Are Women in Formula One driving seat at present and for the future? Statistics on females operating Senior Roles across F1 Teams both track-side and at Factory bases paint stark picture that the odds are slim to sheer minimal that women have gained equal footing working in the world’s most prestigious Motorsport Championship.
Data taken from recent survey conducted by ESPN in 2021 state that 11% and below are total number of women holding down a position of quantifiable credibility within the fields of senior race strategist, engine engineer, aerodynamics, and wind tunnel technician.
Mercedes-AMG appears top of stats with over 1,000 employees of which 117 are women. Break-down further and 31% of females hold senior roles, with mere 4 women track-side from total of 65. Another 4 females work along-side Race Team based at Factory.
Key roles held by women at Mercedes are: Dr Kathryn Richards Wind Tunnel Test Technician. With extensive background in aerodynamics, Dr Kathryn oversees the smooth and efficient running of the wind tunnel so that the aerodynamicists can develop and improve performance of the race car. Equally, Marga Torres Diez has been the engineer responsible for the power unit for Lewis Hamilton, making sure everything works correctly in terms of reliability while extracting maximum performance.
With wealth of knowledge gained from studying engineering and working within engine divisions of Manufacturers, Marga defines case-by-case analysis on what her role requires. Marga: ‘during a session, with the car on the track, I am behind the wall watching the data, arriving near a thousand parameters as temperatures or pressures. I follow those related to the engine, the battery, the electric motors or the turbo. It could be that the engine is somewhat hotter than it should be, in that situation we would ask the pilot to look for the side of the runway to catch another air flow, or to do a ‘lift and coast’ (lift the foot of the accelerator a few moments before stepping on the brake)”‘.
Alfa-Romeo deliver comparable statistics given smaller team with 5 women working track-side from total of 51 – 9.8%. Senior Strategy Engineer Ruth Buscombe combined her love of maths with sport and competition to focus on working with F1 Team. An avid champion of challenging stereotypes in the industry, Ruth makes clear the message that beliefs held from childhood should be continually evaluated to eliminate bias from decisions on who makes a great engineer.
Complimenting Buscombe’s keen sense of equal opportunity for women includes Alfa Romeo’s computational fluid dynamics development engineer – Krystina Emmanouilides. Growing up in in Australia, close to listening to the sound of F1 cars at Melbourne’s GP, Krystina embarked on carving her own pathway studying mechanical engineering at Oxford University, UK. As Krystina states in simplified terms: ‘my work develops software to help with the Team’s aerodynamic testing. We use data from the track and wind tunnel to complete a lot of checks and improvements to constantly increase the quality of simulations’.
Haas with the smallest team on the grid include 15 women from total of 167 staff who attend track-side, followed by McLaren with 5 women from 66 staff traveling to F1 races. Red Bull, Ferrari, and Williams did not respond to ESPN survey, coupled with Aston Martin and Alpine stating they were unable to provide the requested information. Rounding out top 10 Formula One Teams, Alpha Tauri explained: ‘while we do have a high level of females in senior roles here at the factory we don’t have any in the race team’.
Given Red Bull’s no reply, the Team’s Principal Strategy Engineer Hannah Schmitz commands highly significant presence on pit wall, analyzing data and making crucial calls which can either make or break race results. Calm and cool under extreme pressure, Hannah has developed poise of character which defies ‘by the book’ strategies when responding to varying track circumstances.
For Hannah, the edge of the seat experience at F1 GP’s prompts delivering her best, albeit calling for undercut or overcut to gain or maintain track position, or deciding when and which tyre selection fits change of track evolution and weather conditions. As Hannah puts it: ‘I think it’s incredibly exciting. You sit on the edge of your seat when you’ve made that split-second decision. Then you have maybe 20 seconds, which doesn’t sound like any time, but in a race, sitting there waiting to see if your decision has paid off can feel like a lifetime'”.
Are Women in Formula One driving seat- not totally, but getting closer!
Words: Sharon Cox.
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