Pioneering Women in Motorsport
When people think about motorsport or Formula 1, many may conjure up an image of affluent young men, living in Monaco and spending every other day on their yacht. This still might be true for the majority of drivers on the grid, but I am here to say that the motorsport industry is slowly creeping into the twenty-first century. Until now, the only women allowed in a Formula 1 paddock have been the glamorous wives and girlfriends of the drivers, sporting Manolo Blahniks and amusingly over-sized sunglasses. Finally, women are being given equal opportunities to drive alongside their male counterparts.
Formula 1
Since its conception in 1950, there have been 767 different Formula 1 drivers. Just two of these drivers have been women. Even the most devout Formula 1 fans might be surprised to hear this. Their names, unsurprisingly, are not well known, but not any less note-worthy. Maria Teresa de Filippis competed in three grand prix between 1958 and 1959. Lella Lombardi is slightly more well known, having taken part in a grand total of twelve races from 1974-1976. Not only did Lombardi participate in these events, she is also the only woman to score points in a championship race. Well, that’s only partly true – she scored half a point after the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix was abridged after an accident.
It is, however, worth mentioning that several female drivers have participated in test sessions for Formula 1 teams in more recent history. This means that although they did not compete in the Grand Prix, these women were in the paddock alongside men, and had the opportunity to drive the same car on track during ‘practice sessions’. These sessions provide the teams with vital information about how the car will perform during the race. Susie Wolff (neé Stoddart), married to Mercedes AMG Formula 1 Team Principal Toto Wolff, has led the way for women in the sport in recent years. At the 2014 British Grand Prix, Wolff became the first woman to take part in a Formula 1 race weekend in 22 years as a test driver for Williams Racing. As well as having their race driver, Formula 1 teams employ ‘test’ or ‘reserve’ drivers who are involved in the development and testing of the car. These drivers not only take the place of the race driver if they fall ill, but also gain valuable experience of driving a Formula 1 car, which will eventually put them in line for a promotion to the race seat.
In 2016, after retiring from motorsport a year previously, Wolff founded her ‘Dare to be Different’ initiative to make the sport more accessible to women and girls. This foundation later joined forces with the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the governing body of motorsport, and created ‘Girls on Track’. Wolff commented that Formula 1 is not just about female drivers: ‘there are only 20 drivers, but there are nearly 4,000 people involved in making that event happen, from engineers to mechanics to journalists to physiotherapists - there are so many opportunities.’ There is now a wider recognition that Formula 1 needs to become more inclusive and diverse. In June 2020, seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton set up The Hamilton Commission ‘to improve the representation of Black people in UK motorsport.’
However, there has been one powerful woman in the paddock for many years now: Claire Williams. As the daughter of Formula 1 legend Sir Frank Williams, she was Deputy Team Principal of Williams Racing from 2013-2020, essentially holding responsibility for the day-to-day running of the team. Notably, Claire Williams made history as the only female Team Principal in Formula 1. Despite this fact, Williams claims to have ‘seen a big shift - a seismic shift - in the nunerbs of women coming in and the attitudes surrounding women in the sport.’ It was Claire Williams herself who signed Susie Wolff to the Williams team, but this landmark decision was met with scepticism. At the time, some considered it a publicity stunt, but Williams argues that this is ‘looking at it from a very narrow-sighted angle.’ The world of Formula 1 can be extremely perilous and drivers, despite modern technology and safety measures, still put themselves at risk by getting in the cockpit of the car. Williams’ response, therefore, is that ‘motorsport is a dangerous sport and you don’t take risks with people like that just for a marketing ploy.’ Williams and Wolff remain close friends, despite both now having retired from the sport.
Women’s Series
In 2019, the W, or Women’s, Series celebrated its inaugural season. According to its website, ‘W Series is a ground-breaking racing championship for women’. It is also explicitly stated that they ‘firmly believe that women and men can race one another on equal terms provided they are given the same opportunity’. Therefore, the championship was created to give female drivers the relevant experience and qualifications to put them in contention for a seat in a Formula 1 car.
It has been estimated that it costs around €8 million to manage a young driver from the start of their career, most likely within karting, to the pinnacle of the sport, Formula 1. Crucially, drivers in the W Series do not have to pay to race. One of the core goals of the series is to increase visibility of the sport and female drivers. In the UK, the W Series’s races were broadcast to over 340 million households on major terrestrial channels.
In 2019 Williams Formula 1 team signed Jamie Chadwick as their development driver, having seen her success within the British Formula 3 series. Chadwick went on to be crowned champion of the inaugural W Series in August of the same year. In her Williams Academy interview, Jamie Chadwick commented that ‘men and women should be racing against each other’, clearly outlining her hopes for the future of motorsport.
Extreme E Series
In 2021, another series of motorsport appears on the horizon. Thenew series brings ‘electric racing to some of the most remote corners of the planet to highlight the climate change challenges faced by different ecosystems.’ Within the rules of the new stream of the sport, Extreme E teams will have to employ one female and one male driver, hoping to promote gender equality and stay in-tune with the current climate. Among these female drivers is Jamie Chadwick, who will be racing for British Veloce Racing alongside Frenchman Stéphane Sarrazin. In an interview with BBC Sport, Chadwick expressed her excitement to take part in the series, ‘it’s the same for everyone, one hundred percent fair.’
Whilst women now have more access to the male-dominated sport, the motorsport industry has a long way to go before equality is met. Essentially, although a lot is being done to give women the same opportunities in the sport, there’s a lot more left to be done. Having a female Formula 1 World Champion, however, is certainly not as far fetched as it once was.
Lily Squires is currently reading Modern Languages at University College London, UK, graduating in July 2021. After which, Squires is hoping to join the world of journalism, promoting social and political change with her writing.
