STRAIGHT TALK
Mark Gallagher on how F1 is behind on promoting diversity
FORMULA 1 IS BEING OUTDONE ON DIVERSITY
You have to hand it to Alejandro Agag. When it comes to launching topical, eye-catching new motorsport series he’s good at reading the room. He launched Formula E in 2014, back when electric cars were still a novelty, successfully capturing both the imagination and investment of car manufacturers.
Never mind that BMW has decided to exit the series, tersely stating that when it comes to battery electric vehicle technology the Munich manufacturer ‘has essentially exhausted the opportunities for this form of technology transfer.’ Nor that Audi has followed suit, shifting its focus to the Dakar Rally where it will run an entry featuring an all-electric drivetrain, its battery pack charged by a TFSI engine acting as a generator.
Agag’s already moved on too, promoting environmental sustainability through Extreme E – with its electric, off-road, Dakar-style buggies competing in remote locations.
Lining up teams from Mssrs Hamilton, Rosberg and Button, while attracting rally legends including Sébastien Loeb and ‘father’ Sainz, certainly grabbed headlines. Shipping a new motorsport series around the world to educate audiences about the impact of environmental pollution and man-made climate change is a tougher sell. David Attenborough and Greta Thunberg have already delivered that message.
Extreme E is certainly innovative, however, though perhaps most usefully in the decision to mandate a man and woman in each driver line-up. Cristina Gutiérrez, Catie Munnings and Mikaela Åhlinkottulinsky may not yet be household names, but along with the other female competitors they have strong motorsport CVS.
Agag’s vision ensures that women are given the same opportunity as men. I suspect We Race As One might even have been a great marketing campaign for Extreme E were in not for the fact that Formula 1 got there first.
Black Lives Matter and Lewis Hamilton’s campaign for racial equality might have taken centre stage last season, but Formula 1’s decision to launch #Weraceasone always had a broader target. As FIA president Jean Todt said at the time, it includes, “the fight against any form of discrimination and notably on account of skin colour, gender, religion, ethnic or social origin. We must promote diversity in motorsport.”
At Paul Ricard in June, we will see concrete evidence of Formula 1’s intentions when the 2021 W Series kicks off. In a breakthrough deal announced last December, all eight rounds of the womenonly series will support F1.
It’s somewhat ironic that the French GP will mark the opening of this new chapter.
At Reims in 1958, the race director informed F1’s first woman racer, Italian Maria Teresa de Filippis, that she could not compete because, “the only helmet a woman should wear is the one at the hairdresser’s”.
W Series’ boss Catherine Bond-muir, who also chairs Motorsport UK’S Equality, Diversity & Inclusion committee, is ecstatic about the prospect of racing in front of F1’s teams, media and sponsors.
“In our second year we are going to be racing on the largest global motorsport platform,” she told me. “It does not really get much better than that.”
Inaugural champion and Williams F1 development driver Jamie Chadwick returns to defend her title and grab a handful of superlicense points. She’s probably looking forward to it – after watching her Extreme E partner, ex-f1 racer Stéphane Sarrazin, destroy their Veloce Racing entry in the inaugural Desert X Prix she will no doubt be glad to have the chance to win on her own…