Janina Schall: the third-generation Nordschleife racer to watch

The Janina Schall driver profile is not one you will find listed on the Formula 1 entry sheet. Not yet. The young German from Dornstadt in Swabia races GT machinery on the Nürburgring Nordschleife, and she is building a CV that demands attention. Schall is the third generation of a family that has been part of the Nürburgring for more than half a century. Her grandfather, Andreas Schall, started 350 races on the Nordschleife and took 98 class wins, a total that still puts him fourth on the all-time list; he died in April 2026 at the age of 87. Her father, Ralf, raced alongside him from 1990. The family competes under the name Schall Racing. The background counts, but it does not explain everything. What explains her rise is a track record earned on one of the most punishing circuits on earth.

Janina Schall: Fast Facts

Full name: Janina Schall
Nationality: German
From: Dornstadt, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Racing family: daughter of Ralf Schall, granddaughter of Nordschleife legend Andreas Schall (1939-2026)
Started karting: 2013
Car debut: 2023, Porsche Cayman, Rennsport Club Nürburgring (V5 class)
2026 team: Girls Only by WS Racing
2026 car: No. 146 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, AT2 class, Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie
Team-mates: Carrie Schreiner and Fabienne Wohlwend
Off track: studies automotive engineering at Technische Hochschule Ulm
Notable: Formula E women’s test for Porsche, Valencia, 31 October 2025

Career Path: From Karting to the Green Hell

Janina Schall started karting in 2013, going on to become champion and vice-champion of multiple karting championships. That early discipline shaped a driver comfortable with pressure. She made her touring car debut in 2023 in the Rennsport Club Nürburgring, driving a Porsche Cayman V5. One season in, she was already collecting results. She continued in the V5 class through 2024 with four additional showings with the Girls Only team, securing second place at NLS 3 and winning at NLS 6.

In karting, Schall earned several runner-up finishes, and she was a member of Team Germany at the 2024 FIA Motorsport Games, finishing tenth in the Kart Endurance category. The step up from karts to GT machinery at the Nordschleife is not trivial. Most drivers spend years calibrating to the circuit’s 73 corners and constantly changing surface. Schall compressed that learning curve impressively fast.

For 2026, the Girls Only team made a significant upgrade, running a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup for the first time. Schall shares the cockpit with Carrie Schreiner and Fabienne Wohlwend, carrying car number 146 in the AT2 class. That is a meaningful step up in machinery, one that brings both more speed and more responsibility.

2026 Season: Setbacks and Resilience

The 2026 NLS season has tested Schall’s resolve. She defended her lead in the NLS Ladies Trophy at the ADAC Barbarossapreis. The 24h Nürburgring, however, delivered a brutal episode. The first qualifying session had barely started when a serious incident unfolded. Alex Hardt’s Black Falcon Porsche stopped with a fire at the exit of the Michael Schumacher S. Hardt left the car but remained in the gravel trap nearby. Schall, at speed in the Girls Only Porsche, hit the stricken car at high speed and barely missed Hardt in the gravel.

Team manager Matthias Möller confirmed the chassis was cracked beyond trackside repair. “Janina Schall bore no fault,” Möller stated. “The stewards confirmed it.” Hardt subsequently received a financial penalty for the incident. Nobody was seriously hurt. The team was out before the race had begun. You cannot overstate how deflating that is for an all-female crew that had prepared for months. The team returned to action in subsequent NLS rounds and continued competing. That matters more than the crash.

Our coverage of the wider NLS double header and the NLS7 preview gives full context to the competitive landscape Schall operates in. The series is tough, and the Winward Racing NLS7 victory analysis shows exactly the standard that the top crews are setting.

The Formula E Test: A Glimpse Beyond GT Racing

October 2025 brought the clearest indication yet that Schall is on bigger teams’ radar. On 31 October 2025, Schall drove the Porsche 99X Electric, car number 51, during the Formula E Women’s Pre-Season Testing at Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, Spain. The entry included established Formula E testers such as Alice Powell and Jamie Chadwick, alongside lesser-known drivers like GT4 competitor Janina Schall at Porsche.

Each driver ran the GEN3 Evo, the same specification car used by the championship regulars. That is real data, real feedback, real opportunity. Porsche did not pick Schall as a gesture. She was studying automotive engineering at the time of the announcement, which tells you something about how she approaches the technical side of the job. This is a driver who wants to understand the machine, not just drive it.

The Formula E test placed her alongside names that regularly appear in top-level motorsport conversations. Schall is considered one of the rising talents in German motorsport, having completed a Formula E test for Porsche while also receiving support from bodies including the ADAC. Institutional backing at that level is not given to drivers who have not earned it.

What Makes Schall Different

The obvious story is the gender angle: a young woman succeeding in a discipline, the Nordschleife, that is traditionally dominated by experienced male professionals. That story is real but incomplete. What actually makes Schall compelling is the combination of genuine speed, technical intelligence and the mental toughness to keep racing after the kind of qualifying incident that would derail less grounded competitors.

She is not chasing F1 Academy. She is building her career at the sharp end of GT endurance racing, which is arguably a harder test of racecraft than a spec formula series. Drivers like Jules Gounon and Dani Juncadella took exactly this route to the top of endurance racing, accumulating miles and mechanical knowledge on circuits that punish inexperience without mercy. Schall is on the same road, several years earlier in her career.

Follow all the action from the Nürburgring endurance season, including the series Schall competes in, on our NLS race hub page.