Bruna Tomaselli is a Brazilian driver who is making her way up the US single-seater racing ladder.
Her senior career began in 2013, racing in Brazil’s Formula Junior championship at the age of 16. This followed two years of international karting. Formula Junior appears to be a Ford-based single-seater championship and Bruna spent two seasons there. She scored one podium in her first season, then her first win in 2014. She was fourth in that year’s championship.
She first raced in South American Formula 4 in 2015. She was sixth in the championship, with several fourth places as her best result. In contrast, she survived a nasty accident at Rio Hondo. That year, she also made guest appearances in Sprint Race in Brazil.
Back at home in 2016, she continued her Formula 4 campaign. During the season, she scored five podium positions, and was fourth in the championship. The best of her results was a second place at Rivera, behind Juan Manuel Casella. Her four third places were at Pinar.
Her big project for 2017 was moving to the States in order to race in the Cooper Tires FF2000 championship. In between, she travelled to Bahrain for its round of the MRF Challenge. Her best finish was eighth.
In the USA, she was twelfth at Road America, on her way to 21st in the championship. She was driving for the ArmsUp team and completed almost all of the season.
She did another year in USF2000 in 2018, finishing 16th overall with one seventh place as her best result. This came from the first race of the year at St Petersburg. Without a series of DNFs towards the end of the season, her finishing position would have been higher.
Back home, she also competed in Formula Academy Sudamericana, finishing fifth in the Formula Renault-based series.
At the end of the year, she applied to be one of the drivers for the all-female W Series in Europe, and was placed on the initial list of 60 hopefuls. After the first selection event, she was rejected and took to social media to express her confusion and disappointment. She had been among the fastest drivers on the final “Race of Champions” task, but was not retained.
She is racing in USF2000 again in 2019, for the leading Pabst Racing team. At the time of writing, she has scored a sixth and seventh place at her favoured circuit of St Petersburg.
Prior to her motorsport career, Bruna played football to a high level and still retains an interest in the women’s game in Brazil.
(Image copyright Bruna Tomaselli)