Goodbye and good riddance to ‘grid girls’

THE dumping of the ‘grid girls’ custom by Formula One brings the sport out of the Benny Hill era, writes Wendy Tuohy.

“Grid girls” making an important contribution at the Monaco Grand Prix last year. (Pic: Frank Augstein/AP)

THE global dumping of “grid girls” at Formula One events finally brings the sport more into line with how women expect to be regarded: as equals, not ornamental eye-candy.

No matter how F1 spinners dressed up the whole ‘grid girls’ thing, the tradition of including young women as a sexy side-dish to the serious men’s business of car racing was demeaning.

It felt as outdated as a Benny Hill skirt-chasing sketch and made the sport look out of touch in an era when the real impact of sexual harassment is, at last, being acknowledged.

The new American owners of F1 have shown they want to protect the sport’s relevance by dumping a feature of it that had nothing to do with skill and everything to do with objectification.

Grid Girls at one of Australia’s Formula One Grand Prix events. They had everything to do with objectification and nothing to do with skill.

Bad enough that there are no female F1 drivers — the now ousted F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone having declared in 2016 that women drivers would “not be taken seriously” and didn’t have the “physical strength” to drive fast cars — but including women only as sexcessories no doubt kept potential female fans of this thrilling sport away.

Love or hate the Melbourne Grand Prix — and I’m one who believes the massive public expenditure on the Melbourne event can no longer be justified — if you bother to go you will feel the attraction.

If you love cars and driving, experiencing that kind of speed close up is exhilarating. The buzz created by the daring of drivers is real. But the reduction of women’s place in that sport to the way they sport a tight top is a the ultimate turn-off.

Credit where it’s due to the new American owners of F1 that they realised “grid girls” were out of line with contemporary “societal norms”.

It’s interesting to note how many big name companies have lined up for naming rights of the “grid girls” in recent years, including the national carrier. You’d hope they’re looking back at that choice as not their greatest marketing exercise.

Melbourne Grand Prix Rolex Grid Girls.

As the BBC’s chief F1 writer, Andrew Benson states today: “Society is living through a defining moment in sexual politics. It is the time of #MeToo, and revelations of sexual harassment and worse by powerful men.”

The UK’s women’s sports trust noted this and the dropping last month of “walk on girls” by the sport of darts in its statement: “These changes are taking place because global businesses are making a considered choice about how women should be valued and portrayed in their sports in 2018. They deserve significant credit for doing so.”

Managing director of F1 commercial operations, Sean Bratches, reflected this when announcing the custom was out of line with their vision for the sport. He said: “While the practice of employing grid girls has been a staple of Formula 1 grands prix for decades, we feel this custom does not resonate with our brand values and clearly is at odds with modern day societal norms”.

“We don’t believe the practice is appropriate or relevant to Formula 1 and its fans, old and new, across the world.”

Now this tawdry “custom” has finally been dispatched let’s hope Bratches’ dynamic sport throws some serious cash behind fostering young, female F1 drivers — plenty of whom are in development.

Wendy Tuohy is a Herald Sun columnist. Find her on Facebook or Twitter.