In rally, the person in the passenger seat rarely gets the attention. But without them, there is no story to write. Inês Ponte has been in that seat for over two decades. She started co-driving at 16 and, in 2016, became the first woman to win a National Rally Championship in Portugal.
As part of our coverage of the five women competing at the 2026 Vodafone Rally de Portugal, we sat down with Inês after the rally weekend to get to know the human behind the helmet. She wasn’t on the podium this time around, but what she carries into every stage, and every part of her life off the road, is a story worth telling in full.
Co-driving is one of motorsport’s most misunderstood positions, encompassing many tasks, such as recce preparation, pace notes written metre by metre, calculations to hit each time control to the second, tyre pressure checks, and real-time communication with engineers, among many others. The driver just drives. Everything else falls to the co-driver.
The Lisbon-born co-driver has been doing a precise job alongside the same driver, José Pedro Fontes, for twelve years. This is a partnership that she describes as a marriage, built on trust, shared history, and a single look being enough to know what the other needs.
Co-Driver, Entrepreneur and Mother
Twenty-five years in motorsport is an achievement on its own. Doing it while building a physiotherapy clinic from scratch and raising a family with the same precision she brings to the stages is something else entirely. Motorsport shaped her into someone who knows how to compartmentalise, how to show up fully in one world without letting the others fall apart. But it hasn’t always been straightforward, and she doesn’t pretend otherwise.
We talked about how she balances a motorsport career and a business while raising a family. About a serious accident in 2017 that led her to question everything, and what it took to come back. And about something she’s tired of after all these years in the sport: being asked questions that are only ever asked because she’s a woman.
It’s a 24-minute honest and laid-back conversation that gives you a full picture of who Inês Ponte is and reminds you why the person behind the helmet matters as much as the result.
