Young female drivers take aim at F1's male monopoly
No woman has raced in Formula One for nearly half a century but a group of 13 and 14-year-old female racers are making their first moves on a long road that could lead to the top. - REUTERS
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00:00 These teenage female drivers are taking on Formula One.
00:05 No woman has raced in the motorsport for nearly half a century.
00:11 But these 13 and 14-year-olds all share one dream,
00:15 to become the first female F1 world champion.
00:18 The number one aim is Formula One, of course.
00:23 This is Yvonne Simianova.
00:25 She's part of a female racing development program called More Than Equal,
00:29 an initiative co-founded by former racer David Coulthard.
00:33 The idea is to give female drivers equal opportunity.
00:37 I think we need more girls in Formula One and in motorsport
00:41 because we are all equal and I mean we should get the same chances.
00:48 At this training and assessment camp, there are half a dozen trainees.
00:52 Four from Europe, one from Australia and one from Malaysia.
00:57 British talent Sky Parker says the teens are starting from scratch.
01:01 So on the first day we learned how to actually drive the car
01:05 because a lot of us have never done that before.
01:07 And on the second day, which is today, we learned how to drift
01:11 as usually when I attempted drifting, I would just slide and spin.
01:15 But this time I learned how to control it.
01:20 British driving coach Sarah Morris says there are a lot of misconceptions
01:23 about women in the sport.
01:25 She used to race in the now defunct All Female W Series
01:29 and says one of the biggest skills the young female drivers need to learn
01:32 is not physical, it's mental.
01:34 I think one of the biggest things you have to deal with as a girl,
01:37 especially coming up through karting and as you progress into cars,
01:42 is the comments that you receive around the paddock on social media.
01:46 I think that's one thing that as a female I've had to learn to deal with
01:49 or more so learn to ignore.
01:53 The last woman to race in Formula One was Italy's Lella Lombardi in 1976.
02:00 The sport now has its own All Female F1 Academy support series
02:04 led by former racer Susie Wolfe.
02:07 Just as those drivers could be seen as potential role models,
02:11 Slovakian driver Laura Bubinova says she hopes she can serve as one in the future.
02:16 I'd like to be viewed as a role model for them in the future.
02:20 I'd like to establish myself as a very good driver,
02:24 not as I get to Formula One because I'm a woman,
02:27 but I'm there because I'm talented, I'm good enough to do this
02:30 and I do it because I love it.
02:32 (whooshing)