In 1950 Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile’s first Formula One (F1) championship took place in Silverstone, England. In the time since, the popularity of the sport has soared with more than half a billion fans worldwide reaching a wide audience. It is estimated that of those 503 million fans, 38% (191 million) are women.
Often described as a “rich man’s sport”, F1 has a deep history of inequality; it is not uncommon for drivers to pay for their seats in races and women are severely underrepresented on the track. Despite F1 not being a segregated sport and no rules specifying gender of the driver, very few women choose to take part. In its 68 years, there have been 5 female drivers in contrast to the 928 male drivers in the Grands Prix and not a single female driver since 1992.
13-time Grand Prix winner David Coulthard has previously said “In order to be a successful racing driver, you have to be skilled, determined, competitive, brave and physically fit, but you don’t have to possess the kind of super-powerful strength levels that some sports require.”
While drivers do need strong arm muscles and a strong core are also required to steer the car, they are often mindful of building too much muscle thus increasing the weight of the car. F1 also requires drivers to be physically fit with many drivers practising cardio to avoid fatigue during the long races, lasting on average 90 minutes.
It is thus not a question of whether women are physically able to compete with men. So what can be done to encourage more women to participate in motor sports?
There have been pushes to encourage young girls to be interested in motor sports such as ‘Dare to be Different’ set up by Susie Wolff and the Motor Sports Association. Wolff herself has had an illustrious career in motor racing being the first woman to take part in a Formula One race weekend in 22 years working as a Test and Development driver for the Williams F1 team.
More recently, a new all-female motorsport series, W Series, was announced to begin in May 2019 with the aim of finding potential female Formula One drivers. W Series will be supported by Coulthard and Red Bull design chief Adrian Newey, who both see it as a great opportunity for women to progress in motor sports. However, the series has also generated a lot of controversy, which question the decision to introduce segregation into the sport.
Pippa Mann, an IndyCar driver and Indy Lights race winner has argued that this decision is “the biggest step backwards I have seen for women in motor sport in my lifetime”. She argues that the funding into the W series should be given directly to women and not be used as a tool to segregate motor sports. In a society where a phrase ‘drive like a girl’ holds such negative connotations, this could be a means to further isolate women and imply they need such a series to make a name for themselves. Mann states, “none of us grew up dreaming about winning the Girl’s Cup. We grew up dreaming about winning it all.”
However, campaigners for the series argue that changing the processes in the sport are fundamental to changing the outcomes, that the introduction of this series provide women with more opportunities to reach their potential. For example, a major barrier for any racer is the question of funding. The W Series winner receives $500,000 in prize money, which could be used to move further up the racing ladder. Even those who do not win, will win some money from the series and generate new opportunities. If successful, the series will create 20 all-female seats, giving the chance to showcase female talent in an extremely male dominated sport.
Regardless of how you see the introduction of this new series, we must hope that it has the effect of attracting more women to racing and a major congratulations are needed for any of the women who have managed to break into motor racing and make a career for themselves. Hopefully we will see our first woman in a Formula One race in 30 years soon!