was a very long time ago. I was 21 years old. It was in a Formula Renault single seater, and it was… at Donington in the UK! Took me a while but I finally got there!”

“Oh, that’s really, really difficult.” [Pause]. “Can I give you more than one?”

Of course.

“So, I think the best moment in my career was when I won in Indy Lights, which is now Indy NXT. Qualifying for my first Indianapolis 500 [in 2011] was a very very special moment. And so was the race I ran in 2019 with a special title sponsor.

“The team was Clauson-Marshall Racing. Tim Clauson is the father of my old teammate, Bryan Clauson [Pippa and Bryson each ran the 2016 Indy 500 with Dale Coyne]. Bryson unfortunately passed away in a racing accident several years ago. We’d been teammates but we’d also become really good friends. So in 2019, I got to drive the Clauson-Marshall Racing car at the Indianapolis 500 with a campaign to convince racing fans to sign up and become organ donors. It was the Driven 2 Save Lives car in honour and in memory of Bryan. That was incredibly special for me.

“And a much less emotional one, but still very satisfying, was setting the fastest lap of all of my teammates at last year’s Nürburgring 24 Hours. That’s purely an ego one, but it felt pretty good!”

“It’s very hard to beat being in an IndyCar at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but the Nürburgring Nordschleife is right up there. It’s such a cool track to run on. And, funnily enough – people may think this is wild – many of the traits that make you good at a racetrack like Indianapolis also make you very good at the Nordschleife, because both tracks are so unforgiving. 

“In many ways, you have to ‘race’ the racetrack as much as you have to race your competitors. You have to understand the car you have, and you have to make so many decisions yourself, as a driver, in the car the entire time that can affect the outcome. All without making mistakes. More so than you do at a traditional circuit where your engineers can feed you information quickly and in real-time.”

[Pause] “Because I live and race mainly in America, I’m going to stick with the American tracks, and as you might have guessed from my first two answers, I like the old school circuits. I love Road Atlanta, Road America, Watkins Glen, Sebring, VIR [Virginia International Raceway]… places where, if you make mistakes, there are consequences. Where there are really fast corners and you have to really be on top of your game.

“As one of my colleagues Shea Holbrook would say, you have to have steel ovaries to be fast at these tracks!”

[Pause] “So, I don’t know if this is the ‘strangest,’ sadly, because there are a lot of women in motorsport who can relate to this. But when I was racing in Formula Renault, I crashed my car at a street circuit, and I had to walk back to the paddock. But because I didn’t have my credentials, security wouldn’t let me in.

“I mean, I’m there, in my race suit, ‘fresh’ out of the car, with my helmet in my hand, and my HANS device and my gloves, pissed off because I had just crashed the car… and the official won’t let me in.

“I’ve also been standing on the pitwall alongside other members of my team, and security have tried to kick me off there too. All those types of experiences… they’re maybe not ‘strange,’ but they are… they’re ‘interesting,’ let’s say.”

“My helmet design actually changed very significantly, in terms of the colour scheme, in 2014. Previously, I’d worn a red and yellow helmet, and I started out with a blue and yellow helmet: blue was always my favourite colour. But I changed that because my dad couldn’t pick me out on the go-kart tracks. 

“Then in 2014, we changed the primary colour to pink in support of a big American breast cancer charity, Susan G Komen.* At first it felt really weird. I didn’t want to be ‘the girl in the pink helmet’ because I’d spent all of my career trying to show everyone that you can’t tell whether a driver is male or female when they’re in the car. So to be wearing a pink helmet, especially in an open wheel car, felt really odd. 

“But aside from all of the families who came to find me that weekend, and all of the women I spoke with, so many little girls came to find me. So many little girls and their parents came to tell me how excited they were to have someone to cheer for. This really gave me something to think about. Because, if I really believe that men and women are equal behind the wheel of a race car, why am I not allowed to be a woman and be equal? 

“From that moment on, the pink helmet stayed. I don’t think I will ever change it back.”

*Teaming up for the first time in 2014, Pippa’s collaboration with Susan G. Komen continued for each subsequent Indy 500 entry up to and including 2017.  

“The fact I was daft enough not to give up!” [Laughs] “Yeah, I guess determination. Anybody who gets anywhere in this sport has to overcome all manner of setbacks. So my greatest strength? Probably the fact that I was dumb enough to keep going!”

“Oh gosh!” [Pause] “Maybe Cameron Diaz? I like her, she’s kind of cool. She’s got spunk, she’s got attitude. Yeah, Cameron Diaz. Let’s shoot for the moon!”

“That’s a very loaded question!” [Pause] “I would love to get the opportunity to run some races in a GT3 car. I would love to have the opportunity to run more endurance races, such as the race in Barcelona with ST Racing.” - See sidebar. - Ed. - “I think those are the big ones. It’s not necessarily within my control, but I would love to come back.”

[Pause] “A random fact that my US fans definitely know, but that my European fans may not know, is that I run an organisation  called ‘Shift Up Now.’ Our entire goal is to help close the funding gap for female athletes in motorsport. We’re trying to raise the money to solve some of the problems that I personally ran into for most of my career. We have a for-profit side, which deals with sponsorship and traditional motorsports partnerships, and a foundation side. Hopefully as we grow the brand and get bigger, we can create an organisation that really drives change for women in motor racing.”

“I really enjoy the environment of endurance racing. I like being part of a team, and I like the fact that I’m getting on really well with my teammates [in Barcelona]. This is my first time with the 24H SERIES, and so far, I have to say, you guys are doing a great job. I’ve been impressed!”

*Pippa Mann was speaking with Aniek Volleberg at the 24H BARCELONA in 2024.

“Sometimes a 2nd place finish feels like you’ve won the race, and sometimes it’s just heart-breaking. We did everything humanly possible to try and win this race for ST Racing and BMW, but the racing gods decided it just wasn’t our day. 

“On the positive side we can all be very proud of our performance. The entire Bas Koeten Racing team running the car for ST Racing were incredible. Our pit-stops were consistently good, and all of the drivers gave their all.

“From a personal point of view, I’m just so grateful to have had this opportunity to join Samantha Tan Racing for this event. Having four fast teammates, all of whom were focused on one goal, was a very cool experience, and joining a team of this calibre for an event like this was truly a ‘pinch me moment. 

“Massive thank you to Jon Miller, and to Sam and Ken Tan for allowing me to be part of, and welcoming me to this team for, this event.”