As a female graduate engineer with more than 10 years’ motor sport experience, I can reinforce the comments made by Beverley Turner about treatment of women in F1. Sadly, her revelations merely skirt the true levels of sexism in the “sport”.
She touches on sexual harassment but in reality it is dished out on a daily basis, often aggressively. My immediate boss at an English-based F1 team would regularly corner me at lunchtime to describe the details of his “self-pleasuring” techniques.
Another manager would pursue my opinion on various lurid sexual acts until he received some verbal response. A section leader bullied me daily, often fed me misinformation to waste my time, and reprimanded me in front of colleagues. The chief designer used his position of authority to devise encounters with at least five women, including myself, over several years to satisfy his particular sexual deviance.
Discussions with other women in the industry show that mine is not an isolated case. I am pleased Ms Turner has had the courage to tell her story. I feel that this is now my contribution in exposing the “real” F1. It is shocking that in 2004 this archaic treatment of women still exists.
Name and address provided
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BACK-BREAKER: A couple of months ago I took delivery of a new Jaguar XJ6. Nice, comfortable car but whoever designed the wheels should be sentenced to 12 months of doing nothing else all day but cleaning them. My model has the “Elegant” design wheels. These have 10 spokes. Behind each spoke there is a channel which is very difficult to clean.
To clean behind the spokes thoroughly would take at least 10 minutes per wheel. Bending down for each wheel for that length of time would surely give severe backache.
Peter A Rushforth
Cullingworth, Bradford
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A POSITIVE POINT: Why not a less punitive system of endorsements? For every speed merchant out there there must be thousands of people who never receive points or fail to renew their insurance, get their vehicle taxed, etc. How about a reward system of one point for every year of blemish-free driving? It could start at 0, then go to +12 or -12 points. I suppose the only danger would be that it might encourage drivers to behave more responsibly, pruning the government’s new money tree.
Allyn Rogers
Cardiff
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MISSING CAMERAS: I was looking forward to the results of the government’s study into speed cameras, which promised details of “every site where a camera may be used”. However, when I logged on to the department for transport I found not a single mention of the speed cameras in my county, Surrey. To my knowledge Surrey police have yet to set up a “safety camera partnership” but it doesn’t alter the fact that we have plenty of speed cameras. So to me at least the government’s full and complete analysis hasn’t answered a single question.
Brian James
Woking, Surrey
FALTERING FAITH: During the speed camera safety debate I have noted another tragic casualty to add to the innocent lives lost on the roads: my respect for the law, and my trust in government. Instead of saying “fair enough” to the latest published “vindication”, its methodology and presentation made me doubt even more the validity and/or motivations behind anything they ever say.
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Peter Martin
Ross-on-Wye
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