Hedda Hosaus, 22, from Voss, has a stomach full of butterflies. Why? She’s got a Formula 1 world champion as boss and ex-Formula 1 profile as a partner.
– It can’t get much bigger, grinned from Saudi Arabia where it is called E extreme series It starts on the weekend.
The two men alongside her need no introduction for those who follow Formula 1:
- The team owner is Jenson Button (43), who became world champion in 2009 and drove his last race in 2017. He drove for seven different Formula 1 teams and was, among other things, a teammate of Lewis Hamilton.
- Heikki Kovalainen (41) drove Formula 1 from 2007 to 2013 for a total of five different Formula 1 teams. He has one race win to look back on – the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2008.
The goal is to get better and better. I don’t have high expectations for Hickey, because he’s making his car debut at this weekend’s race – but he’s definitely going to learn both the car and off-road driving. I have great confidence in the cooperation between us, Hossas tells VG.
– You depend on both to do well, but my ambitions are to do what I can and challenge myself in new terrain, like now in the sands of Saudi Arabia.
Prior to the 2022 season, she was brought into the Extreme-E Series as a reserve, but an injury meant she quickly got the chance. Then the journey continued to the Jenson Button JBXE team, where she became a teammate with Swede Kevin Hansen. Now the former Formula 1 profile Kovalainen takes over this place.
– In Extreme-E there is complete equality; One man and one woman, Hosas says.
Electric cars are the future. And I’ve always dreamed of doing motorsports full time. Now I have a chance. I had the opportunity of my dreams.
As one of the few Norwegian motorsports athletes, Husaus now gets paid to drive. Extreme-E is a series of battery-powered off-road racers that compete all over the world.
The task is – in addition to getting to the finish line first – also to think about the environment.
“I am delighted to announce that Heikki is our new driver and Hedda will continue to join,” says Jenson Button in a press release.
Botton had the Norwegian Harald Huisman as his business manager at the time and had a good relationship with Norway. Huysman was bought out later that decade.
About Kovalainen he says:
It’s great for the team and the series that we can bring such an established name and that I drove against Formula 1.
– Hedda continues to make great progress with the car. Patton says she totally deserves the spot.
The 230 cm wide and 1780 kg car accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.5 seconds and the engine can reach 680 horsepower.
Hedda Hosås says she started motocross—on two wheels—when she was 15, but she also wanted to try otocross, which her father and brother did.
– My brother said that if I hit him, he would stop. It didn’t take long and he kept his word when it happened!
As Phosing, she is happy to have fellow villager Kari Tra as one of her sponsors.
“Infuriatingly humble internet trailblazer. Twitter buff. Beer nerd. Bacon scholar. Coffee practitioner.”
