SILVIA BELLOT | Opening the Roads in Formula 1
Por: Lilia Davis
Photos: Courtesy of Silvia Bellot
The Formula 1 is the most prestigious race in the automotive world. A race where few racing teams make it to that level, and even fewer women. However, this is beginning to change thanks to women, particularly a woman like Silvia Bellot of Barcelona, Spain.
Silvia, and she is so warm and genial in person that you feel immediately like using her first name, is currently an ambassador for the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) and has opened a new path into the world of motorsport.
Paradoxically, Silvia has a degree in Biology and Fashion Design in London, and yet she is the first woman and the youngest to be a Formula 1 Commissioner in Europe, at only twenty-five years of age.
Also, Silvia’s work was recognized when she was named as the winner of the Outstanding Official Award at the FIA awards ceremony at the end of the season in Istanbul.
In addition, in 2020 she was appointed FIA competition director of the Formula 2 and 3 championships, one of the most important positions in this sport, making her debut at the Grand Prix of Austria.
Circuit of the Americas (COTA)
I had the pleasure of meeting Silvia Bellot at Circuit of the Américas (COTA) in Austin. She was the Team Manager during the Indy races in 2019 for the Mexican driver Patricio O’Ward on the Carlin team. Silvia is from Barcelona, but she has recently moved to the United States, and is based in Florida. The interview was conducted by Zoom, a lively conversation as you will see.
Silvia smiles easily, is attentive to every detail and often shares a warm and generous laugh, a woman who feels fortunate to work at something she is passionate about.
Hi Silvia, it’s a pleasure to have you back in our magazine. Tell us what have you been up to since our last conversation at the Circuit of The Americas track in Austin?
I was with Carlin, a UK based motorsport team, and in 2018 the team decided to open their headquarters in Delray Beach Florida, and compete in INDYCAR. However, after two years as Team Manager, I decided it was time to take on the next challenge in my professional career and I accepted the offer of Competition Director for the FIA F2 and F3 Championships.
I currently combine my work as Sport Commissioner for the F1 and Formula E (electric car racing) World Championships with my position as Ambassador for the Women’s Commission, where I represent female officials.
DUTIES AS A STEWARD
You are the first woman and the youngest, at the age of twenty five, to be a Formula 1 Commissioner in Europe and in the world. What are your duties as a Steward?
The Stewards are the highest authority in a motorsport event and are in charge of supervising the compliance of the regulations by the participants. For instance, in the event that a team or a driver has infringed the rules, it is our duty to investigate this possible infraction and, if necessary apply sanctions.
Among other responsibilities, we are in charge of signing the final classifications, requiring technical verifications of the vehicles and even ordering doping or breathalyzer tests on the participants.
APPLYING PENALTIES
What are the most common penalties that are applied?
The regulations include different degrees of sanctions: from written warnings, to time penalties such as Drive Through or Stop & Go, loss of positions in the starting order, fines up to $250,000 and even disqualification from the race. The Stewards are in charge of assessing the severity of the infraction and/or incident and apply the sanction that fits these.
In addition, the Stewards must have a great capacity to work under pressure and against the clock during the competitions. We have to keep in mind that F1 teams invest hundreds of millions each season and require our decisions to be correct and to be made in the shortest possible time.
How many stewards are usually involved in each race?
The Stewards work on a collegial basis. As a general rule, the college is made up of three members. A president, who is in charge of directing the teams’ appearances, a second International Steward appointed by the FIA and a local Steward, who represents the region or country where the race is held. In the case of Formula 1, the College has a fourth member, the Driver Steward, who is in charge of providing the driver’s point of view.
FORMULA 2 AND 3
As of 2020, you were appointed FIA Competition Director for the Formula 2 and 3 championships, one of the most important positions in the sport. Could you explain the difference between the two?
F2 and F3 are the FIA Championships prior to Formula 1. They train the future stars of the sport when they are still minors. The regulations are very similar between the three Championships, the main difference is in the power of the vehicles.
My job as F2 and F3 competition director focuses on the safety of the drivers, officials and spectators. In case of an accident, I am in charge of assessing the situation, taking the necessary safety measures such as neutralizing or stopping a session, as well as coordinating the rescue of the driver/s and the vehicles.
ADDED RESPONSIBILITIES
Being one of the first and one of the few women to become a Commissioner, do you feel you have more responsibility as a role model?
Maybe it is not perceived from the outside, but yes, I think it comes with an added responsibility. Because I not only think about my career, but also about how my role as a role model can help other women to consider motor racing as a career option.
In recent years we have worked very hard to recruit more women into the sport, as well as to make them more visible and promote those who are already part of it. We still have to keep working.
After all, the most important thing is not to be the first to arrive, but to ensure that you are not the only one.
Silvia Bellot
SILVIA BELLOT as FIA WOMEN’ S AMBASSADOR
One thing that struck me when we interviewed you is that apart from being a Commissioner you also bring a lot of your time and experience to the FIA as a Women’s Ambassador. What are your duties?
My main job is as a Sport Commissioner and apart from that, I am a Women’s Ambassador, and my job is to represent women officials around the world. I am in charge of designing different actions and programs for women that already exist in motorsport.
As an ambassador we also believe that the use of role models is the best way to show girls that it is a world for women, even if it seems to be a very masculine world – it is not. Things have changed a lot.
Read more on SILVIA BELLOT: Car Racing with a Feminine Touch by Lilia Davis.
GIRLS ON TRACK – RISING STARS
What does the RISING STARS program consist of?
This is a program that we created at the women’s commission in partnership with Ferrari, and it consists of the selection of several girls who participate in karting worldwide. There are no nationality barriers and the age of the girls is between 13-16 years old. There were two Brazilian girls this year.
We already had the first generation or edition. The winner is Maya Weug – Dutch citizen residing in Spain. By winning the first edition of the Rising Stars program, Maya has become not only the first female part of the Ferrari driver academy, but she also received a scholarship to participate in the Formula 4 Championship.
Do you think that as a Commissioner it is an advantage to be a woman?
Unfortunately, when faced with a man and a woman, in auto racing, they still select the man, because they believe that they provide more security, but it is not like that. We have to change that view, that attitude and normalize gender equality.
The Harvard Business Review is very clear. The most successful teams are those made up of people with complementary skills. As women we have different skills than men, which are necessary for the success of any organization. We are more empathetic, we listen more and we can lead different projects simultaneously. We need to foster more diverse organizations to ensure better decision making.
NUMBER OF WOMEN IN MOTORSPORT
Do you feel this has helped increase the number of women in the sport?
There are more and more women and girls interested in the sport, but we still have to work hard to increase the number of women in motorsport. An example of this work is the Colombian, Tatiana Calderón, a Spanish national living in Barcelona, who is close to competing in Formula 1.
But to give you an idea, let’s say that currently the base of the pyramid of young boys participating in karting in Europe is a thousand participants and girls, only a few dozen.
Our goal is to promote the sport among females, to make the base of the pyramid grow so that they can have the same possibilities as men.
RACE CAR DRIVER OR STEWARD?
With your technical knowledge and professional motorsport experience, you could have become a driver and competed in car races. Did being a commissioner appeal to you more?
When I was very young, at the age of 14, I did plan to race, and I considered the possibility, but the truth is that at that time, motor racing was very expensive and my parents could not afford the costs. As you can imagine the situation has changed a lot in recent years and today there is much more support for women drivers.
However, the economic limitation did not prevent me from being part of this world. My father José Bellot worked with the Royal Spanish Automobile Federation for more than 40 years as an official and I decided to follow in his footsteps. There are many more options in motorsports than being a driver!
What has been your father’s influence in your career so far?
Without his passion for motorsport I am almost certain that I would not be part of the world of motorsport. Thanks to his work as a mentor when I was taking my first steps as a Steward, I wouldn’t be where I am today. When I was 6 years old I used to get up at 4 in the morning to watch the F1 Australian Grand Prix with my father on TV, and when I was 10 he took me to Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for the first time.
At the age of 13 I dedicated part of my weekends to travel with him around Spain and help my father with transcriptions and updates of the regulations.
This experience gave me a knowledge of the sport at a young age. So by the time I was old enough to take my exam as an official I knew as much or even more than people with years of experience! My dad’s passion and experience propelled me to the top in motorsport.
MAKING IT VISIBLE
Most people see the pilot or driver as said in English, triumph, but few know how many people and work are behind that triumph, one being the work you do, do you think it should be made more visible, and how?
Of course! In a Formula 1 Grand Prix there are around 1000 volunteers and officials making it happen. The officials are the heart and soul of the sport, without them it would not be possible. They are in charge of ensuring the safety of drivers and spectators, as well as that all competitions are fair.
We have to promote the work they do both in written publications and in social networks. Men and women do a great job in this area and we have to make it known.
But the options do not end there, there are a lot of roles that are unknown to the general public and we have to make them known, especially among women, some of them are: engineers, mechanics, medical services, press officers, championship promoters and many more!
Silvia Bellot
FEMALES ARE PART OF THE TEAM
Do you think that as a Commissioner it is an advantage to be a woman?
Unfortunately, when faced with a man and a woman, in auto racing, they still select the man, because they believe that they provide more security, but it is not like that. We have to change that view, that attitude and normalize gender equality.
The Harvard Business Review is very clear. The most successful teams are those made up of people with complementary skills. As women we have different skills than men, which are necessary for the success of any organization. We are more empathetic, we listen more and we can lead different projects simultaneously. We need to foster more diverse organizations to ensure better decision making.
BARCELONA
You were born and raised in Barcelona, what do you like the most about your city?
Barcelona is very open culturally, not only now, but for centuries. It all started in Roman times when the city and its port were the point of entry for different products and culture. Today it is still like that, everyone is welcome! This is one of the things I like the most about Barcelona, we are welcoming people, open to change. This and the fact of having the sea and the mountains, being part of the city!
AT THE RACES WITH Silvia Bellot
POP QUESTIONS
How often do you travel? It depends on the season and how the calendar is structured, for example last year I went three and a half months without going home. This year I will travel every 2-3 weeks.
Which races do you cover? Formula 1, Formula E (Electric cars), Formula 2 and Formula 3. Approximately how many races do you cover per year? From 16 to 22 races a year, depending on the season.
What kind of clothes do you wear when you are on the track? We wear an FIA uniform, we all wear the same white shirt and blue pants and blue sneakers. Do you travel with little luggage, a backpack, or heavy luggage? Big suitcase! The uniform alone takes up half the suitcase and we usually have official dinners so we have to dress up in the evening.
Do you ever have an off-season at work? December to March, when the season ends, is the quietest time of the year for me! What is your favorite circuit in the world? My favorite circuits are the Circuit de Spa (Belgium) and Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Indiana).
My favorite place to eat in Barcelona? El Nacional, a space with different restaurants and bars that in the past was a car garage! – So right considering my career now.
Keep up with Silvia’s races – if you can, at: Instagram and Tweeter: @silbellot
