'There's a big push to get more women into F1'

Megan Gilkes started as an engineer at Aston Martin Formula 1 last year

A former female racing driver who works at Aston Martin Formula 1 team said there was a "big push" to get women into the sport.

Megan Gilkes previously drove in the all-female F1 Academy and the now-defunct W Series.

The 24-year-old now works as a graduate performance engineer at the Silverstone-based F1 team in Northamptonshire.

"I think there's a really good atmosphere at the moment to try and help women succeed as engineers and beyond," she said.

Gilkes started racing karts at the age of ten and decided "motorsport is for me".

She said from an early age she wanted to make it to Formula 1 but "started to realise that racing as a driver, needs a lot of money, time and talent to get to the top".

So she also had a "backup plan" and studied engineering at university, where she had a placement at Aston Martin.

After she graduated, she then got the position she is in now, having started in June 2024.

The 24-year-old took part in the all-female F1 Academy as a driver

Gilkes said her role involved "looking through data pre-event, post-event and in sessions, trying to optimise the setup of the car and make the car and driver combination as fast as we possibly can".

She said: "I love to see everything that's coming in live and I love the sort of pressure that you get in sessions, trying to do things as quickly and as accurately as possible.

"I love the speed, not only of the cars, but also of the decision making that has to happen."

'I can't wait for the season'

Formula 1 and the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) - motorsport's governing body - have recently launched new programmes to encourage more females into the sport, and Gilkes believes it was working.

"I think there's definitely a big push at the moment to get more women into Formula 1," she added.

"There's lots of initiatives, such as the F1 Academy, trying to get female drivers up the racing ladder.

"But then there's also a push for women in STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths] in general and in motor sport, too... and I'm really fortunate to be getting to be a part of that movement."

The new Formula 1 season begins in less than a week and Gilkes said: "I can't wait for the season with the team in mission control and looking at how this car is going."