Former Williams boss Claire Williams questions why no women lead F1 teams today, despite growing support for women in motorsport leadership roles.
Claire Williams laments the fact that there is currently no woman leading a Formula 1 team. The former Williams F1 team principal held her position at the same time Monisha Kaltenborn was heading Sauber, but since then, only men have filled such roles.
“It’s not a matter of saying there aren’t women capable of running a Formula 1 team — and if I can run a Formula 1 team, anyone can, honestly. I don’t understand,” questions Claire Williams on the Beyond the Grid podcast.
“When I get asked that question — and I do — I keep going to talk to students, and they ask me: why? I don’t have an answer, because I am absolutely convinced there are women who are perfectly capable. I don’t know what it is, but I think it’s a shame.”
“Because, even though there is all this brilliant work being done to promote female drivers, I would love to see another female team principal. And I think it’s really important. You turn on the television and you still see a sport that is very male-dominated, because the team principals, the drivers — they are all men.”
The Briton nevertheless hopes that the growing interest in Formula 1 will lead to more women in the sport: “There has been a huge amount of work over the last 10 to 15 years in this space, and you will only see the repercussions and the reward of that hard work in a generation.”
“This kind of thing is not the work of a moment. It takes a long time for things to change, because you need a critical mass at the grassroots level for that change to happen.”
“And that’s not there yet. I still don’t see a lot of five- or six-year-old girls, and I’ve got a seven-year-old son, so I know that the girls in his cohort aren’t asking their parents to go karting on a Saturday afternoon, whereas the boys might be.”
“What I do see, though — and that’s great — is that a lot more teenage girls are falling in love with Formula 1. Therefore, whatever this generation is, those 15- to 16-year-old girls, you might see them moving into more business-type administrative roles and therefore into team principal roles later on.”