
Photo: John Dagys
Grid girls will be a thing of the past in the FIA World Endurance Championship, with the globe-trotting sports car championship set to do away with the eye-catching scantily clad women beginning this year.
Speaking to Reuters during yesterday’s launch of the Silverstone round in London, FIA WEC CEO Gerard Neveu confirmed the championship’s proactive new direction.
“From Silverstone next week, you will see that for any race we will do, no grid girls like in the past,” Neveu told Reuters.
“For me that is the past. The condition of women is a little bit different now.”
The move comes on the basis of sexism while also supporting women working in motorsport. The championship regularly features female drivers, such as Keiko Ihara, while also mechanics and crew including multi-time Le Mans-winning engineer Leena Gade, of Audi Sport.
The FIA WEC is the first major series to take such an action.
In addition to the doing away of grid girls, Neveu confirmed another change to the grid process, which will see the cars lined up in echelon formation, a format commonly used in American sports car racing.
