Above A sneak peak to another installment of the Closer To The Cockpit series.
Below Michael Schumacher takes on the 'Ring in a 2011 Mercedes Formula One car
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Alice Powell is Britain’s leading female racing driver
having won the Formula BARC championship aged 18, and last year becoming the
first female to score a point in GP3. Now aged 20, she’s racing in
the F3 Cup this season and is deciding to thrash everyone – at the time of
writing, her results so far this season total three wins and a second place. Not bad, eh? Who
better then to ask a few questions about females in motorsport, F1 and Sir
Stirling Moss?
Normally I wouldn’t put an interview in a question and
answer format (like the feature I did with Natalie Pinkham), but this was done
over an email, which makes things a lot harder. It is also worth noting that
the questions were sent after the first weekend of the F3 and answered after
the second weekend. Enjoy!
This year you took a
sidestep into the F3 Cup from GP3 and won the first two races of the
championship. Does this set you up for a good season, and can you see yourself
competing in back in GP3 or GP2 next season?
Yes, it has set the season up very well! I just have to make
sure that I am consistently up there, getting good results. I wanted to stay in
GP3 this year, but the budget wouldn't allow me to do so. However, I have set
my sights on racing in either GP3 or GP2 for 2014.
You've had quite a diverse career with both
tin-tops and single seaters. Would you ever consider racing at Le Mans for
instance, or is Formula One your single goal?
Formula One is my goal. Some drivers who are racing in F1, I
have beaten, so I know that I am good enough to compete in F1. If, for whatever
reason, I didn't get to F1, then yes, I would consider Le Mans or even going to
the USA.
What are your thoughts
on Sir Stirling Moss's recent comments?
Well I have a lot of respect for Sir Stirling. I have met
him on a couple of occasions and he was very nice and supportive. However, I don't
agree with his comments! I know women can compete in F1 against men, it is just
a female needs the opportunity to do so.
If you could drive for any team in Formula
One, regardless of budget, which one would it be and who would your ideal
team-mate be and why?
Ah that's a tough one! To be honest, F1 is F1 and I would not
mind who I drove for! But that is a rubbish answer, so if I had to pick one it
would be Lotus F1. They are only 15mins from my house and I am on their fitness
training programme and the trainers and team there have helped me so much. The
members of the team are also lovely people, plus they have a quick car! As for
my team mate, I would say Sir Stirling, so I can race against him and show him
what us females can do!
What do you make of
this season in Formula One, and what are your thoughts on the 2014 regulations?
A good change or a change for the worse?
I think this season is going to be so, so exciting! I really
do think the championship will go down to the wire this year. Regarding the
regulations, we will just have to wait and see what it is like.
Do you have any tips and advice for any young
female racing drivers (or even any females wanting to work in motorsport in
general), and do you think that the recent success of Danica in the US and yourself
in the opening rounds will inspire a new generation to be more interested in
motorsport?
Just keep pushing for your goal, whatever it is in life. I
go by that if a door closes, another one opens! Females are starting to get
noticed in Motorsport now, which is fantastic!
Danica has done a superb job in the US. When she moved to
NASCAR, the viewing figures increased by 15%, so imagine the viewer increase if
a female were to race in F1. Saying that, I feel that females should be in F1
on merit (ie, a good driver), not just to help TV increase media. F1 needs a
female role model to help bring more young female drivers into the sport.
And finally: your favourite
racing circuit and why?
Wow, I have a few, but Monaco has to be near the top, if not
at the top. Racing round a circuit which has such character, no room for error
and travelling over 140mph out of a tunnel and an inch from the barriers is
mind blowing. I am so fortunate to have raced there.
Thanks to Alice for taking the time out to answer my
questions. You can follow her progress in the F3 Cup this season by following
her on Twitter here, taking a look at
her website here and finding out more about the championship here. She also writes a piece each month for my friend Jack Leslie which you can find here.
I urge you
to go to at least one meeting this year; for peanuts you can watch some
wonderful racing and witness one of the UK’s hottest talents doing her thing:
winning.
Meeting the pilot while we waited for our bags to be found.
Broadway on the first night. Sorry for the poor image: I was jet lagged.
NB: This was meant to have been posted while we were in New York, but due to internet problems, that was scrapped and instead I had planned to post this when we got back. But then things got in the way. Still, better late than never, eh?
New
York. The Big Apple, The City That Never Sleeps, The City So Nice, They Even
Named It Twice. Yes, there are many nicknames for New York, and after a while
of pondering how to open this post, I came up with that. It gives a real
impression of the city: a vast concrete and skyscraper dominated city in
America. A group of forty media and film students, plus four teachers (Will
Cossey, Katie Wild, Ali Pym and Kiri Thomson) went from 6th February
- 11th February.
This blog post was intended
to be written whilst we were in New York, but our Hostel's internet decided to
disagree with that motion; refusing to connect our smart phones and tablets to
its wireless network throughout. So instead of doing that, I bought a notepad
and pen, and wrote down each day's events as it happened with the intention of
writing it all up on a computer when I got home. So, without further ado, lets re-wind to Monday morning...
We were told to report to
Exeter College's CCI building for 6am, for a 6.30am getaway. Some people,
myself included decided to get there just a little bit earlier; from talking to
everyone, the earliest someone got there was half five! But that was to be
excused because A) people didn't want to miss the bus and B) there had been a
snowfall the previous night. After a lot of waiting around in the cold, the bus
finally arrived and we all loaded onto it. Thankfully, nobody had decided to
forget their passport or bring their uncle's by mistake, so we were on our way
to London's Heathrow airport. Assuming the snow – it had snowed a bit more in
the South-East, than Devon – didn’t affect our flight...
It didn’t, although
something did affect our flight: due to the before mentioned snow, our
bags managed to get lost, delaying our flight by around 45 minutes, which was
slightly annoying for all concerned, but as with everything, every cloud has a
silver lining. In this case, the pilot invited ‘kids’ to come up to the flight
deck and see the cabin. My face lit up, Katie, who happened to be sat near me,
said ‘go on Dan, you know you want to, you big kid!’ so I went up, marvelled at
the complexity of the flight deck, had a photo with the pilot who let me in his
seat, and went back down to my seat to settle in for the long, eight hour
flight.
The next eight hours passed
in a blur of music, films and the gentle roar of the 747’s engines. Oh, and
getting to know the group a bit more. After what seemed like forever, we
approached JKF’s runway, and saw New York for the first time, all lit up, as it
we descended towards tarmac.
Once through customs (I was
the first of our group through, which isn’t advisable if you don’t want to be
quizzed. More annoyingly, I forgot that Americans' refer to ‘college’ as
University.), we spilled into a coach, which, like everything else in New York,
was huge, and made our way to our hostel. I had no idea where to look as there
were all of these fantastic sights to take in, and we hadn’t even got to our
hostel yet!
The hostel itself was
located on 47th Street, right in the 'center' of Manhattan, and just
a few blocks from the sprawling Grand Central Station – the hub for the Subway
system – and a fifteen minute walk from Broadway. After checking into the
hostel, and dumping our bags in our rooms, we took a walk around the area, and
walked to Grand Central, via the Chrysler Building. We were then given an hour
and half 'free time' to go and grab some dinner (although our body clocks
suggested we should be sleeping) and explore the area a little, before meeting
back up at Grand Central for 11.30pm. We all split up, and went out own
separate ways, in groups; ours electing to go straight on so we didn't get
lost. After about two minutes of walking, we came across a McDonalds, which,
turned out to be a very common sight, up there with Starbucks on every street.
The McDonalds was very
bright and very busy – even at what felt like Silly O'Clock – and also very
confusing, as I asked for 'chips' and got a blank look – the first of many –
before remembering, that in America, 'chips' are crisps, and chips are 'fries'.
After that, I asked for a Fanta and got handed a cup with nothing in it.
Slightly confused, I followed the rest of the group upstairs, sans drink in
cup. I then asked someone, as I was quite thirsty, and they told me to use the
machine downstairs, which I did.
No longer hungry, we headed
outside, and saw some lights in the distance. One of our group suggested we
head towards them, since we had half an hour or so before we were due back at
Grand Central. It turned out that we had in fact stumbled across Broadway and
Times Square. Despite the fact that we visited these two great landmarks of New
York many times during the week, that first time holds the most memories for
me; the fact that we didn't really know where we were going, the views and the
fact we'd been given free cans of coca-cola in the street...
Photos of Broadway at night
and gasping at the sheer hugeness of the place over and done with, we found our
way back to Grand Central for our rendezvous with everyone else. Turns out they
did much the same thing as us: go into the nearest fast food place, get food,
walk out and see some bright lights, so walk towards them. Soon enough though,
we were back at the hostel, all shattered and ready to get some rest. I felt
like a zombie and really wanted some sleep at this point, but my card to get me
into my room had other ideas.
For reasons that still
baffle me, the card point blank let me in my room. Rather
embarrassingly, I happened to be holding my toothbrush and toothpaste, and
didn't have any shoes on. Cue a long walk to reception from the 9th
floor to grumble and ask them to make the gremlin go away and let me into my
room. Five minutes into my grumbling session with the frankly useless hotel
staff, Will came around the corner to ask why I wasn't asleep. I quickly
explained the situation, he repeated what I had said about the key, and I got a
new room, and more importantly, a new key. Quite why they couldn't have done
that in the first place is beyond me.
>> Find out what we got up to on our second day (Tuesday), soon!
