When I came to watch Formula 1, it was an escape from the stress of watching football and tennis. Being first aware of this motorsport in 2007 with Lewis Hamilton’s debut, I actually sat down to watch it in 2012 after brewing interest from my mum who worked for Shell, who are in partnership with Ferrari.
As a depressed 14-year-old, I turned on the TV to the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix and was amazed by the skill of cars battling each other out on the race track. I remember seeing Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Riccardo for the first time and was immediately drawn to their fun spirit as they stood on the podium. From this race, I was glued and over the next four years, F1 became my other hobby.
There was a small sense of pride and comfort watching a biracial driver dominate a sport while also having an unpretentious personality. Lewis Hamilton kept me in the sport. However, at the time there was no online community for me to discuss my passion. In a white majority grammar school, where I already felt isolation and microaggressions as a Black girl, no one would connect with me through my obsession with sci-fi films or listening to Coldplay.