Retired French rally star Michele Mouton (sixth left, front row) is joined by fellow FIA officials and motor sport representatives from the MENA region in Doha yesterday. Qatar’s Nasser bin Khalifa Al Attiyah (third right), president of the QMMF and FIA Vice-President for Sport for the MENA region, and Graham Stoker (fifth right), the FIA Deputy President for Sport, are also seen. WIM Vice-President Randa Nabulsi, MSA international training programme director Susan Sanders, FIA WRC media delegate Hayley Gallagher and FIA commission manager Frederique Trouve were also present during the group photograph.
BY RIZWAN REHMAT
DOHA: Retired French rally star Michele Mouton is against separate racing events for women, saying she was desperate to see females competing along side men at all major championships around the world.
“I am not in favour of this. In a democratic sport where everybody can be part of it, to put women in a separate championship is just discrimination,” Mouton said after delivering a keynote speech at an FIA seminar for women here yesterday.
“Why do you want to put them apart when they are ready to race in the same conditions (as men),” the 62-year-old asked.
“I am not strong as a man but do you need the strength to drive a car? Not today. In my time, yes, but not today,” Mouton thundered.
“Do you need more feelings? We have feelings. Can we take risks? Yes, we can. Do we have self-control? Of course we can. Do we have endurance? We have more endurance than men. To drive a car you don’t need strength like in other sport. You just need to be fit and adapt to the car. It is not impossible,” Mouton said.
The former Audi star, however, added she wouldn’t mind girls-only events considering sensitivities in certain countries in the MENA region.
“But I have to say that maybe in some regions we could do it because of tradition in some particular region calls for it,” Mouton, who took four World Rally Championship victories for Audi, said. “I remember there was a karting only for women because of girls of that particular area were only comfortable in a women’s event.
“That’s not the case in Europe. In Europe, the girls are beating the boys when they are 7 or 8,” the 1982 World Rally Championship runners-up explained.
Mouton said FIA’s Women Commission has a major task in keeping girls in the sport once they reach their teens.
“Yes, there are many girls who start very young but when they reach 15-16, they quit because the sport doesn’t promise them much and they don’t see a future for them,” Mouton said.
“For me this is a very important seminar because this has allowed us to talk about issues that we could face in certain areas,’ she said.
Mouton said women’s participation at racing events was a concern in Europe and not just the MENA region.
“It is not a problem in MENA region alone,” Mouton said. “Somebody said this morning that participation of women in motor sport is decreasing in Europe. When I started, rallying was only for women. Today it is not like that at all.
“I think in general we (world bodies FIA and FIM) have more things to do. But we have to promote women’s participation in each area of motor sport and not just racing in competitions.
“As we discussed this morning, you can be a team manager, you can be an engineer, you can be an official or a volunteer ... you have different possibilities to be involved in motor sport. You have in our commission some ambassadors who represent excellence in motor sport and who can give the women the desire to do the same. It is quite important,” Mouton said.
Converging in Doha along with fellow top officials in the FIA Women’s Commission will serve its purpose, according to the immaculately dressed Frenchwoman.
“When you are going in a special area you face unique problems. We have issues everywhere. We have to look at issues based on the region we are looking at. We can obviously look at the issues and see into the most important aspect to develop the sport for women. So such meetings help in so many ways,” Mouton said.
Mouton said FIA’s Women’s Commission has spent the last four years collecting data and charting out reasons why girls quit the sport in their teens.
“In the last four years, we have been doing research. We are working together. The data we have shows that girls start showing interest before young boys do. When they reach 15 opt 16, they stop. Why? We have to find out. If we want to improve, we have to find out the answers. Most of the responses we got are that girls are more mature than boys at any age,” Mouton explained.
“We are different - different in sensibility, in feelings, in endurance. We are different. Girls at this age are more mature and maybe that’s why they think about their future. They don’t usually have any role models and they probably don’t feel like continuing beyond the age of 15 or 16.
“Maybe you can also say, from education point of view, the parents don’t encourage their daughters and sons to continue racing. They feel motor sport is dangerous. Such indicators show that we need to work on the promotion of motor sport for women,” she added. THE PENINSULA
