GIRL POWER
It's been
twenty-three years since Formula 1 last had a female driver. In this interview,
AUTOSPORT's Ryan Nurse talks to the woman hoping to buck that trend.
In the sixty-five years since the Formula One World
Championship began, only five women have ever taken part in a Grand Prix, and
only two - Maria Teresa de Filippis and Lella Lombardi - have ever started one.
Lombardi remains the only woman to have scored a championship point, at the
tragic 1975 Spanish Grand Prix. All jokes about female drivers aside, women
don't exactly have the greatest track record in F1, especially when compared to
other motor racing disciplines.
The trend has been reversing recently. In the last few
years, Susie Wolff, Simona de Silvestro, and the late Maria de Villota have all
tested for various teams on the paddock. However, Giovanna Amati remains the
last woman to have entered an F1 race, for Brabham in 1992, and she didn't
exactly cover herself in glory. Now, one woman is aiming to rewrite the history
books.
Step forward Brooke Stewart, daughter of 90s F1 racer
Conor Stewart. The latest in a long line of second-generation drivers with F1
aspirations, Brooke is aiming to become not only the first female F1 driver in
twenty-three years, but the most successful female F1 driver. With Lombardi
having scored just half a point, it's arguably not the highest of bars.
"Maybe not," says Brooke with a chuckle,
"but I think the biggest barrier really is just getting into F1. There are
so few seats, and so many drivers competing for them, that it's hard just to
get the chance. It's definitely easier to score points now than it was when
Lella was racing, we've got points down to tenth now, but first I've got to actually
get onto the grid."
To that end, Brooke and several other drivers are
currently training at an elite racing school set up by her father Conor, at a
private test track near his Perth home. Brooke and fellow pupil Sergio
Cervantes are currently competing in the Formula Renault championship, but the
18-year-old has her sights set on following in her father's illustrious footsteps.
"It's always been F1 for me," she says, when
asked if she would ever consider a different series such as DTM. "Of
course, I'll race elsewhere if I can't get a seat, but F1 has always been the
ultimate goal.
When asked why she feels there have been so few woman in
Formula One, Brooke is reluctant to put it down to just sexism. "There's
certainly a few guys out there who think, 'Oh, women can't drive', or 'I don't
wanna be beaten by a girl', but it's definitely not as bad as it may have been
when, say, Lombardi or Desiré Wilson [winner of a non-championship F1 race in
1980] were driving. I think maybe also, team owners will look at the track
record of women in F1, which isn't that stellar, and think, 'Well, she's not gonna
be much different, is she?'
As I talk to her, Brooke displays a wisdom beyond her
years, and a boundless passion for racing. Despite having inherited the looks
of her mother, supermodel Christina Bianchi, Brooke has chosen to walk her
father's career path, one that's arguably even more hostile to women than the
modelling world. However, Brooke believes that she can perhaps pave the way for
a new generation of female racers.
"I think the biggest problem is that, you know,
there aren't really any female racing icons to draw young girls into racing.
There's Danica [Patrick, IndyCar driver] over in America, and that's it,
really. It's similar to how there weren't many German drivers until [Michael] Schumacher
came along in the 90s, or how there weren't as many Spanish drivers until
[Fernando] Alonso came along. There needs to be a successful woman in the top
level, saying, 'Look, women can do this as well,' and I think that's when we'll
start seeing more women coming into the sport."
Does Brooke think she can be that female icon? "I
sure hope so!" she says. "I don't wanna come into the sport and leave
without making a mark, and I certainly don't want people thinking that I'm only
getting this far because of my surname. If I do get into Formula One, I'd like
to make a name for myself while I'm there."
Changing topics for a moment, I decide to ask Brooke about
her classmates: Cervantes, Heimo Saarinen, and Stefan Dijkstra. Does she think
any of them will ever reach F1? "I don't know," she says with a
shrug. "They're all very good, but they're still learning, still refining
their skills, just as I am. Maybe someday they will, maybe they never will.
They have the potential, though, I think."
Brooke will have to go some way to emulate the success of
her father, who won the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix for Tyrrell, and finished on
the podium twenty-three times during his nine-year spell in F1. But in terms of
becoming the most successful woman in the sport's history, as she aims to
become, she's definitely in with a good chance.
No comments:
Post a Comment