Women no longer just “adorn” the world of Formula 1
Julie Tomlin
WVoN co-editor
As with most male-dominated sports, few women get to compete, but the growing numbers who have made inroads into Formula 1 are held up as a sign of change.
Alongside Monisha Kaltenborn, who became the sport’s first female managing director when she was appointed by Sauber in January last year, there are more women working as engineers and mechanics.
Now, among the ranks of the 20 or so women and 200 men reporting the races is Natalie Pinkham, who took her place as Formula 1 pit-lane reporter for BBC’s Five Live at the Australian Grand Prix in March this year.
A sports enthusiast who is a particular fan of football, tennis, rugby and athletics, Pinkham began her TV presenting career on the Poker Channel, another male-dominated world.
“It was a good place to learn to be tenacious, fight your corner and stick up for yourself,” says Pinkham, who went on to present other sports, including tennis, athletics and football, including a season working on the football highlights and general discussion show, David Beckham Soccer USA.
But is the presence of women in the world of Formula 1 a sign that the elite world of motor racing is changing?
After three seasons as a Formula 1 TV reporter Beverley Turner concluded in 2004 that far from being “cutting edge”, the ideologies it promoted were from the “Dark Ages”.
“In F1 “men do” and “women adorn”. Being attractive is a prerequisite to gaining acceptance and the yardstick by which all women are judged,” she wrote.
Fresh back from the Singapore Grand Prix, Pinkham responds that the world of Formula 1 is “constantly evolving” and seven years on she has found it “surprisingly forward thinking:
“There are no neanderthals, let’s put it that way, she adds. “I can’t comment on Bev’s experience, but mine has been a steep and fascinating learning curve about the sport and the culture and politics that surround it.
“I haven’t been exposed to any greater level of sexism than in any other walk of life.
“Sauber has a female MD, which is awesome. Monisha Kaltenborn is a fantastic woman, so whenever I see her in the paddock I always try and pick her brains about how she got to where she did. She’s a clever woman who is very passionate about motor sport.”
Pinkham also expresses concern that Turner’s comments might put other women off entering the world of Formula 1:
“The danger is that it will alienate more women from the sport rather than encouraging them that the door is in fact open – more women need to back themselves and come knocking,” she says.
Pinkham adds that there will be more roles for female journalists as more female drivers enter Formula 1 because viewers and listeners prefer hearing from people who have had hands on experience:
“Talking to some of my male colleagues in the media centre they recognise the significance of promoting more female drivers, and would welcome with open arms a woman getting on the grid,” says Pinkham, who says that she has felt welcomed into the world of Formula 1 and has received a lot of help and encouragement.
Like many other women in the sport, however, she works very hard at proving that she knows her subject and is not there as “token totty”:
“I think a lot of women try very hard to assert themselves and I know that I’ve been guilty of it,” she says.
“They feel they have to prove their worth and show that they do know what they are talking about. In a way it’s good motivation, because you work harder, you have to do your research and leave no stone unturned.”
Pinkham, who started her career as a BBC runner and worked on Ready Steady Cook!, has been told by friends and listeners that they want her to try and get into the hearts and minds of the drivers and try to understand what makes them tick:
“I think that it’s an important part of the job to try and understand what makes a driver tick because when they have their helmets on you can’t see the emotion in the way you can say in rugby or athletics, the most you see is them punch the air as they cross the finishing line.
“I’m generalising, because of course men can do this too, but women can empathise and that human approach rather than a technical one is an important aspect of the sport.”
She did her first Grand Prix for the BBC in Australia when she was fresh from a visit to an orphanage in Slatina in Romania while at Nottingham University.
She had returned there ten years later with Channel 5 to film a documentary about her search for one of the girls she remembered from her time there.
The contrast between Formula 1 and the underground world of Bucharest where many orphaned children are living in sewers and are prey to pimps and sex traffickers couldn’t have been greater, said Pinkham.
“I walked into the paddock and thought ‘this is insane’ – I found it quite tough to go from the sewers of Bucharest to the paddock, where there are so many billionaires.
“I started chatting to this bloke from Pirelli who said something about his factory producing tyres in Slatina.
“I told him what I’d been doing there and that I wanted to go back and build an orphanage for some of the kids we found and he said, ‘Alright, Pirelli will pay for it’.
“I realised then that if nothing else comes out from my time at Formula 1, it would have been worth it.”
Having spent over 10 years working in motorsport (BTCC, British Superbikes, World Superbikes, MotoGP and WRC)as a TV producer I think it’s fair to say it’s still very much a man’s world and the majority of women are either there as PR’s or working in hospitality. Suzi Perry did an amazing job in MotoGP and certainly was the first woman I know to front a high profile motorsport series. The work done by her and others like Bev pioneered the way but women in the business of motorsport or working as engineers and mechanics are still hugely in the minority. My experience was that once you got in the paddock you had to prove you knew your stuff then once that was established you got the respect. I wonder if it would be easier if you were a man? And there are still those, as there are in other walks of life, who do see a woman’s place as elsewhere and ‘indulge’ you. I am delighted to hear it’s changing but there is still a very long way to go.