How Formula Woman is helping find female racing stars

Growing up with motorsport around me, I was always going to get involved in some way! My dad did road rallying and hillclimbing so it’s always been in the family and I was taken down to Mallory Park and Donington Park as a child.

I started off as a grid girl for a GT team and then moved into getting my hands dirty after races if I was needed, using my very small experience of tinkering with cars at home. I was then given the opportunity to do a couple of test days as a number two mechanic and it blossomed from there.

Since then, I’ve been fortunate enough to travel around Europe and the world as a mechanic. The last couple of seasons I’ve mainly been in GT Cup, GT World Challenge and British GT, but I’ve also done European Rallycross, working with ex-Formula 1 driver Perry McCarthy – and that was really good fun.

You see these motorsport scholarships pop up and they’re often for people with karting experience or racing experience. But, with Formula Woman, you can’t have raced beforehand. When I heard about it, I thought that’s possibly the only opportunity I’m going to get to have a shot at racing myself. When someone turns around and gives you the opportunity to race a McLaren, you’re not going to say no!

Initial Formula Woman assessments were carried out at various UK circuits

Photo by: Vauxhall / Formula Woman

We had the initial assessments and mine was at Bedford Autodrome. We did a little bit of karting and went out in an electric car to show our consistency with laps. We were also being assessed in front of the camera to see how we got on and we did some fitness tests. Over 800 people took part in those initial assessments and it’s been whittled down to 50 semi-finalists, so the pressure’s on!

The semi-finals are on the 2-3 March and will feature some karting and time on the simulators, along with some reaction tests. I’ve been doing as much preparation as I can – I work nights and have been going on the sim before my shifts. If you’re fortunate enough to get through those first two days, the next stage on 4 March is at Croft for 15 people. Only 10 go through from Croft into the final in Europe and there are four seats and two reserves in two McLarens in the GT Cup up for grabs.

There’s the potential to find a hidden gem with this competition and there are girls who haven’t had the funding or awareness of what you can do with that talent

The women taking part have come from all sorts of careers. There are some from the industry, but there are also many people who are brand-new to automotive, motorsport and racing. It’s really cool to have that wide range of backgrounds and see people opening their eyes, and they’re all people who’ve never had the opportunity to race before. You could have someone from hairdressing who happens to be extremely talented at driving, so it’s really exciting for the future.

Motorsport is a male-dominated environment and women don’t necessarily have the same chances to get on the grid. Graeme Glew’s Formula Woman initiative is giving us that opportunity. I think it’s a fantastic idea to give us that support to help us on our way.

People from a diverse range of backgrounds entered Formula Woman competition

Photo by: Vauxhall / Formula Woman

But Formula Woman is not just promoting the racing. Not many people from outside understand how much is involved in motorsport. There are so many different roles – you’ve got engineers and mechanics, the media, hospitality. You might have someone who loves social media but they didn’t realise that’s something you can do in this industry. Formula Woman opens up their eyes and there’s a lot more awareness of the options out there.

I’m a very competitive person but, if the semi-finals don’t go 100% to plan, it’s been a very good experience. From those people who hadn’t been involved in motorsport previously, I’m seeing girls who have gone out and bought track cars and are doing trackdays – and they had never driven on a circuit before.

I think it’s fantastic for motorsport in general. There’s the potential to find a hidden gem with this competition and there are girls who haven’t had the funding or awareness of what you can do with that talent. There’s so much potential for Formula Woman to be an ongoing competition in future years and it would be great if it can continue supporting people.

The prize is amazing! Working in those paddocks, you see people fighting to find the sponsorship just to do a couple of rounds. To have the opportunity of a fully funded season in a GT4 McLaren in the GT Cup, a series that has grown massively, is very exciting. But it adds to the pressure. I’ve been working in the GT Cup for the past two seasons and that’s been on a GT4 McLaren. To have the opportunity of going from being the person sending the car out before qualifying, to then be the person behind the wheel, you can’t really comprehend it. It’s incredible – and that’s the dream.

Jones is hoping to go from helping to run GT4 McLaren to getting behind the wheel