Lorena Lobo
In light of the beginning of the Formula 1 2022 season, and the premiere of the new Netflix series Drive to Survive, talkSPORT held an exclusive interview with RedBull Racing Principal, Christian Horner. During his conversation with Laura Woods, Horner explained that more young girls are watching F1 “because of all these great-looking young drivers.”
Almost instantly, Woods questioned Horner’s comment, and asked if girls are into the sport only because of the drivers. Horner immediately back-pedalled, and stated that more girls are rather getting involved in the sport due to their increasing presence in the fields of engineering, management, and so on.
Horner And Sexism
Seeing someone as influential as Horner making such sexist comments about the origin of the female interest in the sport is highly problematic. For me, his words make it clear that the age-old notion that women can’t possibly be interested in sport is still alive.
The fact that a man in a powerful position would state that women are creating, sharing, and consuming sports content only because of the “great-looking young drivers” sounds unrealistic.
It is more real than we can think of. And Horner’s response is clear evidence of that.
Women In F1
If we take a quick glance, it is clear that there are not many women working on the paddock. If we look very carefully, we will only find a small number of them working in the press room, or at the teams’ box. None of them are driving and competing for a world championship title.
But why is this? It is because F1 is still controlled by men.
These men in question cannot stand seeing young girls being invested in the sport. They cannot comprehend the possibility that, one day, these young girls will replace them.
“We can see that women are fed up with men determining what they can like, and what they can not.”
The Reactions
Despite the fact that Horner tried to explain himself more than once, the F1 female community did not let it pass. They came together through social media to express their opinions on his comments. The reactions were thrown like fire, which has ultimately led Horner into a hole.
drivers like lewis hamilton fight to make the sport more inclusive to minorities and women and then you have christian horner saying to the press that young women are interested in a sport just because a few 20 something year old men are attractive. you couldn’t write it.
— bi ☀️ (@biazzarro) February 22, 2022
With a sheer array of unsatisfied and angry comments, it has become evident that this new generation of young girls are prepared to fight their corner. We can see that women are fed up with men determining what they are allowed to like, and what they aren’t.
As a user on Reddit said: “Female fans can have just as much passion, knowledge and interest in the sport like everyone else, and we want to enjoy and be a part of it without having to “prove” ourselves or be accused of only drooling over a couple of good-looking men.”
“There are tons of young fans, engineers, journalists, drivers, and so on waiting to be respected.”
Yet, it is not going to be an easy fight. Unfortunately, there are still a lot of Christian Horner’s out there.
The Future Of F1
There is a long road ahead, but women already have powerful voices on their side who will be able to change these thoughts.
The seven-time world championship winner, Lewis Hamilton, stated during a press conference in the pre-season testing in Barcelona that he looks forward to seeing more female representatives in the sport: “I want to see more women in the stewards’ room. I don’t think we have many, I think last year it was maybe one or two.”
And standing beside Hamilton, there is a whole community waiting to be accepted. There are tons of young fans, engineers, journalists, drivers, and so on waiting to be respected and not questioned all of the time.
It is vital that we acknowledge the positive, growing interest that female fans have for F1; it is a sign that the sport it heading in the right direction. Moreover though, it is more important to understand that women are going to be as present as men in F1 going forward.
Featured Image courtesy of Hanson Lu on Unsplash . Image licence found here. No changes were made to this image.
