Natalie PINKHAM
As she makes history as a female F1 anchor, Natalie Pinkham tells Guy Kelly why the ‘blokeish’ sport still has a long way to go
Afew years ago, Natalie Pinkham decided to strike the word “tomboy” from her vocabulary. “I used to use it with such affection, but there are certain terms that need to be consigned to the history books, and that’s one of them,” she says.
As a child, it was constantly applied to her. She liked to go to football and rugby matches with her father (her brother wasn’t interested).
At school in Northamptonshire, she was a keen runner. When she discovered there was no girls’ 4x100m relay team, she decided to cut her hair short and joined the boys’ squad instead. “I was flat-chested and quite muscly. For all they knew, I was a boy,” she says.
“We were quite fast and reached the national finals. But when we got there, the judges found out I was a girl. So we were disqualified.”
Pinkham, now 41, laughs at the memory. It’s the kind of experience that could have put her off sport for good, but the opposite happened: she kept on running, kept on attending football and rugby matches, kept on ignoring anyone who said she shouldn’t be there.
When she began working in television in her 20s, she became intent on getting a job in Formula One – possibly the blokiest of all sports.
It was a dream she achieved almost a decade ago, initially with the BBC. Today, she reaches a career pinnacle, making history as the first ever female anchor of F1 coverage on Sky.
“I am nervous and excited,” she says, on the phone from the track in Barcelona.
“It’s something I’ve wanted to do ever since I started, and I’ve finally got my chance. I haven’t slept much the last few nights…”
Formula One resides at the cutting edge of technology – innovations made by teams regularly find their way into road cars – but its progress on diversity and inclusion has tended to be glacial. Pinkham, who has followed the likes of Louise Goodman and Suzi Perry in becoming one of the few women on screen at races, is all too aware of it.
“We are still a sport that’s 88 per cent male and
91 per cent white, and that is just not acceptable in 2020,” she says. “When you look at our fanbase, it’s 40 per cent women who are watching, so they need more relatable role models, not just in terms of presenting but strategists, team principles, aerodynamicists – every element of the sport.”
It’s certainly better than it was. For decades, the most prominent women seen at F1 races were the grid girls – models employed to look beautiful, hold flags and not much else.
After much consternation, principally from the o old guard, they were consigned to hi history in 2018. “At the time there was massive backlash, includin including criticism of me for supporting i it. But you want girls to watch t the sport and not feel they have to look a certain way and stand as inanimate objects in ord order to get on,” Pinkham says says.
She used to talk to the grid girls “all the tim time, I craved female company”, an and didn’t want to do th them out of a job, but instead “to show that there are so many elements women can succeed at. There’s nothing that precludes women from driving the cars, and I firmly believe there will be a female F1 champion in my lifetime.”
She is equally enthusiastic about Lewis Hamilton’s activism. The reigning champion has been criticised by some of the sport’s elder statesmen for his vocal support of Black Lives Matter.
“He’s doing a great job. What he’s doing is seismic,” says Pinkham. “And we’ll look back on this as a watershed moment, and he’ll have been the leader in that.”
Pinkham’s route into Formula One was steady: after a politics degree, she found a job researching on
then worked her way in front of the camera, covering various sports – poker, tennis, motorcycling – before landing her dream job.
It hasn’t been a journey without sexism. Before we spoke, I scrolled through Pinkham’s incredibly glamorous social media feeds (holidays with the Bransons, jetsetting for work, adorable kids), and you’re never far from a leery comment. Her colleague Simon Lazenby doesn’t get that.
“It is a tricky one,” she admits. “On the one hand, you don’t want to take yourself too seriously and have a bit of a laugh, but on the other hand, you want to be seriously. So it’s a fine line to tread.”
Then there are the royals. For years, whenever Pinkham’s name appeared in the press it would be accompanied by an in-depth discussion of how she is an old friend (or “flame” as it’s usually written) of Prince Harry’s. It’s true, he is an
‘We are still a sport that’s 88pc male and 91pc white – that is not right in 2020’
‘It’s a tragedy of the virus that so many cancer patients will die prematurely’
old friend, as are Zara Phillips, Mike Tindall and other royals.
Pinkham even appeared on
Sarah Ferguson’s unexpectedly popular lockdown YouTube series, in which she reads children’s stories aloud. Plenty of male figures in the sporting community are just as entwined with royals, but don’t come under the same scrutiny?
“Ugh, yeah, I know,” sighs Pinkham. “I don’t know if you can ever ignore it, but you kind of learn to not let it bother you too much. I think I’ve probably always cared a bit too much about what other people think, but I’m getting better – especially since becoming a mum.”
She has two children, five-year-old Wilfred and four-year-old Willow, with her husband of eight years, Owain Walbyoff.
“I remember being incredibly nervous about having kids, thinking, ‘Oh God, what’s going to happen to my career?’ When I told my boss at Sky that I was pregnant, I was so nervous, but he was really supportive. And I think once you become a mum you relax more and don’t sweat the small stuff,” she says.
“It’s actually made me better at my job. And I hope that going forward women realise that. You always feel guilty; always feel you should be with your kids more; always feel you should be doing more at work. But everyone has challenges and is spinning plates.”
There is “absolute parity” in her marriage, she insists. Plus, she says, it is a little easier now that Walbyoff, who works at a neurotechnology company, is working from home.
Both exercise addicts, during lockdown the couple installed a garden gym, created assault courses, and were “terrible” at homeschooling.
But the hardest part was being unable to see Walbyoff’s mother, who has advanced ovarian cancer and had her chemotherapy paused. Having both experienced mild Covid symptoms and had antibody tests that came back positive, Pinkham and Walbyoff had to shield her.
“That has been tough for her. So many cancer sufferers got forgotten. I understand why, but it’s a tragedy of the virus that a lot of cancer patients will die prematurely. But she’s such a fighter,” says Pinkham.
Today, there might be no fans at the Spanish Grand Prix to see Pinkham make her debut as frontwoman, but her life is gathering speed again. It is a fast one. I wonder how long she plans to do it.
“I don’t know. My mum trained as a barrister when she was 40, so you can always have a change…” she says. There’s that degree. Her dad always wanted her to go into politics.
“He still does,” she laughs. “He goes, ‘There’s still time, Natalie!’”
There is. I certainly wouldn’t count her out.
Watch the Spanish Grand Prix live on Sky Sports F1 HD from 2.10pm