Paris (AFP)
The women, for a long time confined to the role of "grid girls" holding the umbrella before the start of the Grands Prix moto, open a breach in this very masculine world as a driver or team leader.
At the last Bol d'Or, the 24-hour endurance race, in September, there were six women at the start (out of 168 drivers in total), including an all-female team, the "Girls Racing Team" who finished 28th overall. 44 ranked and 14th in its category.
In Supersport 300, a championship using motorcycles close to the series, the Spanish Ana Carasco won the world title last year and won the French race at Magny-Cours on Sunday.
But the pinnacle of discipline, the Grand Prix speed, no woman among his drivers, whether in MotoGP - the highest category - in Moto2 or Moto3. Only Spain's Maria Herrera, 23, is currently racing in MotoE (electric) after having regularly lined up in Moto3 (250 cc bikes) from 2015 to 2017.
"It takes talent and technique, it is not the physical force that matters most," she said in an interview with AFP, even though the machines used in MotoE are heavier than those of MotoGP.
- First and foremost a pilot -
"But when you're a woman, all the attention will be focused on you as a woman when I consider myself primarily a pilot," she regrets.
For Line Vieillard, the only female competitor of a promotion formula in France to access the Moto3, "it's not a problem to be a young girl, I'm most of the time considered an athlete. in the contacts with the journalists ", irides the pilot of 18 years.
She recognizes, however, that being a woman can help in the search for sponsors "because it is not yet something that is very anchored and sponsors say: + We will help it because it gives a beautiful image and opens the door to girls in this sport + ".
Other roles open to women: Milena Koerner is 34 years old "team manager" for the MV Agusta team in Moto2, having started as a "grid girl". "I also did logistics, press and public relations, monitoring pilots," she says.
When she was asked in 2017 to become stable manager, "I wondered if I was technically capable of doing so and I interviewed people in the paddock, they pointed out to me that Livio Suppo (ex -responsible at Ducati and Honda, ed) was selling clothes before becoming + team manager + and I certainly knew more about motorcycles than him when he started! "
- Hostiles to quotas -
"But there are things that I hate: I was invited to a reception of the International Motorcycling Federation (FIM) with many of my colleagues with whom we chatted but, because I did not wear the usual clothes of my team, the only topic of conversation was the way I was dressed, I prefer to talk about motorcycles, regulations, but if you say it frankly, people feel like you're complaining. "
She also recognizes that the drivers in her stable may be more comfortable with her than a man.
The German declares herself ready to help other women to break into the motorcycle world but discards the idea of quotas. "The drivers have to compete in a world championship because they are good, not because they are women."
Maria Herrera, who participated in a conference on FIM's women's motorcycle show in August in Finland, does not want to see a reserved championship. "I have the same level as a man, so I do not want to be in a race with women, all my life, I showed that I could win against men," says the young Spanish.
© 2019 AFP