Why is it taking so long for motorsport to embrace women racers?

The truth is, until recently you were more likely to see a woman standing on the starting grid in a swimsuit than you were to see one in a racing car, things are changing but slowly, writes Mick O’Hare

Sabre Cook looks on during the W Series that will race on F1 weekends to increase exposure (Getty)

When Italian Lella Lombardi brought her Brabham BT44B home in 12th place at the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix she became the last woman to compete in a Formula 1 World Championship race. The championship started its 72nd season on 28 March yet of the 767 drivers who have started a Grand Prix only two of them are women. It’s an astounding statistic. Astounding and embarrassing.

And it’s not just Formula 1; motorsport per se seems to have a problem with female participants. World Championship Rallying and IndyCar racing – North America’s semi-equivalent of Formula 1 – have fared slightly better. Both have seen a single female victor at the highest level, but when you consider that all three championships have been running for decades it’s a paltry return.

Elsewhere it’s a mixed, but not plentiful, bag. A more encouraging statistic perhaps is that 61 women have started the prestigious Le Mans 24 Hour Race (among thousands of men). Yet even a more modern racing series such as the all-electric Formula E has seen only three women start a race. The truth is, until recently you were more likely to see a woman standing on the starting grid in a swimsuit than you were to see one in a racing car. Only five years ago ex-Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone was still saying women could not be taken seriously in Grand Prix racing.