Smartring maker Ultrahuman has partnered with More than Equal, the driver development programme working towards Formula 1’s first female world champion, to provide wearable technology that will help young female racers and their coaches monitor sleep, recovery and physical performance.
The partnership comes as motorsport looks to address a longstanding lack of research into female athletes. Women account for just 10% of racing drivers, according to More than Equal, while much of the evidence used to inform sports training and recovery has historically been drawn from studies of men.
A review of 669 sports science studies published between 2017 and 2021 found that 71% focused exclusively on male athletes, compared with just 9% that studied only women. Teenage girls are among the least-researched groups.
“Understanding how each driver responds to the demands of training, travel and competition is central to providing individualised support,” said Dr Fran Longstaff, Chief Innovation Officer at More than Equal.
“Our partnership with Ultrahuman gives us a more consistent picture of their sleep and recovery, helping our performance team make informed decisions alongside the drivers’ own feedback.”
Using wearable data to support female drivers
Under the partnership, every driver and coach in the More than Equal Driver Development Programme will wear an Ultrahuman Ring throughout the racing season.
The devices monitor sleep, heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), skin temperature and movement, producing daily recovery scores that can help inform training and rest.
Motorsport places considerable demands on the body, including sustained high heart rates, heat exposure inside the cockpit and the physical forces experienced during braking and cornering. Travel between races and training sessions can also disrupt sleep and recovery.
Rather than comparing each driver’s measurements solely against population averages, the technology uses individual physiological baselines to identify changes over time.
The aim is to give drivers and coaches a clearer picture of how each athlete is responding to the demands of training and competition, allowing them to make more informed decisions about recovery and preparation.
Addressing the gender gap in motorsport
More than Equal was co-founded by former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard and businessman Karel Komárek, with the ambition of identifying and developing the first female Formula 1 world champion.
Its programme supports young female racing talent through individualised coaching, simulator training, physical assessments and on-track development. In 2026, drivers have taken part in Formula 4 testing, with several progressing from international karting.
The organisation is also working with Manchester Metropolitan University’s Institute of Sport to investigate the physiological and hormonal factors affecting female racing drivers.
Ultrahuman’s involvement adds continuous monitoring of sleep and recovery to that wider programme, providing information that can be considered alongside coaching assessments and feedback from the drivers themselves.
“Female drivers in motorsport are underrepresented, and understanding their biometrics is even less commonplace,” said Mohit Kumar, founder and chief executive of Ultrahuman.
“We want to help level those drivers up and close the gender data gap, so they understand how their bodies train, sleep and recover from the start of their careers.”
No woman has competed full-time in Formula 1 for five decades. While the new partnership is focused on supporting the current generation of young drivers, it forms part of a wider effort to build the evidence and development pathways needed to improve women’s representation at the highest levels of motorsport.