Grid girl

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Grid girl in Formula 1 (1975)

A grid girl (also pit babe or umbrella or paddock girl ) is a hostess who is an integral part of the track staff in motorsport for promotional purposes.

Area of ​​responsibility

DTM grid girls (2009)
An umbrella girl holds an umbrella over a waiting racing driver (2006)

The official task of a grid girl is to hold an umbrella over the driver on the so-called starting grid while work is still being carried out on his vehicle, or to present a sign with his start number immediately before the start of the race . In addition, grid girls are also used at the award ceremonies after the races .

Another typical area of ​​application is their presence at automobile or motorcycle exhibitions.

The tradition of using hostesses in the pit area goes back to the Japanese teams of the 1960s (e.g. Rosa Ogawa ( Japanese 小川 ロ ー ザ )).

While the use of hostesses in the pit area is viewed as a rather low activity in some European countries, the Japanese race queens ( レ ー ス ク イ ー ン , rēsu kuīn ) , for example, are highly respected helpers of the race organizers.

The pejorative term pit slut, on the other hand, describes women who want to increase their own level of awareness through media-effective appearances in the paddock or in the vicinity of racing drivers or racing stables . For a long time, the British Katie Price was considered the epitome of pit slut . The term is also sometimes used for motorsport groupies .

MeToo debate

In Formula 1 , as a reaction to the MeToo debates, the grid girls were abolished, which met with criticism from many participants. Since March 2018, children have been accompanying the drivers on the starting grid as grid kids - similar to what is known from the children running in at soccer games.

See also

Web links

Commons : Grid Girls  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reglement / Regulations 2014 ADAC GT Masters ( Memento from March 28, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), adac-gt-masters.de , accessed on February 10, 2015.
  2. ↑ Where did the pit babes go? , sueddeutsche.de , July 25, 2010, accessed on August 20, 2020.
  3. ↑ Motorsport History: The Invention of Pit Sluts ( Memento from January 17, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), einestages.spiegel.de , February 3, 2009, accessed on June 20, 2012.
  4. ↑ Criticism after not using Grid Girls , faz.net , February 1, 2018, accessed on February 12, 2018.
  5. ↑ Grid Kids instead of Grid Girls: Formula 1 is getting children running in , spiegel.de , February 5, 2018, accessed on February 6, 2018.