ANDhe Williams boss, James Vowles, who chose this year to be a mouse head with a lion’s tail at Mercedes, has referred on the eve of the Canadian Grand Prix to the mistakes and difficulties in getting a woman to land in Formula 1 .
Especially now that Jamie Chadwick, winner of the Women Series and reserve driver for her own team, is directing her steps towards the United States, where some women already compete regularly. In F1, Lella Lombardi remains the only woman to score points in the 1970s, and since then little more than Susie Wolff doing free practice at the 2014 British Grand Prix.
For Vowles, it’s not a lack of talent but a lack of investment and focus as a child. “Jamie was the most successful driver in the Women Series, there’s no question about that. We had discussions with her and now she’s making a career in IndyCar. It’s sensible to focus on that for now. To diverge and put her back on an F1 track is pointless, she is now on one that can lead to great success and she is doing well“, he assures.
Susie Wolff herself, wife of Toto, head of Mercedes, and now in charge of the F1 Academy, a women’s competition that has replaced the Women Series and in which Marta Garcia leads with an iron handrecognizes that 45,000 young girls attend go-karting sessions each year but only a small percentage advance. “And that’s because of the lack of role models – if you can’t see it, you can’t believe it. I think there’s a belief that motorsport is still a pretty male-dominated environment that we really need to break, and we also need to create the opportunities.” . For this they are going to work from karting in promoting women.
For Vowles, that will take time. “We are actually years away from being successful. Part of that is that the investment was not made at the right level or in the right age group,” he added.
DECADES DELAY AT WILLIAMS
Of course, Vowles also distributes for home without problems, ensuring that the team is 20 years out of date in some elements.
“There are some items that are about twenty years old, which makes sense if you think about the history of this squire, but the investment he had was zero during that time and then the company that bought the equipment appeared. Fundamentally, we are in a situation where much has been preserved almost the same as it was twenty years ago. That is what is happening. The vision of what excellence is is completely different from what it really is today, and you have to move things forward. Internally, a lot of the work I’ve asked them to do has been compared to doing three years of development in six months. Yes, but that’s the standard, in fact, the current standard is higher than that,” he adds.
