Lewis Hamilton project aims to help girls and black students enter motorsport
- Published
Hamilton said helping girls and black students into F1 addresses an "urgent need to push for better representation in our industry"
Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes' Ignite partnership has announced its first grants, targeting 8,000 girls in the UK in a bid to increase women's participation in motorsport.
New grants will fund programmes for females from under-represented ethnic groups and low-income backgrounds.
The move comes as F1 team Alpine launch their own project to develop a female driver to compete at the top level.
Ignite also announced grants for black students studying engineering degrees.
More than £500,000 will go to both initiatives - the first will expand the Girls on Track scheme launched by Motorsport UK in 2016, while the second will establish a motorsport scholarship programme for 10 black students to study MSc (Masters) courses at the Royal Academy of Engineering between 2023 and 2025.
Ignite was co-founded by Hamilton and Mercedes in 2021 to increase diversity and inclusion within motorsport, and has established a fund of more than £5m for grassroots projects.
"We chose these grants because they focus on supporting individuals from two crucial and underrepresented demographics, moving us towards our goal of increasing the number of women and black talent in the sport," said Hamilton.
With the funding, Girls on Track will bring into the programme more schools in economically disadvantaged communities and says at least half its participants will qualifying for free school meals.
Black engineering students will receive £25k tuition and living costs, and the scheme is aiming for 90% of scholars to be working in the F1, motorsports or engineering sectors within two years of finishing their Masters.
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