Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner believes Formula 1 will progress towards gender neutrality across workforces "naturally" after the emergence of the Formula Equal bid to join the grid. F1's popularity in recent seasons has led to a number of teams raising interest in joining the 10 incumbents on the grid, with the FIA launching an application process for prospective outfits ahead of the current campaign, with the potential for two new teams to join the grid as early as 2025. The Formula Equal project , led by former founder and CEO of British American Racing Craig Pollock, would be the first F1 team to have a 50 percent men, 50 percent women representation split across the workforce, encapsulating all roles between the boardroom and the racetrack. F1 has increasingly focused on diversity and inclusion within the sport in recent years to assist the recognition brought first by Lewis Hamilton and then Sebastian Vettel, with numerous initiatives put in place to support minority backgrounds and provide pathways into the championship across a number of roles.
Fantastic interest
F1's current teams have been largely opposed to new outfits joining the grid given the threat to franchise value, with the notable entry attempt from Andretti Cadillac Racing facing bitter obstruction, though the American squad has not rolled over. Asked for his views on the Formula Equal project, Horner told media, including RacingNews365.com : "I think it's fantastic to see the amount of girls that are showing interest and females that are showing interest in Formula 1 now and we're seeing it at all levels. "With the interest growing and with that diversification within the gender following that we now have, it's appealing to more women to get involved in the sport, whether that's from an engineering basis or across all aspects of the organisation. "We're certainly seeing that just happening naturally as the sport does become more accessible and we are pushing to make it more accessible. So yeah, I think it was something that will naturally happen anyway."
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