Christian Horner has been part of the Formula One industry for a long time. He joined Red Bull Racing as the team principal back in 2005. Since then, it has been almost twenty years. His team has gained the status of a powerhouse, and the Boss has become one of the most successful F1 team principals of all time. But even Horner knows that for so long, there has been a lack of diversity in F1 Motorsport.
Even today, Lewis Hamilton is the only colored driver on the grid. There is no female racer available as a main driver of a team. Why is that? If Formula One is the pinnacle of racing tournaments, then why is there no diversity and equality?
Christian Horner Feels Gender Equality In F1 Was Inevitable
According to Red Bull boss Christian Horner, it was just a matter of time before F1 would have gender equality. There was speculation floating around that soon, a team with an equal number of male and female drivers would come in Formula One. Craig Pollock, the founder and former team principal of a former racing team called British American Racing, spoke to CNN about his wish to start “Formula Equal” in 2025 or 2026. The idea is to have a 50% split between male and female members in the team from the boardroom to the cockpit. Pollock mentioned that he had expressed his desire to FIA, the governing body as well about possibly an eleventh team in F1 Motorsport. Regarding this idea, the Red Bull boss mentioned, “it was inevitable and great for the sport.”
Christian Horner noted that it is great to see the tremendous amount of interest from women to join F1 at different levels of the sport. Horner feels that Formula One is gaining interest across the world among men and women. Women are showing interest in joining F1 teams in the engineering department as well as the other aspects of the group. He feels that it will happen eventually in a natural process. The Red Bull boss thinks that it is all about the sport getting more and more accessible. According to him, “that is what we have been looking forward to doing all along. We want the sport to get more accessible.”
Funding For Introducing The New Team Is The First Big Step
Meanwhile, Craig Pollock reckoned that he was in talks with a Gulf-Area-based country for funding the idea. Anyway, Formula One teams are very expensive organizations. Hence, introducing a new team in 2025 or the next year will probably cost even more. Otmar Szafnauer, the team principal of the Alpine F1 team, also mentioned that everybody in Formula One is open to gender equality.
The Alpine boss proceeded to say, “diversity is essential for everybody here. Albeit, I don’t know much about Formula Equal other than the little I’ve read about them.” Formula One currently has a few female employees in the factories and the engineering team. But no driver yet. At least as a top driver of a team. It is high time to see female drivers in the F1 grid.