CRISTIANA OPREA

FIA Balkan Rally Trophy and the all-electric Opel Cup

Shifting from architecture to motorsports at the age of 23, Cristina Oprea is a determined rally driver from Bucharest, Romania who challenges the stereotype of women in motorsports across Eastern Europe

Following her debut as a rally driver in 2015 with a Dacia Logan, Cristina committed full-time to motorsports in 2017, when she bought her own race car - a Dacia Sandero 0.9 Tce. After an intense 2018 with a constant pace improvement with her Sandero, Cristiana finished strong with a 5th place overall in the Dacia Cup, out of 13 crews!

In 2018, she marked an important milestone for women in Romanian motorsports: she and her co-driver, Diana Hategan, became the first Romanian female crew in 50 years to compete in a foreign rally – Rally Sliven in Bulgaria, a FIA European Rally Trophy event. A year later, she became the first woman driver to ever step on the overall podium of Dacia Cup, after conquering the famous Transfagarasan mountain road at Arges Rally, where she finished second.

Cristiana then quickly became a trailblazer for women in motorsport:

In 2019 she became the first Romanian woman driver to ever compete in the FIA ERC – European Rally Championship, at Rally di Roma Capitale, where she finished with maximum points on the ERC Ladies podium, at her first rally with a Peugeot 208 R2.

In 2021, she was nominated FIA Women in Motorsport – National Representative for Romania, following the succes of her project “Femei in Motorsport”, dedicated to promoting women in all areas of Romanian motorsports.

In April 2022 Cristiana became the first Romanian woman driver to ever compete in WRC – World Rally Championship, after a challenging stage at the Croatia Rally.

Cristiana’s mission to empower women in motorsports and beyond, includes numerous interviews, speeches at conferences and partnerships with international brands. Although her core focus remains on her social media and blog cristianaoprea.ro, where she shares sport-fuelled leadership insights in funny and authentic rally stories.

Cristiana believes performance is the perfect catalyst for change and is passionate about promoting motorsports towards young drivers as a way to improve driving skills and road safety, and also about promoting sustainability through electric motorsport.

In 2023, Cristiana competed in another dual international season, in two championships: the FIA Balkan Rally Trophy and the all-electric Opel Cup, an innovative rally series based on the Corsa-e Rallye. She would collect her first ERC points finish in the Barum Rally of the Czech Republic and enjoy plenty of rallying across some of Europe's most renowned and technical stages.