Enabling diversity and inclusion within the motor sporting world, Driven by Diversity are emerging as a force for change.
Driven by Diversity: An Interview With Lindsay Orridge
Representing the underrepresented, championing diversity and emphasizing the significance of inclusivity, Driven by Diversity aims to educate and empower the motorsports community. Finding solutions to economic and social barriers that perpetuate inequities that result in preventing individuals and certain communities from having access to opportunities required to succeed in the industry, they see themselves as the gatekeepers with the opportunity to open the door to a renewed version of the industry. Starting out in marketing and communications, Lindsay Orridge, Driven by Diversity Founder, initially aimed to network existing members within the motorsport community through an inclusive environment. With her knowledge and passion plenty, Driven by Diversity soon took shape into the now-established movement you see today.
Exclusive Interview from our latest Zine // Formula 1: The Archives. Download your copy here.
“As a woman, I’m in a very under-represented group in the industry (approx 4-5%) but as a white middle class woman, I also have an enormous privilege to be able to cut through a lot of issues that people of lower income or people of colour might experience. I wanted to combine those two experiences and use them as a force for good.” – Lindsay Orridge.
What fascinates you about motorsport? And drew you to start out in activism for change within the sport?
I’ve worked in motorsport for the past 22 years since I was 17, so I don’t know anything else, to be honest! I love cars and driving, and I was fortunate enough to grow up in the motorsport valley area of England, where there are numerous opportunities to work in the industry. It’s a huge privilege to grow up somewhere like that, but by the nature of where it is located in the home counties, it’s not very diverse in the makeup of the local talent available. As a woman, I’m in a very underrepresented group in the industry (approx 4-5%), but as a white middle-class woman, I also have an enormous privilege to be able to cut through a lot of issues that people of lower income or people of color might experience. I wanted to combine those two experiences and use them as a force for good.
How can motorsports become more diverse and inclusive? What steps are still to be done and what efforts have been made so far?
From the perspective of driving talent, it’s really difficult to solve easily – you can’t prove that you have the skill to be an incredible driver behind the wheel, if you can’t get behind the wheel. So that requires a different approach to something like getting engineering talent into the industry – which has to start in the early years of education and continue throughout until someone is ready to join the workforce. There are a lot of programmes that focus on both those areas, and whilst we happily support anyone wishing to get into the industry, at Driven by Diversity, we have found ourselves a little niche in the ‘other’ side of the industry: not just strictly driver or engineering focused, but more towards my own professional specialism: marketing, comms and content.
That’s enabled us to work on some incredible projects with brands who are keen to get involved in purpose-led activations. Most recently, a good example is the Driven by Change programme which we created in collaboration with the McLaren Racing F1 team and their principle partner, Vuse. We took an underrepresented artist – Rabab Tantawy – who is Egyptian, based in Dubai, and took her incredible artwork and applied it to the McLaren Racing cars at the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP. Little did we know at the time that this would become one of the most iconic races in the history of the sport, and it helped to propel the programme into the stratosphere, with over 1 billion people seeing the news of this world-first livery by the Friday night of the race weekend alone. It felt like a huge achievement – we activated something cool, which highlighted an amazing underrepresented artist, on a global platform, and the world saw it. The Driven by Change programme continues into 2022 and beyond with even more opportunities for underrepresented talent to showcase their work on the global stage that is Formula One.
What are the challenges people from underrepresented groups face in the industry?
What people/projects stand out to you that are leading the change in motorsports?
I think Charlie Martin is doing a great job of talking about LGBTQIA+ issues as a leading transgender woman racing a wide range of race cars today.
Very recently a collaboration was announced by Buggyra ZM Racing and Motors Formula Team to enter the 2023 Dakar Rally and 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans with a roster of black drivers. They also jointly launched and Equality & Diversity Program to support young racers, engineers and other professionals from non-traditional backgrounds into a career in motorsport.