A significant part of Asturian sport is oozing petrol and worn tyres onto the asphalt, just like the racing suit. Cave of Dawnkarting driver. The 11-year-old girl is participating in the nursery and the first stage that laid the foundations for a prolific sporting career. The Principality has a lineage of great drivers. Since Fernando Alonso until Villa Javier -ten times Spanish Mountain Champion- until Diego Riloba and the precocious Alba Cueva.
At only eight years old, she was selected by the Spanish Automobile Federation to compete in the CEK Academya category promoted by Fernando Alonso to promote the passion for motorsport and allow young people to progress. “He is my idol. Sometimes, while I was training on the circuit, I would meet him and we would talk. But when he does, I enter another world,” says Alba, in an angelic tone, during his conversation with EL ESPAÑOL.
“I met him not long ago, here at the track. About two weeks ago. They took a picture, I saw them talking and he asked him what he had said to him. And he told me he didn’t remember,” Mariza Rubenthe little girl’s father. “I just don’t know,” Alba interrupts him tenderly. “She’s amazed by him. Now she’s growing up and thinking about who he really is. Before she saw him, but now she realizes who he is,” Rubén says.
Alba Cueva during a competition.
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Alba started karting at the age of four, after attending a training session with her cousin, who was competing. “We went with her uncle, who encouraged her to get in the kart. ‘Let her go for a ride,’ he repeated. And Alba got in and went again and again… Eventually, her cousin bought a bigger kart and she inherited his At just over four years old, he was already driving around,” Rubén explains.
The little girl took steps little by little, although with immense amplitude. He embarked on a social career Asturias. He won it. He went to the championship. Castile and Leon in 2021 and I won it. Like that of Asturias, conquered twice. In 2021 and 2024. In 2022, at just nine years old, Alba becomes runner-up of Spain.
Alba Cueva with her father upon arrival at a circuit.
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In all the aforementioned tests, the young woman appeared with the vinyl of her car presided over by a cheetah and the number 100. “It’s my favorite animal because for me it’s the fastest in the world. And the hundred is because of my father,” he explains laughing.
Before describing what it feels like to drive. “I’m not afraid of driving. The speed is more noticeable from the outside than from the inside of the track. In karting, I’m focused,” she explains. Her father intervenes. “I always tell him that we come to enjoy ourselves. If we win, it’s even better. We are very competitive and we try to do our best. If we don’t win, we learn. We see children who, when they don’t win, throw it away and burst into tears. Not Alba, I try to teach her that when you lose, you have to learn from it and that everything is not a bed of roses,” he says.
Alba Cueva chats with her father before a competition.
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Rubén knows this well, whose routine is based on deciphering the hieroglyph that becomes the week to combine training, competition, work and school. The father is a cycling enthusiast, he has never participated in any car test. He owns an excavation company and, given the high economic cost of karting, he does everything.
We see him with the mechanic’s overalls, the books to help Alba with her studies and the sofa to analyze the day. All this while traveling through Spain driving to take his daughter to the exams. “This month is a bit crazy because we have a lot of tests.
From the outset, it is clear from the tone that Rubén does not see the weekly bobbin lace as a sacrifice. Alba is absent from school on Fridays to compete. “She stopped working on Thursday lunchtime, we travel, we come back on Sunday evening and return to the company on Monday. Alba only misses one day of class a week. I am always in contact with the tutor and the teachers and they help us a lot to be able to combine it.
