Last week’s Safari Rally Kenya was a landmark event for the FIA, with an all-women panel of stewards for the third round of the 2025 World Rally Championship.
Working hand-in-hand with the governing body to further inclusivity and diversity, 31% of the organizing team for the Naivasha-based event were female – 6% more than last year.
Tanja Geilhausen chaired the stewards. The German woman has moved across from competing as a co-driver from 1996 to 2019 to officiate. Project manager at ADAC, one of Germany’s leading automobile associations, Geilhausen has worked as event secretary at Rallye Deutschland and the Central European Rally. Stewarding since 2022, she chaired at the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally and was international steward at the F1 season-opening Australian Grand Prix earlier this month.
Italian Alice Scutellà began working on events as a volunteer marshal in 2020 before moving through the ranks in the Italian Rally Championship to join Rally Italia Sardegna as ASN steward. She has worked as an FIA steward at CER and in the European Rally Championship. Like Geilhausen, she brought experience from outside of rallying – she is the permanent steward for the Lamborghini Championship, but has also worked in FIA Formula 3 and Formula E.
Tuta Mionki filled the role as Kenya’s ASN Steward. A trailblazer in Kenyan motorsport, she was the country’s first female rally co-driver in the Kenya Motorsport Premier Class and has competed in national and international events since 2012. Mionki has plenty of rally titles to her name as a co-driver, and was named Kenya Motor Sports Personality of the Year in 2018. Her expertise in regulations and governance is furthered her graduation from the FIA’s High Performance Programme.
Yvonne Gilli is somebody who needs no introduction at rallying’s highest level. Continuing her long-standing role as secretary to the stewards, Kenya was Gilli’s 368th WRC event attendance. She brings decades’ of experience to a role pivotal in ensuring the smooth running of rallies around the world.
