Throughout DirtFish Women’s Month we’ve asked plenty of our interviewees to share some of their experiences as women in this fabulous sport of ours, and plenty of them have been more than happy to offload some pearls of wisdom too.
And that couldn’t be truer of some of Extreme E’s leading female racers, who shared their advice to the next generation with DirtFish’s Dominik Wilde in Saudi Arabia.
If you’re a female reader and are dreaming of a career in motorsport, pull out a notepad and start taking some notes!
Here’s what the pros want to tell you:
Emma Gilmour
“Stick at it! I mean it’s the most rewarding sport and it’s the most heartbreaking sport, and it can be split seconds apart from one to the other. But for me I guess I’ve been at it long enough now that I focus on the journey of it and I absolutely love driving and you can’t get that buzz elsewhere.
“You’ve just got to have that persistence and tenacity and be able to go with the disappointments because motorsport will break your heart many, many times over.”
Jutta Kleinschmidt
“I think if you have a dream, go for it. This is what I did and this is the most important. I have no family who paid my entry and I had to find other solutions myself and it’s possible, especially in cross country.
“That’s why if you have a dream go for it.”
Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky
“The thing is just try, I would say. It sounds silly but in the end just head out there, if you want to make contact with a team just write to them because the worst thing you can get is either a no or no answer, but at least then you’ve tried.
“So just head out there and try, and trust me there are a lot of people that are really promoting females to come into motorsport so I think you will be surprised at the support you will get.”
Laia Sanz
“I think if you have a dream and you work hard you can reach amazing things. I could never imagine [that I would be here] when I was a kid watching TV, [usually] Dakar because I had a big passion since I have memory.
“And then I was fighting against some of the guys I saw on the TV so if you really have a passion for something and you work hard, you can really achieve big things.”
Molly Taylor
“It’s not easy, it’s not an easy sport so I think it’s about really enjoying what you do and going out there to do the best you can, making sure you’re having fun along the way and appreciating that motorsport has a lot of highs and a lot of lows but it’s such a fantastic environment with fantastic people.
“From my experience people respond to the person you are and the job you’re doing, not necessarily your gender, so I think that’s the most important thing: just be you, do what you do and you’ll get respect from that.”
