Meet Lia Block! Daughter of late rally legend Ken Block is forging her own path in F1's Academy series after conquering off-road racing

At just 17-years-old, Lia Block has already accomplished more in racing than many others will in a lifetime.

She was born as a member of a racing family, with her parents (especially her father, the late rally legend Ken Block) providing a pathway to motorsport many others would dream of having.

Lia has taken that chance and ran with it - forging her own path to become incredibly successful in the rally ranks before legally becoming an adult. 

Now, she's joined up with the driver academy at Williams Racing and will take part in her second F1 Academy race this weekend in Miami.

She spoke to DailyMail.com earlier in the week about her career so far, what it means to be in a racing division made up of all women, and ultimately, what her goals are in the sport she was seemingly destined to take part in.

For those that are hearing the name Lia Block for the first time, allow her to tell you what you've missed out on.

She began karting for fun at five years old and sat behind the wheel of an off-road car by age ten.

After traveling around the world with her father, Ken Block - the founder of the Hoonigan racing team and one of motorsport's most popular figures - she began showing interest in pursuing racing herself by the age of eleven.

'My dad always opened the doors for me, but never forced me to do anything,' she says. 'So I went off and tried every other sport I could, but eventually made it back to [motorsport] when I was about 10 or 11. 

'So I think that made me want it even more because I had tried all these different things, but coming back to motorsport was truly like I knew what I wanted to do.'

Once she decided to participate full-time, she went full throttle.

She's competed in off-road series' since eleven years old and began rallying at 15-years-old. By age 16, she had won the American Rally Association Championship with two races in hand in a modified rear-wheel drive Subaru BRZ.

In addition to her rallying pursuits, she also raced in nitrocross as well as in the electric rallying series Extreme E.

Other pursuits included winning her class in the Baja 1000 alongside her mom Lucy and racing her father's pink Porsche 911 dubbed the 'Hoonapigasus' up the Pikes Peak hill climb. And now she's in the F1 Academy.

But sadly, her father wasn't there to watch her transition from the world of rallying to open-wheelers after his tragic passing in a snowmobile accident in January of 2023.

'He was truly my whole world and the only person I ever looked up too,' Lia wrote in an emotional Instagram post the day after his passing. 'No matter what I did he was always there to support me. 

'I can’t believe how fast he was taken from all of us. No words can describe of how much of an amazing human my dad was, he lived so many lives, accomplished more in 55 years than most people could in 10 lifetimes, and lived his life to the absolute fullest every single day.'

Nearly a year on from that tragedy, Lia has begun to venture out into her own world of racing through the all-woman F1 Academy series - headed up by Suzie Wolff.

In November of 2023, Williams approached her with an offer to join their driver academy - which she accepted. She joined ART Grand Prix for the 2024 season, where she's teammates with Bianca Bustamante and Aurelia Nobels.

She describes the transition from rallying to open-wheelers as 'starting from the ground up again' and says that she only had accumulated 20 days behind the wheel before the first F1 Academy race in Jeddah.

'I felt like I knew nothing. Obviously, doing a bit of karting when I was younger, I wasn't completely oblivious, but it was still a very steep learning curve. 

'And also coming from competing at the top of rally in the US and winning the Championship, I was used to winning. I wasn't used to being at the bottom. 

'So it was quite different going to open-wheel racing and having to learn everything and everything be so new.'

Lia says that she's honored to be among the first generations of drivers to take part in the all-women's series and says that her fellow competitors are 'very experienced, and they've raced against men all their life and they know how to hold their own.'

Experience is something she has, but more so behind the wheel than in her years. She's one of the three youngest drivers in the division at age 17, racing against people as old as 32. 

She does admit that she was surprised by the difference in experience on track, but says, 'it makes me more excited to keep learning because I want to surpass them. 

'To do it at [17-years-old] makes me feel like I have a better opportunity to move up into F3 and F2 at a younger age.'

With only seven rounds and 14 races, Block hasn't been behind the wheel of a car for a race since the opening round in Jeddah back in early March - making it about two months between competitions. 

It may have been a long time, but Lia says, 'it feels like it's been only three days. We've been in the gym a lot just working on fitness as well as a test in Zandvoort, the F1 Academy mid-season test, as well as just being in the sim. [We're] doing everything we can possibly do to get ready for Miami.'

She does admit that it's hard spending so much time away from the car, and that it's different from previous series' she's raced in before, 'especially coming from off-road and rally, when you're almost in the car all day for two days on a race weekend, and you don't have much time in between. 

'So it is hard to be away from the car that much and not have that much seat time. But I think that's what makes it even more difficult. 

'And I think it makes it even more fun to get back in a car, and it makes you want to get in the car sooner.'

While much of her previous racing was done in the USA, this marks her first home race in the F1 Academy series. 'Honestly with the only one home race we get this year, it makes me really excited to be in front of the US crowd. 

'It just makes it even more special when you only get to do it once a year, especially on an F1 Grand Prix weekend with so many more people. Rally, it's not as big as that. There's not stadiums full of people watching the race because it's very remote. So it's even more of an experience for me.'

With her background already established and her present occupied with the task of breaking through this series, a question about her future comes about.

She's got plenty of success and experience in the off-roading world and now she's getting into open wheelers. So is there one that she would like to pursue more?

'Honestly, if I could do a bit of both, I would love to, and I hope to do some more rally this year as well as F1 Academy. 

'But long term goal would to be either to make it to one of the top championships, whether that's World RX, WRC, or F1.'