Formula Woman
A major initiative undertaken in Britain in 2003 is slowly changing the face of motorsport in that country.”Formula Woman“, launched at the Autosport International Show in Birmingham was a female-only one make racing series started in 2004 in the UK. It was Graeme Glew, an industry consultant involved in racing team management and in Formula One who conceived and created this idea.
Lack of female drivers in other racing series was one of the reasons why this concept was introduced .Its main objectives were to provide a suitable platform for women to compete against each other and to boost the female audience of the sport.
Thousands of women apply to join the competition and after a series of tests that are employed to cut down the applicants over several days, only sixteen people eventually get to compete in the race. The qualifying rounds include physical and practical tasks which are synonymous to reality show tasks. The sixteen selected drivers race in the race-tuned versions of Mazda RX-8 over seven rounds around four British racing circuits. In the following year Mazda withdrew their support and from then on the series used mainly Caterham Sevens.
The first season of “Formula Woman” racing officially came to be known as the Privilege Insurance Formula Woman Championship and was held at Brands Hatch, South England, in July 2004. The winning champion was Natasha Firman. Formula Woman is open to women aged 18 or over as on January 1, 2004.They should be holding a full UK driving license but should not be possessing a Motor Sports Association competition license.
Mark Blundell who was a former F1 driving star is a consultant with “Formula Woman” and delighted to be associated with the championship. Sports Minister, Ms. Tessa Jowell, has been quoted saying that, “The common perception of motor racing is often one of `boy with their toys’. `Formula Woman’ challenges that in a very direct way…. By creating this competition to find the woman motor racing champion of tomorrow, `Formula Woman’ has the potential to raise the profile of women in motorsport as a whole.”
To all the female racing aspirants – this is just an initial block to promote a high-profile sporting platform in Motor-Racing for Women.
An initiative is what causes the difference!
Tags: Autosport International Show, Birmingham, Britain, F1, Formula One, Formula Woman, Motorsport, Women
