Claire Williams: 'I had to work twice as hard to get here'

Williams F1 deputy team principal Claire Williams believes she had to work twice as hard to get to her current role - but not because she's a woman.

Williams was talking with German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel about women working in motorsport, and said that despite the sport's 'macho' image the reality was much more open-minded.

"It depends how you define 'macho'," she explained. "Formula One and motorsport are generally considered male-dominated, which is the external perception. But I think that 'dominates' is the wrong word - it's just simply that many men work here.

"No, it's not a man's world. 38 per cent of our viewers are female. If a woman could become a big-name brand in Formula One, that would be groundbreaking. The PR effect would be enormous."

As for her own personal experience within the sport, Williams insisted that she herself had never at any time felt that she had been held back or missed out on opportunities on the grounds of being a woman.

"I never had to deal with some kind of gender discrimination. I think on the one hand, that's a psychological thing. I'm not wasting any time thinking about gender. I believe that I can do my job as good as a man. I do not feel inferior because I am a woman.

"On the other hand of course I also know that I was lucky. It looks rather different in other companies or industries, where women are still at a disadvantage and the salary gap between men and women is still significant and a big problem."

Yet even though gender discrimination clearly hasn't been a factor for Williams in Formula One, it has still been a long road for the 39-year-old to reach her current position. She originally joined the team in 2002 as a communications officer, and eventually rose to become director of marketing and communications in 2011.

She only joined the Williams board in 2012 as the family representative when her father, team founder Sir Frank Williams, decided it was time to scale down his own involvement. Despite that it wasn't until the following year that Claire was finally appointed deputy team principal in her own right, a role which gives her responsibility for commercial matters at the team as well as marketing and communications.

So if it wasn't discrimination, just why did it take so long for her to rise to her current position?

"It was not because I was a girl. The only reason I had to work twice as hard is that I'm Frank's daughter," she revealed.

"He did not want me in the company, he would not let it be said that it was down to nepotism. People should not say: look, Frank hands out jobs to his children. That would be wrong. I had to prove that I deserve my job."

Having attained her current position in the sport, Williams is aware that this gives her a certain public prominence and with it a degree of responsibility to set a good example to other women wanting to come into Formula One in the future.

"I find it important to be a role model," she agreed. "I want to support and encourage other women to come into motorsport. Since I have that responsibility, I also go to the schools and universities to talk with the girls and to sponsors and business forums about being a woman in motorsport.

"I set myself the target of bringing more women into Formula One, but in the end it does not matter to me whether someone is a man or a woman, just whether they are the best person for the team."

As an example of her outlook, Williams insisted that there was no difference in the way that she would interact with Sauber F1 team Monisha Kaltenborn than any of their other male counterparts on pit lane.

"If I want to go to Monisha and talk to me her, it is not because she is a woman in Formula One. I talk to her as I would also talk to Christian and Toto.

"Christian Horner of Red Bull doesn't get constantly singled out because he's a guy, or Toto Wolff from Mercedes. Nobody asks them what's it like to work as a 'type' in Formula One."

And asked what she thought about the recent move by the FIA WEC championship to do away with grid girls from race weekends - which was also trialled by Formula One at Monaco which switched to 'grid boys' instead this year - Williams was singularly non-plussed.

"Grid girls simply have a long tradition in motorsports. I don't know if it is necessary to banish them. Why should that be an outdated image of women? These women are not being forced to do it, right?"