Not so long ago, having a female driver on a grid was considered something of a novelty. Now, with increasing numbers of women taking up the sport, it’s becoming a little more commonplace. Whether as the result of all-female categories like W Series or F1 Academy, or a variety of grassroots initiatives, the idea of attracting more women into motorsport is in the spotlight now more than ever. And governing body Motorsport UK is determined to play a leading role in this.
Its CEO Hugh Chambers says the organisation has progressed a long way in the past five or six years since efforts to increase female participation began in earnest. “We’re now into a far more exciting period, which is a maturing of those programmes,” he explains. “What I mean by that is they no longer sit adjacent to the rest of the sport, they’re in the sport. So, every discipline, every activity with marshals, getting more females involved in the sport is an integral part of everything that we do.”
One example is the Girls on Track scheme, launched a decade ago by Susie Wolff as Dare to be Different. In its current guise, it’s formed of two strands. First up is the education programme where events are held in schools to promote careers in STEM subjects (the areas of science, technology, engineering and maths that are so vital for many motorsport roles) to girls. Last year alone, nearly a thousand girls took part in such events, and they are supported by a range of high-profile partners, including Alpine, McLaren, Williams and Microsoft. The other key element of Girls on Track is the community of over 8000 members that can share experiences.
“We can support people to find their way to their next step, whether that's finding friends – other women or other girls that are interested in motorsport and want to talk about it – but it's also around networking events,” says Jess Runicles, Motorsport UK’s head of sustainability, who also oversees diversity and inclusion. “Jenny [Fletcher, who runs Girls on Track UK] always talks about inspiring, showcasing and connecting.”
While Girls on Track revolves around getting more women involved in the motorsport industry in general, another scheme that Motorsport UK launched last year – in conjunction with F1 Academy – is more focused on the driving side. Discover Your Drive enables 8-12-year-old girls to experience motorsport in the form of indoor karting events held during school holidays – for example, 137 took part in such a gathering in February half-term. And indoor karting is a deliberate choice for this starting point as the barriers to entry are far less significant.
“You don’t have to have any of that knowledge or equipment to get started,” says Runicles. “From those DYD days, the instructors and coaches at Team Sport identify those that show promise and they’re invited into what we call Race Academies – they’ll have five sessions in female-only environments where they learn things like racing lines and overtaking, and then they’ll be integrated back with the boys to race alongside them in further Race Academies. And then the aim is to diversify the applicants of the British Indoor Karting Championship. Last year, we managed to get one DYD girl into the final and we have a bigger ambition this year.”
While, for F1, the objective may be to find the first female grand prix entrant since 1992, for Chambers, DYD is a great way of boosting female participation more widely. “In amongst those 8-12-year-old girls, we might just – hopefully – find somebody who has got superstar talent and that's really exciting,” he says. “But the more exciting thing from our perspective is, over half-term week, we got 137 girls into karts and into a Discover Your Drive day that wouldn't otherwise have gone.”
These efforts are already having a tangible impact, with female participants in the BIKC up by a whopping 265% last year. And it is not just about karting, with the British Women Racing Drivers Club also trying to make hillclimbing less daunting for prospective female drivers by holding a series of women-only events where people can use their road car and learn the basics. Sure enough, it’s in the more grassroots disciplines where there has been a noticeable upturn in female involvement.
Increases in female marshals and other sectors of the sport have been achieved, but the percentage of RS Clubman licence holders – covering the likes of autosolos, sprints and trials – that are women has gone from 10% to 16% in the past couple of years. However, the fact that female drivers continue to account for just 5% of paid licences (giving a figure of 10% across all licence types), demonstrates how much more work there is to do.
But some might think that, as laudable as Motorsport UK’s objectives are, does it really matter how many women are involved? Yet Chambers insists it is vital to the sport’s future.
"This is an exciting period, we’ve got momentum, we’ve got mature programmes in Girls on Track, we’ve got new programmes like Discover Your Drive, we’ve got more women in British Formula 4 this year than there’s ever been" Hugh Chambers
“If motorsport is going to continue to be relevant and is going to be around in 50 years, we need to make sure that 51% of the population see it as a really good thing,” he states. “And, if we’re not connecting with the females in the community, it’s easy for them to turn around and say, ‘That’s a boys’ thing, men do that, it’s nothing to do with us.’ You've suddenly disenfranchised 51% of the population.”
Nevertheless, Motorsport UK remains some way off its target of having a competitor pool that mirrors British society. Chambers continues: “Could we ever get to 51% of our competitors being female? Who knows! Many certainly wouldn’t have thought female football would’ve garnered the level of television viewers that they have done recently. So, never say never, but it is something that’s going to take time.
“But everybody gets it now, this is an exciting period, we’ve got momentum, we’ve got mature programmes in Girls on Track, we’ve got new programmes like Discover Your Drive, we’ve got more women in British Formula 4 this year than there’s ever been, and I think there’s real good reason to be extremely optimistic.”
After decades of female participation not even being a topic that was really considered, that is quite some progress already.
