The interest among women in motorsports such as Formula One has been growing over the past few years. A key factor that has helped gather the interest of more women is Netflix’s popular docuseries, Drive to Survive. Meanwhile, streaming platforms and TikTok have also played their part. Since there has been an increasing interest among women to be a part of motorsports, F1 and some other categories have been making key changes to increase their involvement. Amid this fight to make the sport more inclusive, a Formula E team has got it horribly wrong.
Mahindra Racing recently introduced Artificial Intelligence (AI) Ambassador Ava Rose. In their post, the company noted that Rose is their “go-to Sustainable Tech Champ“. They note that she is passionate about Formula E and will share some of the team’s behind-the-scenes content over the course of the upcoming season.
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Soon after Mahindra Racing announced Rose as their ambassador, they faced immense backlash online. Several fans could not understand why the team could not hire an actual woman for this role.
Fans slam Mahindra Racing for introducing an AI ambassador
Fans such as Nini are in disbelief after they read the post about Mahindra Racing’s latest ambassador. They could not believe that a team is promoting an AI and referring to her as being “passionate about Formula E“. Instead, the fan believes that the company must hire talented and interested women for such a role instead of doing “this nonsense“.
i cant believe this “shes passionate about formula e” man thats an ai….. instead of hiring talented and interested women for a job in motorsports theyd go above and beyond for, they do this nonsense. pic.twitter.com/LtpsmM8lIQ
— nini (@SCUDERIAFEMBOY) January 9, 2024
Similarly, other fans such as Mark have explained why Mahindra Racing’s latest announcement is “incredibly tone deaf“. They believe that there is anyways a lack of women representation in motorsport, and instead of hiring more, some teams are now making “a fake woman“. The fan also believes that the use of AI in this fashion is stealing human jobs.
Formula E team @MahindraRacing announced on IG today that they’ll be using an “AI Ambassador”
Why this is incredibly tone deaf:
1) we don’t have enough women represented in Motorsport…so you make a fake woman?
2) AI uses like this steal human jobs
3 just hire a person FFS pic.twitter.com/UfQf2FSKVN
— Mark Urban (@murbanvideo) January 9, 2024
On similar lines, fans such as Adele have explained how it is “absolutely ridiculous” that Mahindra Racing are using an AI instead of “hiring a real woman“. The fan believes that there are “plenty of women talented and qualified” for a role such as this.
that is absolutely ridiculous. why not hiring a real woman ?? there is plenty of women talented and qualified for this who are trying to get in motorsport but they’ll always find a way to not hire them #f1twt #mahindraracing pic.twitter.com/omxCEHRwGw
— adele ⭐️️ (@AdeleGsp) January 9, 2024
Formula One has introduced the F1 Academy
While a Formula E team has seemingly made a huge mistake by using an AI as their new ambassador, Formula One has been taking steady steps to increase the participation of women in the sport. Back in 2019, they introduced the W Series, an all-female single-seater racing championship.
However, due to a lack of funds, the series was canceled after the 2022 edition. That is when Formula One introduced the F1 Academy as a replacement.
Former Williams test driver Susie Wolff was appointed as the managing director of the new series at the beginning of last year. As a result of initiatives such as these, Formula One is playing their part in trying their best to make the sport more inclusive.
While a lot of work is still to be done, Formula One have at least taken the first big step to give aspiring female racers a platform to compete. The hope is that a platform such as this will eventually help women to rise above the ranks and potentially even get to F1, the pinnacle of motorsport, at one point.
