Carlota is 12 years old and has a well defined dream: to reach MotoGP. Twice national champion, she does not hide that «the love for motorcycles is growing». The sacrifices, says the family, have been “many”, but they could end up being fruitless. Is that, sWith the support of sponsors, the dream of the young woman from Faro – known as the «pilot with the blue hair» – could fall to the ground.
The living room of Carlota's house does not deceive: everywhere, there are prizes, trophies and memorabilia from the many competitions in which the young woman has participated.
At 12, Carlota breathes motorcycling and it all started with the influence of her parents, as she explains.
«They always had motorcycles and we followed that world. as we are from Faro, we always went to Concentração and, when I turned 6, I remember that they offered me a small motorbike to go to the parade», he says.
Shortly afterwards, at the age of 8, Carlota and her parents went to the Kartódromo de Portimão to “take a photo with Miguel Oliveira” – the passion for motorcycling, which was already there, began to grow and the desire to start participating in races appeared naturally.
Carlota is a rare case of a girl in a sport dominated by men, but that is far from intimidating her – she normally trains and competes only with boys and, so far, she has been national champion twice (in 2020 and 2022, in categories many different).
Despite the successes, training, explains mother Diana Sério, is one of the many problems the family has faced.
«Lately, we have been training more in Spain because Carlota is also doing the Andalusian Championship. We don't have drivers in the Algarve – although we have the Kartódromo de Portimão, she trains there alone and that's not good », she laments.
In Portugal, another solution has been the Kartódromo de Santo André, in the Santiago do Cacém area, managed by the company SAKI, which also sponsors the young driver.
But the fact that they are Faro is, in the words of Diana Sério, a disadvantage.
«If we go up, to have even more riders to compete, in Évora, Abrantes, Fátima or Braga, we have to cross the country. Due to the tolls, it turns out to be a big financial strain », he considers.
The efforts have been immense: in addition to the thousands of kilometres, Carlota and her parents have had, for example, to sleep in the car before races.
«Motorcycling is a sport that requires some financial capacity. This takes effort. All parents do it, but we are always faced with this situation: in order to guarantee that Carlota goes to a training session, to a test, we go there until the last one», says mother Diana.
For this reason, the greatest difficulty, over these years of success, has really been “sponsorship”.
«Because Carlota is known (on Facebook alone her page has about 25 thousand likes), people think that it would be easier to get that support, but it is not. What we would like is to have a partner who allows us to breathe», says Diana Sério.
«Carlota has been learning to be a pilot: my husband and I have been learning to be a little bit mechanic... it has been an apprenticeship for the whole family», he adds, smiling.
Next door, Carlota listens and agrees, but the young woman's love for motorcycles is greater than anything else. And not even the falls she's already suffered pinch him.
′′ The biggest difficulties I've had so far have been the injuries. I already broke my arm and the radio. The hardest thing about overcoming was that I wanted to ride a motorcycle... and I couldn't », she says.
Despite also being very fond of the Portuguese Miguel Oliveira, Carlota's great idol is the Spaniard Marc Márquez, who has won MotoGP six times.
To reach her level, the young Algarve woman has also invested in other sports.
«I also do swimming, boxing and aikido. It's important to do other sports to have more strength and more resistance to be able to better withstand a race or training on the bike », he explains.
And, in the midst of so much, how is Carlota's day? "A normal child's," she replies promptly, laughing.
«I go to school every day and, when I get home, sometimes I go to Youtube, I watch MotoGP videos, other times I play and I also help my parents», he adds.
Soon, Carlota's next challenges are the Portuguese championship, the international ETG cup, the Andalusian championship and also the FIM World Series.
But the biggest dream is just one – to reach where no woman has reached: MotoGP.
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