As Leena Gade was growing
up dreaming about working
in motorsport, she never
imagined that it wouldn’t
be possible for a woman.
The engineer, who won the
Le Mans 24 Hours in 2011,
2012 and 2014 with Audi,
insists that “no one was
ever negative about
what I wanted to do”.
Audi backed Gade’s
aspirations to take
responsibility for running
a car aft er she started
working as an assistant
engineer, initially for the
Champion Racing squad
in the American Le Mans
Series in 2007. “It wasn’t
always a smooth ride,
but Audi supported my
development,” she says.
“There was always aFERRARO
Gade is one of
sportscar racing’s
leading engineersLeena Gade
Sarah Shaw
Jordan King’s F2 race engineer
describes herself as “old-school”
and “quite hands-on”Role Race engineer, Mazda
Series IMSA SportsCar“It doesn’t matter
if it’s a club racer
or an LMP1, the
principles are
the same”network of more
experienced engineers
in the background.”
Gade isn’t sure that her
successes, which include
working on the winning
Audi in 2008 featured in
the film Truth in 24, have
changed attitudes to
women in motorsport. “The
film gave Audi a Hollywood
moment and was good for
raising the profile of women
in motorsport,” she says.
“Audi certainly didn’t sweep
the fact that it had a woman
race engineer on the pit
wall under the carpet when
we were winning the World
Endurance Championship.
“The WEC had a good
profile, so maybe it helped
people realise that
motorsport wasn’t just abunch of guys running race
cars. There is more female
representation in the
paddock now, but I can’t
say why. You’d have to
ask the teams employing
women whether barriers
have come down.”
Gade got her first
experience in racing with a
Formula Vee team. She tellsanyone asking her about
how to get into the sport to
go out and get experience
“even if it means working
for free”. That’s what she did
at weekends aft er getting a
job in the automotive sector
with Jaguar aft er university.
“It was the best thing
I could have done,” says
Gade, who now managesMultimatic Motorsport’s
vehicle dynamics centre
in Norfolk and engineers
for Mazda in the IMSA
SportsCar Championship.
“It gave me an insight into
every aspect of motorsport.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a
club racer or an LMP1, the
principles are the same.”
GWWe put the spotlight on six females carrying out crucial roles
in high-profile championships around the globe
JACK COZENS, MATT JAMES, ALEX KALINAUCKAS, MARCUS SIMMONS,
ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN & GARY WATKINS(^) PHOTOGRAPHY
A woman’s world
of motorsport
PORTLOCK32 AUTOSPORT.COM 22 AUGUST 2019