Motorsport has no gender: redefining Women’s roles on and off the track
- Maya Czarzasty-Zybert
- Jun 23
- 3 min read
Picture the crack of dawn at a racetrack. The smell of fuel mingles with moist air; engines are
idling, ready to roar. Yet it’s not just men preparing for glory—women in racing suits,
engineers with laptops, strategists behind pit walls—all ready to make their mark. Motorsport
is speaking a new language now: the language of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
From forgotten pioneers to visible leaders
History remembers Camille du Gast, Maria Teresa de Filippis, and Michèle Mouton, yet
their legacies were often isolated—exceptions, not system changers.
Today, women like Abbi Pulling and Jamie Chadwick—drivers shaped by programs like F1
Academy and W Series—take center stage, defining paths without waiting for invitations.
Racing Women: community, training, opportunity
Racing Women is a global movement, born from two decades of empowering women in
motorsport. It built on the early-2000s Formula Woman initiative by Graeme Glew, and since
its 2004 inception has evolved into a robust network connecting thousands of women worldwide.
Mission: Inspire, support, and develop the next generation of female motorsport champions.
Programs: On-track training, boot camps, competitive modules aimed at bridging access gaps in a sport where a single season can cost £100k–£1m
Values: Determination, excellence, responsibility.
Racing Women isn’t just about drivers—it’s about engineers, data analysts, team leaders. Its
community fosters mentorship, professional growth, and opportunity, helping women tackle
the sport’s financial and structural barriers.
Carol Glenn: breaking barriers on and off Track
Meet Carol Glenn—Britain’s first Black, licensed race official and first Black woman to
launch a national race team: Next Generation Racing. Her journey from volunteer marshal
37 years ago to FIA Girls on Track Ambassador and team founder is nothing short of historic.
Featured in the documentary “Set Pace” by TNT: an inspiring story of resilience and trailblazing identity.
In April 2025, she assembled the most diverse race team in UK motorsport history—15 people from different backgrounds working together and finishing on the podium.
As Motorsport UK and FIA “Girls on Track” ambassador, she’s mentoring the next generation and stressing visibility: “I like to send the elevator down and bring up more people”.
Carol’s story is a blueprint: the sport isn’t asking if women belong—it’s building systems
where they will.
Beyond the cockpit: intelligence, data and innovation
Kinetic moments on track are matched off-track by strategic insights and tech breakthroughs.
Engineers like Hannah Schmitz lead race-day tactics at Red Bull; data analysts optimize lap
times; AI and telemetry training tools ensure merit, not gender, leads.
Quality decisions, not gender, drive performance—and women are driving those decisions.
Redefining roles: from “Female Driver” to Just Driver
Motorsport is asking new questions now:
How do you design a system that finds and nurtures talent, regardless of who they are?
Can we shift from “female driver” to simply driver, or from “woman engineer” to technical expert?
Racing Women, Carol Glenn and Hannah Schmitz are bringing these questions into
concrete actions—training, teams, and outreach. Motorsport is evolving into an ecosystem
where who you are is less important than what you bring.
The future lap is ours
Imagine a championship defined by skill, not gender. A paddock where leaders, engineers,
strategists, and drivers come from diverse backgrounds—not because it's trendy, but because it’s smart. Inclusive programs like Racing Women and inspiring figures like Carol Glenn lay the groundwork.
Motorsport has no gender. It speaks talent, intelligence, courage, and vision.
The grid is opening up—so let’s race.
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