What drives a winner like Gladys Lam

“A race car driver is coming today,” a kindergarten teacher announced to a class of five- and six-year-olds.

What followed, Gladys Lam recalls, was an earnest debate. The boys assumed a man would walk through the door. The girls hoped otherwise.

“When I appeared, the girls got very excited and started ribbing the boys, saying ‘See, I told you! Race car drivers can be girls too!’,” she recalls, laughing at the memory. “It was so cute.”

In most competitive sports, men and women race in separate categories. Motorsport is one of the rare exceptions. On the track, drivers compete under the same rules, against the same clock, regardless of gender. Yet despite that theoretical parity, participation remains overwhelmingly male.

Simply by taking her place behind the wheel, the 31-year-old is challenging expectations that persist long before the starting lights go out. In the 76-year history of Formula 1 (F1) – widely regarded as the pinnacle of motorsport – only five women have competed in a Grand Prix, with the most recent appearance dating back to 1992.

This was not something Gladys had anticipated when she first entered the motorsport in 2019. She describes her younger self as “delulu”, laughing at how it never occurred to her that gender might be an obstacle.

It was only with time and experience that she began to recognise the structural hurdles female drivers continue to navigate.

For one, racing gear is rarely designed with women in mind. At 152cm, Gladys often struggles to find suits that fit her petite frame. Even the race car she drives has to be specially modified.

“I have to drill an extra hole to move the seat further forward to fit my height,” she reveals.

And then there’s the backhanded compliments. “You’re very good… for a girl,” remains a familiar refrain. She has learnt to take it as a challenge.

“Every time someone tells me you’re good enough ‘for a girl’, I’m like no, it’s not good enough for me. That’s how I push myself to be better,” she says plainly.

In the driver’s seat

We’re having this conversation inside the Denza B5, a plug-in hybrid luxury SUV with a squared-off silhouette and commanding height that give it an unmistakable presence on the road.

Gladys, who recently drove the car at BYD’s All-Terrain Track in Zhengzhou, China, is quick to point out that its size belies its composure.

Designed for serious mixed-terrain driving, the Denza B5 is engineered to tackle everything from rock crawling and water crossings to uneven surfaces and steep inclines – conditions that would unsettle most urban SUVs. Yet behind the wheel, she says, it feels unexpectedly controlled.

“While this is a very big car, it doesn’t feel clumsy. It feels very solid,” she says, adding that the technology is pretty remarkable, with multiple drive modes available.

Luxury, too, has not been treated as an afterthought. The cabin is finished in supple nappa leather, with ventilated seats, massage features, a Devialet sound system and even an integrated refrigerator – details that elevate long drives from endurance to indulgence.

What impresses her most, however, is how intuitively the car communicates with its driver. Onscreen graphics visualise how the drivetrain, suspension and terrain systems are working beneath the surface, turning complex mechanical processes into something immediately understandable.

“These are the little details I appreciate very much,” she says.

Starting line

Gladys’ relationship with driving began later than most.

“I fell in love with cars only at the age of 17, unlike others who started loving cars from childhood,” she says, crediting a group of car-obsessed classmates for sparking her curiosity

Once she caught the bug, however, she dove right in. She spent hours on driving simulators, before moving on to go-karts, and then eventually graduating to track day events at the Sepang racing circuit in Malaysia, paving the way for her entry into racing.

She didn’t have anyone in particular that she looked up to, given the dearth of female role models in motorsport in general – but she takes it all in her stride. As there is no blueprint for what it means to be a female race car driver in Singapore, she is able to chart her own path with fewer expectations.

“That gave me a little bit more freedom to do things on my own terms,” she muses.

The decision to commit fully to motorsport came in 2024 – though not without sacrifice.

At the time, Gladys was juggling a full-time role as a project manager at an events company alongside racing commitments, and volunteer work with the Hamster Society (Singapore), which she joined after noticing a lack of education around responsible hamster ownership. Cases of abandoned hamsters, unceremoniously dumped at void decks and rubbish bins, she recalls, were distressingly common.

“There was a point in time when I felt I was pulled in every direction,” she says. Her boss eventually intervened.

“He sat me down and said, ‘Gladys, you have three things in your life. You have to choose two.’ I swear he was hoping for me to drop hamsters,” she recounts with a laugh. A week later, she decided to walk away from her job.

“He was so disappointed at losing his best employee,” she jokes. Still, she credits that chapter of her life for shaping the racer she has become. The sport is expensive, she acknowledges, but because of her project management experience, she knew how to get herself out there to secure sponsors and develop partnerships with brands.

“You have to go out and make cold calls, represent yourself well, build some kind of structure, and do a lot of planning in order to make this possible,” she emphasises.

Today, she races for the Shane Ang Racing team, which competes with modified production cars in events throughout Asia. The race cars she drives are based on regular road-going models, unlike F1, which uses specialised race cars. While it is considered a lower and less intense level than F1, it is no less demanding.

Gladys’ most memorable race was a 25-hour endurance event in Thailand a couple of years ago. She shares: “It was not just the physical exertion, though it was undoubtedly exhausting. There was the mental aspect as well.

“We had to discuss, and really sit down, and talk a lot about strategy. We had to plan who was going to take the overnight slots, and adjust our sleep schedule and timing.”

The all-Singaporean team eventually finished in sixth place out of 19 teams, an achievement that validated all her hard work and effort. “I worked and trained so hard for that 25-hour race, so finishing sixth was quite a feat for me,” she enthuses.

It’s just one of several highlights in her career so far, along with her first win in 2019, which happened on her 24th birthday.

“It was at the Malaysia Speed Festival,” she says. She recalls feeling a mix of disbelief, relief and gratitude when standing at the top of the podium. It was a feeling like no other.

“I remember thinking, I want to do this again, all the time.” She has been chasing that high ever since, adding three more podium finishes to her record – twice in 2024, and once again in 2025.

Blazing a trail

As a professional female race car driver, Gladys knows she attracts attention.

“There’s always this subconscious spotlight on women,” she notes. “Sadly, I have to prove competence over and over again, just to shift the conversation.”

Last year, Gladys faced one of the toughest moments of her career: her first major crash.

“I had a brake failure, which is something no racer wants,” she shares.

The accident left her with a torn back muscle. There were no broken bones, but prolonged bleeding in the weeks after led her to follow up with a gynaecological ultrasound to rule out internal injuries – a reminder of how little research exists on crash trauma in female professional racers.

Setbacks like these can easily shake confidence. For Gladys, they reinforced the importance of mental resilience in motorsport.

“You need a strong mind, and to be able to adapt very quickly. You also need to drop your ego, and have the humility to learn new things. Every car and every race is different. The conditions of the track are always changing: hot, cold, rain, dry,” she explains.

She also emphasises the importance of discipline.

“You need to put in the hours. You need a lot of discipline in order to succeed,” she says. “You can have talent, but talent without discipline doesn’t mean much.”

Much of her life outside racing revolves around what she jokingly calls “side quests”: simulator training, gym sessions and Muay Thai classes, all geared towards sharpening her performance.

Off the track, however, she takes a markedly different approach behind the wheel.

“Racing and speed is for the race track,” she says with quiet certainty. On the road, she prefers slower moments – like sunset drives along the West Coast Highway – where comfort and control matter more than adrenaline.

In many ways, the description fits Gladys too. Blazing a trail isn’t always about making the loudest entrance. Sometimes, it’s simply about showing up, doing the work – and letting the results speak for themselves.

PHOTOGRAPHY Darren Gabriel Leow
CREATIVE DIRECTION & STYLING Lena Kamarudin, assisted by Jeon Jae Won
ART DIRECTION Ray Ticsay
MAKEUP Lasalle Lee, using Dior Beauty
HAIR Grego Oh
MANICURE Rebecca Zhuang/Fluttery Tips
CAR Denza B5