eRacing Magazine Vol 2. Issue 7 | Page 118

Lucas Di Grassi recently took to Twitter to ask a few questions about whether Formula E should ban grid girls. The gist of his argument was that drivers should be given the option of whether they have a grid boy or grid girl, and concluded with 'no need to ban [grid girls].' It's a nice nod at equalitarian hiring practices.

Di Grassi's opinion is one we've come to expect from drivers. We all saw the flurry of tweets from the WEC drivers who thought posting pictures of them wearing grid girls t-shirts was the best way to protest the series scrapping what it said was an outdated tradition. We've heard Vettel complaining about the pointlessness of grid boys. Di Grassi's not saying anything fresh or new; Ant Davidson is the lone dissenting voice in a chorus of driver support for grid girls. But Di Grassi's angle is at least different enough to be refreshing. He seems to be open to having a conversation about it, which most racers are not.

I think Formula E are unlikely to ban grid girls in the near future. Primarily because the people who run the series likely share a mind-set with the people who run every other motorsport series the world over. Embracing sustainability in racing doesn't change the inherently sexist structure of our society at large, and , on a more micro level, the motorsport community.

Di Grassi asked if it was fair to give girl-racers the choice of having a grid boy rather than a grid girl. Science would say 'no.' I recently spoke to psychobiologist and brain gender expert Daphna Joel about the effects of the motorsport work environment on the psyches of women racers, and she is of the opinion that the industry's attitude towards women racers is affecting their ability to be competitive.

Brain researchers have noticed a phenomenon called 'stereotype threat.' This is when reminding someone that they belong to a demographic that stereotypically performs worse on a test than another group actually makes them perform worse on that test. For example, reminding an American man that he's Caucasian (rather than east-Asian, the demographic who, to the Caucasian-American mind, stereotypically perform better at mathematics and IQ tests) before he does a simple maths test produces a significant drop in his test scores.

Stereotype threat is a regular feature of paddock life for women who race. Susie Wolff has mentioned in interviews how many fewer women's bathrooms there are than men's in motorsport paddocks. The rhetoric most often repeated on social media, in the blogosphere, and in the press regarding female drivers is 'can women really drive race cars?' and this is often backed up by data on road accidents 'proving' that women are stereotypcially worse drivers. Racing grids are littered with grid girls. There are no end to the opportunities race and series organisers have to subliminally remind girl racers of their gender's lack of on-track success.

Di Grassi lobs Grid Girl grenade

With Lucas di Grassi re-igniting the grid girl debate at Battersea, Bridget Schuil looks at the science behind gender roles in motor sport.