'Make it the new normal': Formula 1's landscape has changed rapidly. And these are the faces behind that movement

MELBOURNE: This year, International Women's Day lands right in the middle of race week here in Melbourne.

It is a fitting coincidence; the Formula 1 landscape and the gender dynamics of the paddock have shifted drastically over the last decade.

The "boys' club" era of motorsport is fading fast into the rear view mirror.

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Today, women are increasingly visible in garages, broadcast booths, and cockpit seats, driving a movement toward genuine participation.

In 2024, F1 reported that approximately 40 per cent of its global fanbase is now female, a 13 per cent increase since 2017 and this figure is only growing.

That demographic shift is also being mirrored behind the scenes.

As the numbers grow, so does the influence of the women reshaping the industry.

We profiled three of the movers and shakers currently defining the modern paddock, the new faces of the paddock.

When we give, we grow

With this year's theme for International Women's Day being "When we give, we grow," this rings true to each women I interviewed.

Megan Foster has the moniker of Supercars first female CEO with Dick Johnson Racing.

"I've obviously had a pretty extensive career and I'm at the other end of the time frame, but I believe that you have to give back in terms of...I have an obligation to always talk about sending the elevator down," said Foster when she sat down exclusively with Wide World of Sports.

"It's great that I've been lucky enough in other organisations and obviously here being part of the team and the reality is that I'm not here to engineer the cars. I'm not here to drive the cars.

"We have our terrific engineers and our data engineers and all the team that work on the cars. I'm not here to do their job.

"What I'm here to do is basically work with them in terms of 'how do we be better and support those teams to get the very best, not just on the track, but off the track as well?'

"But it's also putting effort into bringing other people through, and particularly women, because we do need to champion other females through and what does that look like?"

Although Foster grew up in the clutches of Australian motorsport, she knows that support includes a specific focus on gender diversity in the boardroom and35% of key management positions in Australia, the "C-suite" in automotive and racing remains a steeper climb.

"Motorsport is part of the fabric of a lot of Australians and that's where I grew up in," she added.

"Since the age of five, I've been going down to Bathurst with (my dad). I think it's part of that DNA and coming from a country yourself, you learn to drive from an early age and riding motorcycles, etc.

"That's not new to me in terms of coming into businesses that, when you sit in a boardroom, you could be the only female in the organisation.

"Even at the upper echelons of boardrooms in Australia, it's getting better. But definitely still a lot more male dominated around that sort of C-suite, especially CEO, CFO roles.

"It is about giving back and making sure that you take that as a serious obligation that, we've got a long way to go, not just in motorsport, but just generally in boardrooms around Australia and in senior management roles.

"Then you can influence better if you have a seat at the table, you have an ability to actually bring that diversity. And we all know that that diversity adds value."

Kicking the lens of 'trailblazer'

Molly Taylor knows what a busy weekend at the Australian Grand Prix looks like.

One of Australia's most well known rally drivers, she's both someone that looks to buck the trailblazer lens but innately understands her role as an important role model to the next generation that yearns for a driver that looks like them.

"It's a good point, because for all the guys in the sport, they're not inherently just called a role model, because everybody's out there and doing their own," Taylor admitted exclusively.

"There's a different lens and I suppose a different responsibility that you're automatically placed with.

"But I think ultimately whether you think you want it or not, we're all so passionate about the sport. I feel like anything I can do to help my sport grow and thrive and for more girls to feel like this is a place where they're welcome or where they can thrive.

"You know, that's a very easy thing for me to want to be part of. I don't look at it and say, no, I didn't ask for this.

"It's more 'this is an opportunity to give back to the sport.'

"I think it would be really hypocritical for me to not want to be involved, looking at the impact that mum had on me. And I was so lucky to have her as a role model.

"My career wouldn't have happened without her."

Mum to Taylor is Coral Taylor, rally co-driver that has won the Australian Rally Championship six times and is seen as one of the most successful co-drivers in Australian history.

"I think it would be hypocritical for me to then not want to extend that forward to people that don't have a mum that's (like) my mum, who's a very unique case.

"It's a very easy decision to want to help grow it. It was always about the job you do.

"And that's what people respect. That's what people respond to. It was never about, 'I want to go out and beat the boys.'

"Especially when you're younger, people come up and they're like 'oh, how does it feel to beat the boys?' Really the wrong attitude and mentality to take, you all want to be there on equal terms.

"But fundamentally, once you take it all away, we all just want to be there in the car and race and nothing else matters."

'We can make this bigger and brighter'

Over in the McLaren garage, the partnership between the reigning constructors champions and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation is a hot topic.

Sustainability is on the mind of everyone in the paddock with the new, 2026 era regulations and the driving forces behind these team are two women by the names of Kim Wilson and Anna Marsden.

The director of sustainability at McLaren Racing and managing director at the Great Barrier Reef Foundation respectively, the two are committed to making the sport and world better than how they found it. Great Barrier Reef Foundation respectively, Managainng dDi rector, Great Barrier Reef Foundatio

"We can make the world better and brighter for the generations to come," the two of them reiterated.

"When you have someone with the right material - you can consider that we did it as a job - think about the opportunity that you get (as a female in the sport), it seems silly not to have us in the conversation."

They've driven two high-performance areas of engineering together to create the Accelerator program that is helping to replanting coral on the Great Barrier Reef many, many times.

The next generation

Emmy Drew is one of the freshest face to the Formula 1 paddock.

Down in Australia on a 'holiday' from her engineering student placement in Milton Keynes with Red Bull Racing, her story is a direct correlation of 'you need to see it, to be it.'

"I met Hannah Schmitz (through Girls on Track) and I was like, 'Wow, I can feel it.' It's kind of come full circle because now I'm at Red Bull doing a student placement," she said.

"Girls on Track has been amazing for building those connections, and now being able to inspire other younger women to do a similar pathway, whatever it is that gets them into Formula 1, it's really exciting to hear how other people navigate the crazy world of motorsport.

"We have this expectation that going into Formula 1, you're still going to be the only woman in the room, but that was not the case for me."

"My direct team is all women within technical planning, which is amazing. It caught me off guard; I was like, 'Have I walked into the right office?'

"It's all about changing your mindset to make that the new normal."