October marks the start of Girl Go Free (if you’re under 18) month at the Silverstone museum as part of the #GirlsWill campaign, started this year. This initiative aims to encourage young women into the motorsport industry through workshops and panels held throughout the month. This, of course, is an amazing step into the future of women in Formula One, but what can be learnt from the turbulent past of women that drove in the sport?
In the history of Formula One, there have only been five female drivers, three of whom never started in a race. What's more, a woman hasn’t driven in the sport since 1992’s Giovanna Amati, who entered three races but never started in one.
The first woman to compete in F1 was Italian Maria Teresa de Filippis, who entered five grand prix and raced in three of them. In 1958, she finished tenth in the Belgian GP (not worthy of points at the time). During the following French GP, the race director disregarded her achievements, telling a journalist that “the only helmet a woman should wear is at the hairdresser." Maria quit racing the next year.
📸 Trailblazer: de Filippis on track.
To this day, Lella Lombardi is the only woman to have scored points in the Formula One Championship. Lombardi came sixth in the Spanish GP of 1975 and scored half a point; this achievement is frequently overlooked, however, due to controversy involving a crash that occurred, which subsequently meant that the race could only run half of its course.
📸 Lella Lombardi is arguably the most successful female F1 driver.
In 1980, South African Desiré Wilson won a race in the British Aurora F1 championship (a racing series associated with F1, not to be confused with the actual F1 championship) and became the first woman to win any type of ‘F1’ race.
📸 Desiré Wilson.
As mentioned earlier, Giovanna Amati holds the legacy of being the last female F1 driver. No other woman has taken part in the driver’s championship since she was removed from her team in 1992 for not qualifying in any of the three races she entered. Amati was replaced mid-season by World Championship winner Damon Hill, who failed to qualify in six of the eight races he entered. The team's other driver, Eric van de Poele, only qualified in one race of the eleven-race season. Neither van de Poele nor Hill were outwardly criticised by the team for their lack of successful qualifiers.
Since Amati’s departure from the sport, there have been several female test drivers (a test driver is someone who is employed by a team to be involved in the testing and development of cars). The most notable of these are F1 Academy’s director Susie Wolff and three-time W series champion Jamie Chadwick.
📸 Chadwick won in Indy NXT this season, and is now expected to race some part in the IndyCar series next year.
During her time as a test driver for Williams, Susie Wolff was asked to drive in a free practice session for the 2014 British GP. She completed one lap before stopping due to engine issues. In a post-practice interview, current F1 driver Sergio Perez revealed to Spanish television that he wouldn't want a female teammate, despite his friendship with Wolff, as losing to her would be 'the last straw', and that women are 'better off in the kitchen than with cars'. Susie Wolff retired from racing in 2015, believing that she was ‘unlikely to be given a seat’ within any race category. Sergio Perez currently drives for a seven-time championship-winning team and has won six Grand Prix.
📸 Wolff took part in multiple FP1 sessions but failed to ever secure a full time drive in F1.
Ultimately, it’s vital that the tumultuous and unfair history of women in Formula 1 is used as fuel to continue the exciting developments and efforts that are being made in the business to even the playing field for women. The future of women driving and working in motorsport is bright, thanks to campaigns like GirlsWill. Obstacles to reaching work Formula One will always exist; gender should no longer be one.
Link to Silverstone Museum information: https://www.silverstonemuseum.co.uk/learn/girlswill/
📸 Image credits: Formula Motorsport Limited, BBC Sport, Sky Sports.
This is brilliant