Well, that was certainly a day I will remember. But man, my brain hurts.
It’s hard to believe that 24 hours before international women’s day I got invited to the new TCS Jaguar Racing HQ. And for anyone who doesn’t know, that’s the Jaguar Formula E HQ. Yes, the same Jaguar team that came second in the 2022 to 2023 season. So of course I was going, so adios Sixth Form, hello Jaguar TCS racing.
On first arrival, I guess you wouldn’t know that there was a team hiding inside this brand-new facility. But my god, this place was unbelievable. Once we were checked in and had our passes on, we were shown upstairs for drinks before the tours started. I know how civilised, I love it!
First off, we were introduced to some of their partners (Wolfspeed, Dow and Castrol) through pieces of artwork which represented the main aspects of their joint partnership. Shortly after we were directed to the offices and given a one-on-one virtual reality VR experience where we got to look inside the car and get a better understanding of how the inverter turned DC current into AC current and vice versa. We even got to have a little drive around the track in the virtual world.
Not long after (and once we had a little peak at their trophy room) we found ourselves in the garage. And bloody hell what a treasure trove it was. They had their Gen 1 car all the way to the current Gen 3 (the Jaguar I-TYPE 6) laid out for us in the bays. And if that wasn’t crazy enough, we even got to meet their team manager (James Barclay) who thanked us all for coming and expressed his views on how important he believes this event is in order to inspire the next generation of women in motorsport. Then we got to see their fabrication room and learn about how they build all their cars by hand in this very facility. Personally, it helped me to appreciate how much work the team put into their car, and it really helped me to see the passion they have for the sport.
At this point it was LUNCH and anyone who knows me knows food is my all-time weakness so by this point I was well and truly in love.
As the day progressed, we got to ask questions and listen in on chats about how the women in the team got to where they are today, in their panel. This included women from the FIA Formula E sustainability management to the engineers at Wolfspeed themselves. We got to ask lots of questions and learn lots more about the kind of jobs out there for women in motorsport.
Towards end the day, we were split into workshops where we got a chance to talk one to one with some current staff in a particular area. For the day I chose to learn more about management involved with their partnerships. This is where I met Sophie Barter (Jaguars Senior Partnerships Account Manager) and Charli Burden (Jaguars Partnership Activation Manager) who got me and the other girls involved in some discussions. They were truly inspiring and made me feel extremely welcome. In fact, the whole team made me feel welcome the entire day, so I wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone for this absolutely amazing opportunity. I also want to thank Females in Motorsport for inviting me and Jaguar TSC for organising such a smooth-running event. For me this was a real eye opener to see so many fantastic women involved in all sorts of aspects within the team. I think it proved to me that anything is possible if you work hard enough. And to anyone out there looking for a job in motorsports no-matter who you are you can do it, if you want it bad enough. Trust me.
If you have any questions about the event or want to know how I got involved, feel free to directly message me on my Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or comment on here and I’ll get back as soon as!!
Leave a Reply