I’m pleased. It’s long overdue. It’s anachronistic and ridiculous. There are a rising number of female senior engineers etc. among the teams and watching them being interviewed trackside, in their standard team polo shirts and trousers with occasional ”dollybirds” wafting in and out of view created a strange dissonance. The uniformity of the grid girls’ dress and grooming makes them look even odder, they really are just decoration; they sometimes clap in a clearly prescribed, prim manner, and they hold things and might hand things over, but their gestures are clearly choreographed and coordinated like a chorus line. It’s like stepping back in time.
While at the Belgian Grand Prix three years ago, we were seated so as to see their long, painful walk in formation along the track before the track parade in vertiginous heels, it was a heck of a distance. Later, as they disappeared behind a building (as far as the cameras and pit seats were concerned) they all removed their shoes and hobbled off barefoot/ in stockinged feet.
What's it all for? I’ve been to four Grand Prix and nobody gives a shite about the grid girls, I didn’t even know that was their name, there was never any ripple of excitement near us on their appearance. I think the majority of the sport has been a bit embarrassed about them for some time.