Natalie Corsmit of the Netherlands is the third woman ever to serve as a steward in Formula 1. In a sport where every second counts and traditions often stubbornly persist, she is quietly but powerfully breaking through a symbolic barrier.
The fact that only two female stewards preceded her in F1 doesn’t seem to faze Corsmit. “It shouldn’t matter whether it’s a man or a woman, and you should simply have the same knowledge and qualities,” she asserts. “Of course, it’s good for diversity in motorsport, and that’s something that has been worked on in recent years.”
According to Corsmit, the relatively small number of female F1 stewards is not surprising. “When I signed up with the KNAF in 2004, there was only one other woman in a group of 40 stewards. This naturally makes it statistically more difficult for a woman to break through.” She was immediately told that she would be entering a male-dominated world, but it hasn’t bothered her. “To be honest, I’ve never been treated differently by my male colleagues, drivers, or teams.”
