Meet Emma Gilmour, McLaren’s first female factory driver who swapped horses for motor sport

The New Zealander will be behind the wheel for McLaren when the new Extreme E season gets under way this weekend

Emma Gilmour will join the Extreme E grid this season (McLaren)

Emma Gilmour is surely the only person in the world who, upon deciding horse riding was too risky, elected to race cars instead.

It was one fall, off the aptly named Mr Obnoxious, that ultimately led the Kiwi to ditch both her reins and Olympic aspirations as she swapped one paddock for another.

That was 23 years ago. Now, the 42-year-old is set to make history as McLaren Racing’s first female factory driver when she gets behind the wheel for Extreme E’s season two opener on Saturday.

“It’s still a pinch-me moment,” says Gilmour, who only arrived at McLaren HQ—and to the UK for that matter—last week.

“I was totally pinching myself when I was walking down the boulevard at McLaren and it’s all these F1 cars and amazing names on the vehicles. I still get goosebumps thinking about it.

“It’s amazingly special. I can honestly say I didn’t dream about it ever happening because I come from a rallying background.

“To have the opportunity to come and be part of the McLaren story, and obviously a proud New Zealander with the legacy that Bruce McLaren started with the mechanic brand, I’m just so, so proud.”

This will be McLaren’s first year in the all-electric series which aims to raise awareness about climate change through a series of off-road races in extreme climates.

Each race weekend also features a legacy project, working alongside local organisations and charities. Last season’s included mangrove tree-planting in Senegal and an educational program in Greenland in partnership with UNICEF.

All teams must have one male and one female driver, so Gilmour will be partnering four-time US rallycross champion Tanner Foust when qualifying for the Desert X Prix begins in NEOM, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday.

Other locations are set to include Sardinia, Chile and a possible return to the UK, this time in Scotland, following last year’s Dorset finale.

Emma Gilmour with her McLaren teammate Tanner Foust (McLaren)

Gilmour is, by technicality, the lone veteran on the debutant team. Last season, she raced for Veloce as an alternate for Bath’s Jamie Chadwick, who missed two X Prix in order to defend her W Series title.

“I think I gained a lot of respect for the series,” said Gilmour.

“Watching it at home you think, yep, it’s obviously always going to be a challenge, but when you’re actually in the car and you’re bumping around on the surface, it becomes much more challenging than you’d really expected it to be.”

Gilmour, the first and only woman to win a New Zealand Rally Championship event, still owns a Suzuki car dealership back home.

The daughter of a mechanic, Gilmour grew up dreaming of an equestrian career, her sights set on the Olympics. Then came the fall.

“I was like, you know what? I just don’t want to get back on,” she recalled.

“It was that simple. It was that moment where I was like, no. I’m out. It had obviously been building, it wasn’t just a two-second decision. But it was just that moment, and the sense of relief I’d felt was amazing.

“I’d just started to question my resolve of, ‘am I really loving this as much? If I had a life-changing injury, would that be OK with how much I’m loving the sport?”

Gilmour, who insists “horse riding is still way more dangerous” than her new career, bawled in the car after making that call. Still, she sold her equipment, her horses, and turned to rally in 2002. She hasn’t looked back since.

Things could have turned out differently. There was one point, ahead of Extreme E’s debut season, when Gilmour was lined up to join another team—but the funding ultimately fell through.

Now she’s McLaren’s milestone woman.

“I’m a very impatient person,” she adds. “But I’m also quite philosophical.

“There’s a lesson in everything, and you can’t always see what you’re destined for.

“I was going to be an Olympic equestrian, but I had to hang up the boots, I was absolutely heartbroken, and I thought that was going to be the end of it for me.

“But the reality is it turned around to a whole other career.

“Sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees. You never know what opportunity might be just around the corner.”

A toast, then, to Mr Obnoxious.