LONDON : Formula E hopes to have female drivers competing at championship level within the next two to three years as the all-electric series prepares to significantly expand its programme for women, chief executive Jeff Dodds said on Friday.
Speaking ahead of the season-ending races at London’s ExCel convention centre, Dodds said Formula E would soon announce a major investment aimed at creating more opportunities for female drivers.
“We have a hypothesis which is that men and women can compete equally in motorsport but the conditions definitely are not equal for both to compete alongside each other,” Dodds told reporters.
Formula E has featured three female drivers since its launch in 2014, most recently Switzerland’s Simona de Silvestro in 2016. Formula One, by comparison, has had only two women start races in its 76-year history.
For the past two years, Formula E has staged a women’s test allowing female drivers to experience its cars under conditions similar to those faced by competitors.
“We will announce shortly a massive expansion to that programme,” Dodds said.
“Whereas that’s been focused around women testing, we will announce a much bigger programme to try and create even more opportunities for women to get in those cars and close the gap.
“Our ambition will be within the next two to three years that we see women competing at the championship level alongside the elite male racing drivers you see on the grid here.”
Dodds said the initiative would require greater involvement from Formula E teams, most of which already have female drivers in their development programmes.
“We’re going to ask them to take an even bigger step into next season with those drivers and I’m delighted to say that they’re responding really favourably to that and it’s something they want to do,” he said.
“We’ll announce it shortly but it will be a big investment.”
The London races will also mark the end of Formula E’s current era before the introduction of its lighter and faster Gen4 car.
Dodds said the new technology would represent a major step forward for the championship.
“We think this is an inflection point for us,” he said. “It’s a massive moment for growth for us as we go through this period.”
