Claire Schönborn will see out the rest of the Junior WRC season after being declared the winner of the Beyond Rally Women’s Driver Development Program at Rally Sweden.
Schönborn was a finalist of the initiative along with Lyssia Baudet and Suvi Jyrkiäinen, where a recipient of the full 2025 Junior WRC season was supposed to be announced after last year’s Central European Rally.
But judges struggled to split Schönborn and Baudet, so both were given the chance to compete in Sweden – with only one of them able to receive funding for the remaining rounds in Portugal, Greece, Finland and Central Europe.
Baudet was quicker than her rival on Thursday’s opening stage, but thereafter Schönborn was the faster of the two on broadly all the stages – despite battling with an intercom failure on SS1 and lamp pod failure on SS7.
She and co-driver Jana Hain finished seventh overall in Junior WRC with Baudet and Léa Sam-Caw-Freve close to three minutes behind in eighth.
“I cannot realize this now, I have to sleep for a few days to understand it,” Schönborn told DirtFish. “I have to sleep a few days to understand what we’ve done this weekend.
“It was a big pleasure to be part of this program. And now that we are the winner, that’s unbelievable. And yeah, I’m just happy.”
Asked how much the opportunity would change not just her career, but also her life, Schönborn responded: “That’s the biggest thing I’ve done so far, so it changes everything.
“I stopped hillclimb racing now, and yeah, fully focused on the juniors for this season.
“All the tips from the different coaches we’ve got were so useful for us. I think especially the braking was good.
“I struggled sometimes a bit with my pacenotes, to be honest, because in all these fast sectors I was not that comfortable. This is a thing we need to focus on for the next rallies, but then the challenge is starting.”
Before that, there is just time to enjoy the moment and celebrate her success.
“We don’t have a plan yet, but I think we will celebrate this evening,” Schönborn laughed.
