Alpine is aiming to get more and more women into motorsport with its ambitious Race(H)er programme. Here's how it will work - and why it is different from other initiatives.
As an F1 team with decent funding and the support of a road car manufacturer, Alpine has the resources with which to back its promise to change attitudes and promote female talent.
“The programme was born at the same time as we had the change to the Alpine brand,” says Alpine Cars vice-president of human resources Claire Mesnier. "At a young age when you choose do I want to go karting, or do I want to go figure skating, or do I want to play volleyball? Not enough of them say I want to go karting," says Szafnauer."And therefore the pool that we're choosing from is small. And if you can get that pool bigger, you're going to get better talent.
There are plenty of theories, for example that body strength plays a role in junior categories where there is no power steering. "We are working with the Brain Institute in Paris on the cognitive side. On the emotional side, we have a PhD joining us, he will work on this emotional aspect. And on the physical side we're working with a doctor of physiotherapy.
"The programme is starting with scouting girls in a few weeks. And the idea is to have four to five girls entering the eight-year programme. And it's a rolling process. It's not just one shot, and let's wait until eight years and see who is going out of the pipeline.programme. So it's the same kind of philosophy. And of course, at every step of the way we will need to adjust, adapt, decide if we go on.
"If we get to talk to more of them, then we get to pick the crop of the engineering graduates. Whereas before, we had just those that are interested in motor racing, and we want to expand that, to make sure that we have more females that understand that there is a great career to be had within motor racing, and then within Alpine.
"I think what we need to do is a couple of things," says Szafnauer."From a high school age, get them interested so that 23% can be 30. And then of those 30, say, get them interested in a career in motorsport, and then you'll be able to pick the best.
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