Women in motor sport. They’re usually found in public relations, marketing or clad in bikinis on the starting grid. It is virtually unheard of for a member of the fairer sex to be calling the shots of a major racing team. Katie Clements is the exception to the rule.
Clements is the principal of Team Great Britain, one of A1GP’s most respected and best-performing teams. As if her gender isn’t enough to distinguish Clements in a macho, male-dominated realm, Clements is also comfortably the youngest team leader in A1GP.
“As long as you’re tough enough to stand on your own two feet, it doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman,” says Clements, who took over from former champion driver John Surtees in May last year having joined A1GP in a commercial capacity.
“What I do is a tough job, whether you are a man or a woman. I do have the same respect of other teams’ seatholders down the pit lane, but it can be difficult. You sometimes get the impression from an outsider’s point of view that perhaps women shouldn’t hold this level of profile in motor sport.”
Motor sport has always been a big deal in Great Britain, but the success of Lewis Hamilton, the current king of Formula One, has seen the sport enjoy levels of popularity unseen in decades. Clements says Hamilton’s success has helped A1GP’s profile back home, as, crucially, has Team GBR’s success with three third-place championship finishes in the first three seasons.
“We’re not in competition with F1. Lewis Hamilton attracts people to motor sports, and that’s a good thing for us. His success is a good thing for Team GBR. There’s no other way to look at it.”
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