Adelaide space-tech firm Fleet Area Applied sciences has signed a model partnership with Australian F1 Academy driver Joanne Ciconte in a bid to highlight ladies pushing the sting of high-performance STEM.
The deal will see Fleet branding on Ciconte’s race package and a customized helmet from the 2026 season, with each side framing the tie-up round data-driven efficiency and opening doorways for the subsequent era.
Ciconte, 16, is the youngest driver on the 2025 F1 Academy grid with MP Motorsport and scored her first collection factors at Jeddah in April, a milestone that underpins her fast step up from Formulation 4.
She stated the deal “brings collectively two worlds I’m obsessed with – pushing the bounds of expertise and breaking new floor for girls in utilized STEM fields”.
“Fleet Area’s historic contributions to Australia’s house heritage and relentless innovation in house expertise displays my drive to grow to be Australia’s first feminine F1 driver; fueled by a ardour for velocity, precision, and exploration,” Ciconte added.
“Collectively, we’re exhibiting what’s doable once you problem boundaries and open new paths for the subsequent era.”
The partnership provides Ciconte contemporary backing as she chases a long-term aim of turning into Australia’s first lady to race in in Formulation 1, whereas Fleet will get a younger high-performance model ambassador at a time when it’s increasing in preparation for its involvement in Moon to Mars packages.
Co-Founder & CEO of Fleet Area, Flavia Tata Nardini, stated Ciconte “mirrors the spirt” of her firm.
“Breaking boundaries requires the identical boldness to embrace threat, grasp cutting-edge expertise, and create prospects for others that didn’t exist earlier than,” she stated.
“As Fleet Area approaches its 10 yr anniversary, we consider there isn’t any restrict to the place curiosity, braveness, and relentless drive can take the subsequent era – whether or not that’s the racetrack, low Earth orbit, or kilometres under our toes. Supporting world-class expertise like Joanne as she rises to the top of her subject is on the core of who we’re: explorers.”
Fleet Area is simply the newest Australian firm to get into the F1 sponsorship sport. Atlassian grew to become the identify sponsor for Williams initially of this season whereas Melbourne-born Airwallex signed on as a sponsor of McLaren which is sitting comfortably atop the constructor’s desk.
Fleet closed a A$150 million Sequence D in December at an A$800 million-plus valuation to scale its ExoSphere mineral-exploration platform, an AI- and satellite-powered system that provides miners sooner readouts of what lies beneath the floor.
The corporate can be constructing a 5,300sqm international HQ and “hyper manufacturing unit” at Adelaide Airport to ramp manufacturing of its sensors and small satellites.
Fleet co-founder Matt Pearson is the entrepreneur behind Airspeeder and Alauda Aeronautics, which simply secured CASA’s experimental flight certificates for the Adelaide-built Airspeeder Mk4.
