Formula racing is changing. It was, up until recently, a solely male-dominated sport, known to some as the "billionaire boys club", where, unless you're male and from a privileged background, you'd have little to no chance of competing in the big leagues. There are, of course, exceptions to the rule. Lewis Hamilton, for example, who hails from Stevenage, and whose father remortgaged their house to give him a shot at the top spot.
It was a place where a woman hadn't truly been seen on the grid since Lella Lombardi in the 1970s, unless in the form of a pit girl (the likes of which were later banned in the sport), or the occasional engineer, trainer or team principal. Thankfully, the landscape is looking a little different these days, thanks to a group of exceptional women, led by trailblazer Catherine Bond Muir.
I've been watching Formula 1 since I was a kid - every weekend with my dad, and now with my other half. It's a sport unlike any other, and, despite its complicated outer appearance, is thrilling, jaw-dropping and filled with drama. A new era of fans has recently been introduced to the sport via Netflix's Drive To Survive series, which, if you haven't watched yet, I'd implore you to pop it on your watch list (along with the Channel 4 W Series show, Driven, which is just as, if not more addictive).
Since Formula 1 announced that the W Series, a free-to-enter championship designed specifically for women, would be a supporting race for a number of locations on the Formula 1 calendar, the excitement around women in motorsport has reached an all-time high. With viewing figures for the W Series at Silverstone nearly at the same level as the main Formula 1 races, it's clear there's an appetite for brilliant racing, regardless of who's in the driving seat.
And with the news that Heineken has signed up to sponsor the championship, along with the UEFA Women’s Champions League and the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022, it seems the only way is up.
I had the chance to sit down with the W Series CEO, Catherine Bond Muir, along with two drivers, Alice Powell and Abbi Pulling, during the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, where we talked about everything from female empowerment to self-care and beauty products.
Catherine Bond Muir on the importance of a free-to-enter championship:
"It would be fantastic if people didn’t have to pay millions of pounds to race in a motor racing series. I am also on the board of Motorsport UK and what we need and what we are trying to do desperately, is just get more people involved in motorsport - and money is probably the biggest barrier to entry. If all of motorsport was free to enter, that would be great but unfortunately, the economic model doesn’t work for the majority of series. It does for us because this is the way we set ourselves up. Having new partners is crucial because they’re the ones who are going to fund the business going forward. So that’s why we have moved to a team structure so we can get more commercial partners in, so we don’t have to rely on our shareholders who have funded us to date."
On trusting that every choice you make in your career will get you where you need to be:
"Until W Series happened, I had a real downer about myself. I had huge numbers of regret about what I had done for my career as I was a solicitor. I wanted to leave the law, so I changed and I did three years in sports marketing. I didn’t like that it wasn’t sufficiently intellectually challenging for me, so then I went into corporate finance, advising companies on buying and selling... I had so many regrets about my career because I kept changing things and I thought, I haven’t been the best that I can be, because I’ve changed.
"However, all of those three things have been absolutely crucial for me in setting up W Series successfully. I had really been upset, thinking, I’ve actually ruined my life, [but those jobs have] actually been the thing that has made W Series. So I think [the message I would send to other women] is that, if it’s not right, it’s okay to change careers. I think people are doing it a lot more anyway now, but you never know where those skills are [needed], how you are going to use them going forward."
"It really does feel like [everything was leading to this] for me. I’m not a spiritual person at all. I am very straightforward. But to now have this great sense of ah, I can breathe - yes, now there’s a reason for all of those things happening."
On being a working mum:
"I’m completely unashamed about that. Historically, I think I would have been nervous about it, but the whole reason this was set up was because I was a really old mother, I was 45-years-old when I had [Hamish], and it took a bit of time for him to get there because I kept miscarrying.
"I gave up work when I knew he had stuck as nothing was more important to me. I didn’t work for a couple of years, so when I went back to work, I was trying to figure out what I was going to do, and then W Series was that thing that happened. So he is, actually, the reason [for] W Series... If I hadn’t got pregnant with him, I would have carried on with my same job and W Series would never have happened."
On encouraging girls to get into motorsport careers:
"We want to engage and inspire young girls. The best bit of my job is going to speak to these girls at school and, genuinely, because it's explaining to them about what’s possible. It’s not just about promoting the drivers, it's about promoting the whole ecosystem. Our CFO is female, so basically whatever job you can do, you can actually apply it to motorsport.
"It’s about talking to all these young girls about STEM subjects - they can become engineers and lots of them don’t know. And actually, there was one time I spoke to Hamish’s year and it was so sweet - and his teacher wrote to me and said "oh Katie says she’s going to work much harder at maths now because she wants to become a W Series engineer". That’s what melts my heart. And I think that’s where we can genuinely have a lasting impact is to show young girls that absolutely anything is possible and that is really what my dream is. That is my long-term goal, to not only make W Series famous but genuinely to show young girls they can do absolutely anything and there are no barriers."
On the uplifting culture of the W Series:
[The culture is] fantastic... It’s just great as a working environment where people are incredibly supportive and more importantly, like each other. We have a number of psychologists that work with us and they’ve worked in many sports, and they think that’s the difference between boys and girls.
"[With] Formula 1 drivers, there are some friendships there, but from the word go, from being really young they are incredibly competitive with each other and women just aren’t like that. They are much more nurturing and supportive. [Psychologists] think it may not just be a lucky thing with the W Series, they think actually it may just be a female thing.
"Women do support each other to the end. No one is more surprised than me. You know, I thought, they are super competitive but they’re not unpleasant to each other and there are a huge number of friendships around and they’re all mates with each other. Genuinely, they all like each other enormously. I thought that as time went on, they would become more competitive with each other... but those bonds haven’t broken at all."
On women supporting women:
"My belief on women is let’s all help each other because it’s a rising tide. Through empowerment, it’s a rising tide, therefore, we all win. Let’s work together. Let’s promote ourselves with each other."
On having Heineken come on as a sponsor:
"Genuinely, it’s massive for us. It’s huge because as I said to you, what we want to do is to make the W Series famous. And, we are this tiny as a brand globally, and Heineken is huge. Getting partners that are as big as, important as and as well-known as Heineken for us is key to us expanding our growth more quickly. It's genuinely massive for us."
On her biggest achievement so far:
"One was the first race at Hockenheim. It was a cold, wet, grey dreadful day but [as you see in] Driven, I was in tears. I think about it now and actually, I can well up. I was standing on the grid. I spent two years knocking on doors trying to find the money. Two times I genuinely I was going to give up but my husband said, "no you can’t, keep going, it’s a great idea, you are getting attraction, people love the idea, so don’t give up". He was the person who kept me going because I just thought, well, it’s another six months of not raising the money, then I’ve wasted another six months of my life. He was the one who made me continue.
"I had lots of friends involved in sport who said no one watches women’s sport. It’s a good idea, but motorsport, it’s a very closed community, you’ll never do it. So, all you have is no, no, no. It’s not going to happen. It’s not going to work. It’s never going to happen. It’s this and that. You are not going to raise £20 million, no one is ever going to give you that amount of money on the back of an idea. It’s never going to happen. So it’s just all these nos for a whole variety of different reasons. Then you’re standing on the grid and 18 cars come around the corner and, the noise. And, honestly, it was so emotional. I was just like, ah, after these years of no and then I f*cking did it. That was really really emotional."
"And actually, yesterday’s TV figures (at Silverstone) was another milestone. I mean, we are attracting more or less the same audience as you do on Sky for the sprint race. Oh, I am in a very good mood today."
On being a leader:
"When you start this from scratch, you’ve done everything. You’ve done everyone’s jobs. You have to be humble. You have to have humility because everyone to me is on the same level. I don’t see hierarchy at all. I think hierarchy can be incredibly toxic, so it is just about getting jobs done and no one is more important than anyone else."
Alice Powell on her pinch yourself moment:
"Well [winning at Silverstone] is definitely going to be near the top. It’s just super special and having an amazing crowd and when I got out of the car, the support and actually on the [winning] lap as well, you could just about hear the crowd so it was just amazing. I would say winning my first championship in cars back when I was 17 in Formula Renault was awesome, that’s got to be a highlight too. What other highlights, I’m sure I’ve got some?"
Abbi interjects, "Working with me."
Alice responds, "Working with Abbi, of course, it has got to be a highlight."
On women who want to get into motorsports:
"A lot of people, especially younger people, think, "oh there’s just the driving side". They don’t quite realise that there’s so much more that goes on behind the scenes. Abbi admits then that she was even one of those people and I probably was when I was young as well, but there are many different avenues. The engineering side - and again, there’s not just engineering in terms of setting up the car, there are so many other avenues as well, especially in the likes of Formula 1. Then the mechanical side. You’ve got the PR side. You’ve got the media side. There are so many routes to take, but [if driving is your passion], go to your local go-karting track and it’s not for you, then there are many other avenues you can take as well."
On the bond with the other drivers:
"I get asked like, "oh you must all be really bitchy and not like each other", but I guess no one knew what to expect because it’s obviously just so different to any other series that I’ve raced in, and same for the other girls. But we all seem to get on really well and I think we spend a lot of time together.
"Not so much now because we have bubbles due to COVID, but in 2019, we were all travelling in the same bus together, in the changing rooms [together], so we all mixed and had a laugh and spent a lot of time with each other. Obviously, friendships grew but on track, we are all out there to fight against each other - so you’ve got no friends on track, as they say."
On having Heineken as a partner:
"That shows that if such an important and huge company like Heineken is interested in being a partner of W Series, that just shows how well the W Series is doing. How far W Series has come - from only starting in 2019 - we are having these amazing companies like Heineken want to join the series and be partners it's amazing."
On her pre-race routine:
"I do a warm-up routine. So I do skipping, a bit of resistance, juggling, just to wake myself up a bit and I think that’s something that helps. If you do feel nervous... skipping helps me and just keeping hydrated. Once I get in the car, I just focus. Do some laps in my head and just visualise a few things and go from there."
On fitness and mental wellbeing:
"[It] comes with the job anyway. You need to be fit to drive these cars, physically fit, working a lot on the mental side as well. Physically and mentally fit. Making sure you get your sleep patterns correct, even though you might be tempted to stay up crazy late, [but actually just] going to bed...
"I love playing sport... I haven’t played hockey for ages just because I haven’t had time... that’s a sport that I really enjoy and is stress-relieving – just running around like a headless chicken and smashing a really hard, solid ball at people... It’s a brutal game but I really enjoy it. It keeps you fit as well.
"I love my strength sessions, I love my mobility as well. Having a good old stretch and using the foam roller."
On an exercise she would happily give up:
"Burpees is definitely a horrible one, and sometimes – I do do it, I make myself do it, but it can be quite uncomfortable sometimes to train your neck. It pulls my hair, it’s not the most comfortable one to do but we have to do it."
On beauty must-haves:
I have really sensitive skin. I lost my luggage at the first round and I just panicked. I use Aveeno cream, I’m prone to getting dry skin and eczema... I’ve found that especially if you’re sweating, having hydration tablets – I use the Science in Sport hydration tablets, drinking a lot of water, and if you don’t like drinking water, I find that those can help your skin, especially if you’re sweating a lot. It’s funny when you travel a lot, how your skin reacts to different water. When I went to Austria, my skin was amazing.
"Argan oil for me too, I just think it’s awesome."
Abbi Pulling on her pinch yourself moment:
"I would say, my highlight in my career would've been winning junior karting championships at a younger age and then coming into the British Formula 4 and getting a few podiums has really been really positive for me. This weekend, even though it wasn’t the result I wanted, it was the first weekend so I can’t complain much but it's up there because of the atmosphere. And it’s my first British Grand Prix, so it’s a whole new experience for me having all these eyes on me and it’s been awesome."
On her pre-race routine:
"I guess I listen to music. I have quite intense music that I listen to, high-energy music to get pumped up - and I make sure I’m hydrated. Similar to what most drivers would do. You don’t want to eat anything large too close to it because it can make you sick. Just little things like that."
On getting home after a race:
"Making sure you are training, keeping on top of things ready for the next event. It's nice to unwind with friends and family. I’m very much into art and design and in my spare time, I will be doing that. I designed Alice’s helmet for this weekend actually which is quite cool."
On exercise for mental health:
"I find that sometimes I can be really moody and I go for a run and I feel much better. Sometimes it’s the other way around and I have a really bad run and then I'm annoyed, but normally it helps clear your mind. I love doing my strength sessions at the moment, it’s really stress-relieving."
On an exercise she would happily give up:
"I could give up running. I really love doing my strength but sometimes I just do not want to run. But then once you’ve done it you do feel better afterwards, it's just the initial going out and doing it. "
On hair-care must-haves:
"I have quite curly hair naturally and I used to straighten my hair too much... Now when I come out of the shower I put this leave-in conditioner on, it’s like curling conditioner. Argan oil – which Alice showed me – that stops the frizz and gives me really nice waves."
The W Series will be tearing up the track at the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend, so make sure to tune in to Channel 4 to catch all the action.
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