Alice Powell is increasingly becoming a household name having come to the forefront of motorsport due to her involvement in W Series, the all female racing championship.
In an exclusive interview with F1 Lights Out, Alice opened up about her journey into motorsports and how W Series has changed her life. Speaking at Goodwood Festival of Speed surrounded by an electric atmosphere, Alice was in her element. As we delved into her introduction into the world of motorsport, she admitted that it began as it does with many, being introduced by her parents, "I think my parents stuck me in front of a TV once, and motorsport was on, and from then on I was mesmerised and I just stopped bothering them."
Whilst Alice was growing up, Michael Schumacher was already at the forefront of Formula One. Like millions of others Alice was, and still is, captivated by the World Champion, "I was a huge Michael Schumacher fan. Everything I wore that was racing related had to be either Ferrari or red. When I went to Silverstone when I was a little girl I had a Schumacher flag and a Ferrari hat. Both of which I still have to this day."
At just eight years old Alice went karting for the first time, and since then has continued to pursue racing as a career. "I've always wanted to be a racing driver. At a younger age you always aspire to be lots of different things, whether it be an astronaut or a racing driver, those sorts of crazy ideas. But once you get older, you understand that it takes a lot of money, time and effort from everyone involved."
Alice was frank and open about the struggles of pursuing racing as a career, "I had a period of time, four or five years, where I wasn't doing any racing... We had long nights trying to find sponsorship and digging out money here, there and everywhere to try and go racing." The financial struggles that go hand in hand with racing meant a full-time racing career for Alice was simply not feasible.
Despite not having been able to pursue her dreams of racing full time, Alice views her time working alongside her tradesman father, Tony, as one which has shaped her for the better. "Having that time out has made me not so closed minded in terms of which direction I wanted to go in. For a lot of younger drivers they only want to get to Formula One, but there are so few that actually get there.
"It can be harder to explain to younger drivers, but at a certain age they start to realise that there are some other fantastic series, not just Formula One. I was so set on trying to get to Formula One that maybe I didn't go for some opportunities that I should have gone for."
Alice's financial struggles are ones which are faced by many racers, especially female racers. In October 2018, W Series was launched with the aim to provide equal opportunities for women, and alleviate the financial pressures of racing by becoming the first free-to-enter championship.
At the time, W Series split opinions on whether women should be segregated from men, when racing is one of the only sports where the physical differences between men and women are less important. However, for Alice, W Series allowed her to reignite her passion for racing, "It probably sounds a bit strange but I just found it as a way to get back out racing. It is a fully funded championship so I don't have to bring any money to the table. For me I could get back into racing and create some more opportunities.
"I understand why some people didn't love it initially. But I am a person who always tries to listen to both sides of the story. The reality is it opened the doors up for a lot of us to progress and have different roles in the sport. Obviously W Series is segregated, but that is only to create more opportunities for women."
The Bristol Street Motors driver is also a key member of Alpine F1 Team, heading up their young driver academy as their Talent Identification and Development Mentor. In this role Alice scouts young female talent and mentors them.
This year Alice is mentoring fellow W Series driver Abbi Pulling, when asked whether she felt there might be a conflict of interest Alice simply laughed stating, "I haven't been working with her for too long, but she's already developed really well. I'm going to treat her like any other competitor on track. We both had a chat before the start of the season and said we have a lot of respect for each other, and we're going to try and treat each other the same. But equally when we're on track why should we have to be nice to each other."
Images: Instagram @alicepowellracing
Alice is now in her third season of W Series, having been there since the inaugural series in 2019 (the 2020 season was cancelled due to the pandemic). Since then, W Series has grown from a UK based championship to one which now travels the globe as one of Formula One's support series, as well as gaining auspicious broadcasting deals with both Sky Sports and Channel 4.
But Alice admits the series still has a long way to go in order to achieve its goals, "Having a female move on and have success elsewhere is really important for W Series. I think we need someone like Abbi (Pulling) to eventually move on and go to Formula 3 and hopefully to Formula 1. That will really show that the series has been successful and has helped women move up the ranks, and achieve a goal of getting to the pinnacle."
When asked if Formula One was an achievable goal, the twenty nine year old said, "I would still love to be able to get to F1 one day, but I think at my age keeping my options open is really important."
Formula One last saw a female competitor more than forty five years ago, when Lella Lombardi finished 12th at the Austrian Grand Prix in 1976. Since then, the female on track presence has been next to none. Susie Wolff was the last woman to take part in an F1 race weekend in 2014, when she drove for Williams in the first free practice session at the British Grand Prix.
"I would love to see a female in Formula One in my life time," Alice said, "But I think it is really important that whoever that female may be should really be there on merit, representation is there to be deserved. So not just putting someone there just because they're a female. The talent is out there, it's just about nurturing it now."
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