Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has expanded on a comment made recently that suggested girls are taking a greater interest in Formula 1 due to the attractiveness of the drivers.
Speaking on TalkSPORT with host Laura Woods, the Briton indicated that the emergence of Netflix’s Drive to Survive docuseries is helping F1 reach out to wider demographics, and is engaging girls due to the appearance of the current crop of drivers.
“F1 is bringing in a young generation. It’s bringing in a lot of young girls because of all these great-looking young drivers,” he stated.
Woods offered a different opinion, suggesting that girls are inspired by the drivers’ ability, rather than merely being attracted to their appearance.
“I think maybe some of those young girls who are watching are not just inspired by the good-looking racers but maybe inspired to be drivers themselves?” she replied.
The 48-year-old then found himself having to back-pedal slightly.
“Absolutely, and we’re seeing more and more girls getting involved in the sport, not just in a driving perspective but in engineering, management and so on,” he added.
“That’s great to see the interest that it’s generating.”
Having received a substantial amount of backlash on social media for his comments, he has now elaborated on his previous comments.
“I think it has obviously been utilised on Twitter quite a bit but I think that the intention of it was that we have got a great crop of young drivers, they are exciting race drivers and it is fantastic that we’ve got a young audience, both female and male, coming into the sport,” he said, as quoted by GP Fans.
“Having an insight into those personalities is something that…a show like Netflix has brought out those characters so you get to know those personalities and it’s fantastic that we are seeing wherever we go in the world, tremendous interest.”
He then reveals that his 15-year-old daughter has begun to display an interest in the pinnacle of motorsport due to the Netflix show giving us a more relatable perspective of the drivers’ character.
“My own daughter that is 15 had very little interest in Formula 1 before a show like Netflix came along because you couldn’t relate to the characters, you couldn’t relate to the drivers and I think whether you’re female or whether male, it’s great that we’re welcoming such new audiences throughout the globe,” he explained.
Horner’s Red Bull team have just completed three days of pre-season testing in Barcelona, and the 48-year-old said he is pleased with the “encouraging” start his team have made to 2022.