The first of our new series “New Talent in Motorsport” Grid Girls Simra, Savannah, Jade and Taia interview Lilly Brame, W Series Trainee Technician and Formula Woman Applicant. How did her journey into motorsport start? How did she progress to W Series? What were her motivations behind applying for Formula Woman? Read on to find out exactly how Lilly Brame achieved this.
Lilly initially was hooked into motorsport when her uncle was watching a Grand Prix, watching alongside him, she was intrigued and researched where became interested in the technology side of the sport. From there, she found the group ‘Dare to Be Different’, now known as ‘FIA Girls on Track’ where she gained her first taste, meeting more like-minded women all trying to start their path into motorsport.
After deciding to study ‘Motorsport Engineering’, Lilly found Oxford Brookes to be the university she wanted to study in. Just completing her first year, a highlight so far has been the amazing opportunity seeing the university's many racing cars from Indy cars to F3 cars to former F1 cars. Lilly received the opportunity to sit in the Force India car, which she credits as a ‘cool’ and ‘amazing’ experience.
‘Dare to Be Different’ elevated Lilly joining so many opportunities with the group, visiting Williams F1 Team and Mercedes F1 Team. A highlight has been meeting many like-minded women like her. Seeing a post in the group asking for Workshop Technician, with it being so close to home, Lilly emailed and entered into the world of Motorsport with EXCELR8 Motorsport. A very hands-on role, changing brake disks on her first day, other responsibilities involved general upkeep of the workshop, ensuring the workshop was organised, setting up the weekend, the cars were all prepared for races, and winding down from the weekend.
With her determination and knowledge, she progressed to be a Data Assistant for the team at race weekends after her manager, Justina Williams, saw her calculating how fast a radiator cap would shoot off if it was too loose. Following on from this job, Lilly moved to Team Hard Racing working as a Data Assistant on the GT Cup and Ginetta G55 Cup.
A usual race weekend for Lilly was waking up very early on Friday morning to travel to the track. With test days, there was prepping the car whilst race weekends were more action packed. She explains how she preps the drivers for the plan of the day, prepping the cars and then assisting throughout the race. Once the race is over, there are the brief meetings where Lilly assisted the engineers with the data. On some days, there can be 2 races in one day, so they repeat this twice in the short span. A very tiring day indeed!
This year, Lilly joined on an incredible opportunity on the Technician Training Programme for W series. Speaking on the testing week in Anglesey, United Kingdom, she expressed how much she loved it and how the changing weather of rain came into play. You may be wondering, what a Test Technician role entails? Lilly explains ‘it’s trying out different roles to see which you are best suited to and training to potentially be in a more senior role next year’. Another hands-on role has helped her understand the cars more and using data to apply to more realistic strategies. Describing it as a ‘fun experience’ so far, she illustrates that W Series have been integral to bridging the gap of lack of female representation. Lilly highlights the purpose of the programme is to bring more women into the mechanical roles, allowing more practical experience and learning on the job as they go. With W Series supporting Formula One, this has brought more people to watch and gain more recognition, especially being broadcasted on Channel 4.
Looking forward to this season, Lilly is excited to travel with the series with Mexico the top of her list she’s most looking forward to visiting.
As a woman, it can be challenging trying to navigate your way through a male dominated sport. Fortunately for Lilly, she hasn’t had an experience in the industry which has made her feel uncomfortable or unwanted. However, Lilly does say that the ratio of women to men on her university course is very low, with 150 students of which 12 are girls.
How has Lilly’s racing career been so far?
“Exciting, rewarding and tiring.” Usually, Lilly works with the drivers outside the car and in the debriefs. However, flipping to the other side of what she does can be challenging when you’ve never been in the driver's situation before. Luckily for Lilly, once in the car herself she found that the way she was talking to her instructor was the same way the drivers talked to her, everything clicked together. Asking about her first race experience, she responded, “I absolutely loved it! It's just the adrenaline that you get, I remember after my last session, I was still shaking from the adrenaline, it's so cool.” Recently, she tried out a Ginetta G40 cup car at Oulton Park which she said was really good fun. However, with Formula Woman, they aren’t allowed to have racing experience just yet so Lilly has been working on the simulator.
How did Formula Woman come about?
Loving motorsport and seeing the technical aspects of the cars during a Track Day like the aerodynamics and the handling, she immediately wanted to drive one.
Lilly was one of the first to sign up for the competition, an initiative dedicated to providing women the opportunity, especially for those never raced previously, a chance to drive and compete for a seat in the GT Cup. She describes her competitors as ‘very supportive, there’s no cattiness and it’s a lovely atmosphere’. Lilly’s motivation for applying was that Formula Woman stood out to her as a platform to start her racing career and was a great initiative to ‘opening the door to people who would never have had this opportunity before’.
She hopes to progress as far as she can go and constantly push herself to do better in racing, looking forward to getting on track in September. After a series of online assessments, this track assesses a driver's natural talent, how they can handle a car, how they are able to improve over a session and essentially, see who you are as a driver’. Fundamentally, Lilly clarifies they are looking for the driver package – It’s great to be fast but you need a ’driver mentality’, not just the talent.
Although very competitive, Lilly aspires to be in the final 16 and gain a seat in the McLaren in the GT Cup. With opportunities to potentially enter into other series, she desires to be in a season full-time racing.
Engineering wise, Lilly says she would like to keep climbing the ladder and push herself to achieve the highest as she can get.
When balancing numerous motorsport projects and her university career, Lilly’s advice for balancing projects is to prioritise. Understanding what’s important and what you need to put first is key to managing yourself.
Unwinding after a track day, Lilly loves getting comfortable in her pyjamas, a cup of tea and watching TV. On her off day, she loves nature and going on walks as where she lives has beautiful wildlife scenery that she finds to be very calming. Lilly describes how she was once 10ft away from 2 deer! Other activities she loves doing to relax are cooking and baking.
Claire Williams and Susie Wolff are Lilly’s first biggest inspirations, seeing them in leading roles as women has been inspirational and admirable. During her data role, Hannah Schmitz also became an inspiration for Lilly, even getting in touch with Hannah which she credits as an incredible experience! Non motorsport wise, one of her biggest inspirations is her grandad, one thing standing out being he’s a hard worker, something she admires about him.
Looking back at her career so far, Lilly is proud of stepping into Motorsport, the hard work she’s put in, especially how much she’s put herself out there to receive the role opportunities she’s worked in.
Navigating her career, Lilly’s mantra is “don’t give up, that’s what they want you to do” which her first manager, Justine Williams said to her. When people doubt her and think she cannot do something, she drives herself to prove them wrong.
Lilly’s ultimate dream goal is to one day become a Team Principal, the pinnacle role of a race team. She aspires to work towards this goal through the data and strategy route, perhaps also with aerodynamics.
Lilly’s advice to other girls and women wanting to start their path in Motorsport:
Don’t wait for opportunities to come to you
Put yourself out there and network
Help other people as most of the time, they will be willing to help you back
Don’t give up, that’s what they want you to do!
We wish Lilly all the best! To read more about Lilly’s career and her Formula Woman journey, follow @lillybrame on Instagram as she also has a surprise up her sleeve to announce.