Who Are We? We’re Glad You Asked.

In the thick of the pandemic, a movement was launched that could connect individuals from around the globe - or Apple users anyway - during a time when the world was starved of just that: connection. At its core, Clubhouse is another social media platform, launched among many others, but it’s also quite distinct - it takes away the ‘likes’ and permanent fixtures of a highlight reel, and instead serves as a space that allows users to join and host audible chat rooms (think Zoom, minus the awkwardness of video, and anyone in the world can join) to engage in any topic of interest under the sun.

We, four women, all found ourselves in a Formula 1 chat room in the thick of the livery releases for the upcoming 2021 season. We noticed each other quickly, because there were so few of us - and even fewer that spoke up. Eager to get to know these other female motorsport fans, we got in touch with each other and decided to meet via Zoom; a true Pandemic meet and greet. 

It became evident that we all felt there was a gap in the female fan experience. Whatever the reason, whether women have been overlooked or excluded, there was clearly a demand for this space and we wanted to do something about it. Even though the female audience seemed a bit limited, we started our own Clubhouse group, Women of GP, with a mandate to elevate women in motorsport. We started an aggressive research and outreach action plan to find women with titles that varied, from media, STEM and behind-the-scenes, and host them for an on track chat (a fireside chat, but we couldn’t help to make it motorsport). 

Throughout this process of getting to know other female fans and speaking directly with the experts, we uncovered two things: 

First, that representation matters - so many of us have either grown up with the sport through some sort of familial pipeline or have come to find the sport later in our lives, but never considered a career in motorsport as a possibility because women were never showcased working in the sport. Speaking directly with women who worked across all ventures in motorsport provided a different lens - or just glasses really - as we were finally able to see the women who dove headfirst into the ‘old boys club’ and forged a career in motorsport. Every speaker we have hosted has voiced, “the industry is changing,” and that diversity and inclusion programs are rapidly developing - which is better late than never, but for us, couldn’t be happening at a better time so that we can watch it unfold before our eyes. 

Second, we are activated at the chance to host weekly chats in a space dedicated to women, about women and their experiences. But what’s equally as important was that we noticed a significant increase in female participants - there was more willingness to engage and ask questions.

While our conversations have never been and will never be limited to just women, we are happy to see week in and week out, many men and non-binary allies jump into the deep end with us to participate in these discussions. However, the game changer here is that this room was designed with women in mind and is explicitly labeled that way. It is a space for all, but first and foremost, it’s a space where women can speak up without being denigrated to comments such as, “You only like the sport because of the attractive men.” Nope, none of that here.

And who are we? We are four women with different and compatible interests in the sport of F1, ranging from the technical, economics, behind the scenes and pageantry. Together, we workshop and discuss topics that would be of interest to our demographic, but at the end of the day we infinitely believe in the representation and amplification of women in all roles of motorsport. That is our ‘why.’