The former F1 engineer is turning his attention to helping motorsport become a more diverse environment, but says there’s still a long way to go
ROB SMEDLEY
Since leaving Formula 1, I’ve been able to devote more energy to my passion for broadening participation in motorsport. The penny is dropping: as a community, we’re recognising that we have to do things that are genuine and impactful. But are we doing enough? Absolutely not. We’re not doing anywhere near enough.
I always say that if you’re going to make fundamental change in anything, it has to become part of the fabric of what you’re doing. Like environmental sustainability – you can’t behave recklessly for most of the week and just do some green stuff on a Friday afternoon. It doesn’t work. It has to be part of the fabric, culture and targets of your business. And it’s the same with increasing participation in motorsport.
I launched Global Karting League as a way of democratising motorsport by minimising the financial barriers to entry. We’re trying to take away as much cost as we possibly can from the entry levels of motorsport. But to address under-representation of different communities – whether that’s socio-economic, gender or ethnicity – we need to do more than that, and there’s no one silver bullet that will talk to every single demographic.
Every community has to feel that this is a safe and welcoming space. Some of it is practical things, like where does a girl go to get changed when they go karting? It’s not uncommon for young guys to get stripped off in the car park, put their overalls on and they’re ready to race. I’ve also heard absolute horror stories, like being told: ‘You shouldn’t be here, this is a sport for boys.’ As a community, we need to be calling that out.
We’re doing a huge amount of work within Global Karting League on female participation and representation, and we’re also helping More Than Equal, which is a great initiative. It’s right in our wheelhouse because it’s very data-driven. If you’ve got the first-principle understanding, you can put in place solutions that address those issues. Our efforts are already showing results, with our GKL:UK 2024 competition boasting double the female drivers, compared to the national average seen in other grassroots karting competitions. However, we need to fundamentally increase participation across the board. It is a mathematically sound hypothesis that, if there’s 10% female participation across the whole of motorsport, which is roug
