All-female F1 plan rejected

Plan would send the wrong message, according to a panel of female engineers speaking at a recent event

Female engineers have spoken out against the concept of an all-female Formula One championship, as recently suggested by Bernie Ecclestone.

A panel of female engineers speaking at an event at the IMechE in London heavily criticised plans to run a women’s world championship alongside the regular F1 on race weekends and claimed it would send the wrong message to industry.

Gemma Hatton, data engineer at Paras Racing team, called the idea “an obvious segregation” and said that it would not be the best route to proportionally represent women in the motorsport industry.

Bernadette Collins, performance and strategy engineer for the Sahara Force India F1 team, said: “I am all for equality in motorsport but an all-female championship is just inequality going the other way. It sends the wrong message – that female drivers are not good enough to compete with men. 

“Instead we need a longer cultural change, with parents introducing their girls to the sport earlier in life.”

Leena Gade, race engineer at Audi Sport (pictured), said: “Nothing is more fun than competing against guys and winning within rules they wrote.”

The comments echo findings in a study by Nottingham University Business School. The research, which surveyed women working in major engineering organisations, found that they may resent rather than welcome initiatives designed to help them succeed in male-dominated professions. They just wanted the chance to succeed on merit.