Catherine Bond Muir  0:03  

 

I believe that in order to make the world a better place, you need to talk and you need to communicate. I think if people don't, you know, share the same values as you, which is the promotion of women. But I, I, I mean, I know a number of Saudis, and I know a number of female Saudis, who are very happy and very successful, but I think there are, I think the best way of getting over any hurdle is to go and demonstrate how you do it. So I would welcome the opportunity to go there because I would welcome the opportunity of Saudi seeing in the, you know, the Saudi people seeing in their own backyard, know what w series is and what we've achieved.

 

Farah Nanji  0:51  

 

You're listening to the mission makers show, a podcast that inspires humans to get into the mindset of success. My name is Farah Nanji. And I'm the founder of a business in the Motorsports industry that explores leadership lessons from things like Formula One. I'm also a DJ and music producer in the underground electronic scene, and a public speaker on key topics like resilience, building high performance teams, overcoming learning difficulties and stimulating creativity. And to tie it all together, I love writing thought provoking content as a journalist for these industries, which is so unique in themselves. On this show, I'm sitting down with some of the most inspiring and driven people I've met around the world to talk about their processes, their failures, the lessons they've learned, and how they're truly making an impact on this world.

 

Hi, guys, and welcome back to episode seven of the mission makers podcast. Today, we're joined by a lady who in a short space of time has had an enormous impact on bringing equality into the world of motorsport. She is of course, Catherine Bond Muir the CEO of the groundbreaking w series as a champion there are a couple of things that really make the W series different from all the rest apart from the fact that all 20 drivers have to be women. The first component is that drivers do not pay to participate. In fact, all drivers win prize money. It can cost a family a staggering amount of money to support a child in motorsport, starting from anywhere at 100,000 pounds. For karting at grassroots level before a child is even 10 to millions of dollars by the time they reach their teenage years and start then making it into the formula series. So this is a huge incentive. Secondly, all the cars are identical, ensuring that the championship truly is a level playing field. And thirdly, every race each driver has a different set of mechanics, which means that they have to learn to work very, very quickly with new teams and cultures, which I find really interesting. It took three years to get the W series off the ground with some serious industry heavyweights like David Coulthard behind the series, and when it embarked upon its first season in 2019. just over a year later, the championship had to put on the brakes fast due to COVID-19. But despite the pandemic, the series has managed to continue making its mark on the sport with the recent announcement that it will be partnering with Formula One and its calendar for a select amount of races. This is a massive game changer for the sport and for the coverage that will ensue. It's been more than 40 years since a female driver last started a Formula One race. And it's clear that the W series is the much needed catalyst to drive that change into bringing more women into the sport. So today, it's an absolute honour to invite Catherine onto the show to shed light on her journey in such a profound mission and learn more about her high performance mindset. Just before we begin, if you're interested in watching the video version of this podcast, head over to YouTube and type in Catherine Bond Muir Mission Makers can see the show. And if you're interested in some really cool rewards like DJ lessons, sign a book from our guests, and exclusive merchandise head over to www.patreon.com/mission makers to check out how you can access these exclusive rewards. Catherine, thank you so much for coming on the show today. We're so honoured to have you here on Season Two of mission makers. And so I'd like to just kind of begin by talking a little bit about your childhood. And I know you're the youngest of four children, if I'm not mistaken. So how is that dynamic? And do you all share a love of cars?

 

Catherine Bond Muir  4:29  

 

The dynamic was very intense because my mother had her four children within four years, four months and there are no twins. So month per year where I'm the same as my older brother. So in January, we share the same age and it was very funny. So when we were younger, I was absolutely delighted that every January I became his age and of course when you're young you always want to be older and now of course he's got the last laugh because every year laughing at me but he's now the same age as his little sister. So I think I'm very much a typical youngest child, they say, that means you're spoiled. I don't think that is, I think it's, you're a fighter, especially when you're, you know, you've got so many siblings who are very close in age to you. You've got a you learn to talk, which obviously I can, and you just learn to fight for your position. And I think that's what I've done throughout my professional career.

 

Farah Nanji  5:29  

 

That's very interesting, because I'm sure those, those that resilience probably came through as well, before the W says, when you're working in the UK, as a solicitor, and you could argue maybe that, you know, law is just as dominated by males, just as motorsport. And what would you say are the key differences and how maybe the inequalities have played out between the two industries thinking that the law is very equal, over 50% of women going into the law now are female. And even when I went in, that's 30 years ago,

 

Catherine Bond Muir  6:02  

 

there were more or less the same numbers of women going in as men. And I think a lot of the large law firms, certainly, in the UK have lots of sophisticated processes to encourage equality, diversity and inclusion. And that's certainly something that I'm working towards with motorsport UK. I'm chair of the DI committee at motorsport UK. So I think within motorsport, you know, the heart of motorsport is starting to really try and make a difference to that end, it's certainly not equal. But I was amazed that when I went into a btcc event, during the summer, I couldn't believe the numbers of women who were there, you know, in comparison to two years before, and that was at all levels of motorsport, you know, they, they were in, you know, working in different teams at, you know, very senior levels to, obviously, it's a passion of mine, that we need to get more female drivers, but but they were a number. And, and I think, you know, the face of motorsport really is changing.

 

Farah Nanji  7:08  

 

Yeah, it definitely is. And we can only thank you for all of the hard work that you've been doing to change the game. So going a little bit into the W series. now know that rather famously, the idea kind of came around while sharing a glass of wine with friends around the dinner table. And you've since attributed a lot of that growth of this series to some of your colleagues like David Cole, Todd, Matt Bishop, Dave Ryan. So how did that team kind of come together, you know, coming from a completely different industry, and How have your strengths kind of complemented each other along this journey?

 

Catherine Bond Muir  7:42  

 

Well, David Coulthard was, was the first person who became involved out of those people that you were discussing. And what became very clear to me early on is that if I was going to do this, that we need, I needed to surround myself with people with one who had credibility and motorsport, and to know what they were talking about. As far as motorsport was concerned, no one was ever going to pick the phone up to me and take me seriously. So David introduced actually the most important person in all of the mix. And that was our Cornerstone investor, you know, I can't underestimate how difficult it is to raise a few million pounds just on an idea. And he introduced a school friend of hers called Sean wodsworth, who has put in a really, really significant amount of money into the business. And, and being a business person myself, you know, that's that, you know, money is really, you know, it's crucial to everything. So I have to thank David for that introduction. But obviously, David also introduced Dave Ryan, who's the racing director at McLaren, formerly and also Matt Bishop, the comms director, and, and the three of us they got was Dave, Matt and me know, spent a huge amount of time in 2018, in the summer of 2018, you know, sort of putting the ideas together, David and Shawn, were working with us to know, that was sort of our core five, you know, and, you know, the little team was, was slowly growing. But we needed motorsport input, and that is what they all gave to us. So I'm rather embarrassed, you know, that people say, Oh, it's all you because he's certainly not me. It's taken a village to produce a web series. And, and those people have been absolutely key. And I suggest, without any one of those people web series wouldn't have been as successful as it has been.

 

Farah Nanji  9:46  

 

Absolutely. Thank you for sharing that with me. And I definitely agree, you know, you're only as good as your team. And so that's really, really important. I find it really interesting the way that you guys actually designed the series. For example, I love that the race drivers get a different set of Engineers each race, and they learn how to work with crews from all different countries, different languages, different cultures. So what was the creative process like behind designing the series?

 

Catherine Bond Muir  10:10  

 

Well, it was, it was great fun, because I came from a background of first principles. So we didn't make any decision, because it had been done before, we made every single decision because it was the right thing to do for us. And I think that's a very freeing process, actually allowing us to be, you know, we allowed ourselves to be as creative as possible. And at the heart of our DNA was equality. You know, we wanted the drivers to have equal cars, and we didn't want the richer drivers to have an advantage. Therefore, we believe that we had to pay for the drives for all of the drivers. So, you know, people like Alice Powell hadn't raced for over five years, you know, the last time she had race, she was she was in GP three, I mean, it's now you know, international Formula Three, and solely because of money, she she couldn't get that money out, you know, she could didn't have the ability to drive again. So, you know, the structure of the W series was really based on those two principles that all the cars had to be identical. And we were going to pay for all of the expensive expenses of the drivers. And, and the fusion of those two concepts means that we actually do find out who the pastures driver is. And whilst you know, the brilliant Jamie, one, you know, we had six races, but we did have five different winners of races. So, you know, we did have a lot of talent there, you know, right at the start of the season, just worried me, we could control everything, but obviously, we couldn't control what was going to happen out on the circuit. And it was, it was just wonderful to see one the quality of racing. But to that, you know, Jamie wasn't necessarily going to run away with the championship. Like it looked like after the first two races.

 

Farah Nanji  12:09  

 

Yeah, definitely had you, you know, on the edge of your seat. And, and that was that was fantastic, especially the last couple of races, when it was really the stakes getting raised. So talking a little bit about what you talked about there about getting your investor into the series, what were the kind of keys to getting him in? Because as you mentioned, obviously, it was a you know, there wasn't a proof of concept yet. And how do you think, how would the funding be impacted by COVID?

 

Catherine Bond Muir  12:36  

 

So the How did you get him in a lot of poverty? Now, actually, I think Shawn was convinced by the fact that there was a massive gap in the market, you know, when we started first talking, no, back in 2002, at the end of 16, you know, without really serious discussion started in 2017, is that if you looked at the numbers of women who were racing and single seater series throughout the world, now, as I've often said, the numbers at that point we're goin down year on year, and that trend had had gone on for a number of years. And that was absolutely at the point where other sports, like cricket, rugby football, now the women involved in those sports was increasing, their involvement was increasing significantly. So we both had this shared belief that there was something that was going wrong with motorsport, and actually, that was a business opportunity. And, and that's why, you know, he believed that, you know, he could put his money in and, and at some point, he would get a return on it. And COVID the impact of COVID I think in the long term, I will look back. And, and this isn't taking away the terrible nature of what has happened to millions of people across the world. But for us, it gave us a pause for thought, you know, we were running at a million miles an hour, you know, going into the second season, you know, this time last year. And when you do you know, when you set something up like this from scratch, you know, you can't underestimate the amount of work that is involved and the number of you know, rabbit holes, you go down and you know, so, you know, it's not everything that you do you get right first time. So you have to keep repeating processes, which means that it is just extremely hard work. And last year, gave us a pause, you know, we had time to think about what we were, what we had achieved, what we could achieve, what we could turn into and ultimately how to maintain, you know, the sustainability of W series. You know, I've been asked at length before we'd started to race. Whether if we were successful, then we would say cease to exist, because obviously we were all about getting more women into motorsport. And I said very clearly at the time, well, if we've got 30-50% of women who are racing, then the w series will cease to exist. But you know, the way it was received and especially, I think the glory day of Brands Hatch, which is our last race in 219 2019. It was such a fabulous day I think, you know, the W-series is here because I think as a sport, it stands on its own two feet, and provided people want to watch it and be fans of the W series. I don't see any reason why it should stop.

 

Farah Nanji  15:42  

 

D Yeah, I definitely agree. And I think following your journey, you've spoken extensively about, you know, people's opinions, which are obviously quite strong about women in motorsport. And I remember hearing you say, once, if I listened to people's opinions on the W series, it would never have happened. What kind of criticism? Was the idea worth getting? Were they more from the people within the industry or outside? And how did you? Like, how did you deal with that emotionally and mentally?

 

Catherine Bond Muir  16:09  

 

Well, I'm the youngest of four children. Very close together, I had two older brothers that I had a very pugilistic relationship with. So I'd never had a good ability not to take on board people's criticisms too much. But a lot of the criticism actually happened from friends of mine involved in the sports industry, one of the major criticisms was a systemic criticism, and this is back in 2016 1718. It's to say, Katherine is a great idea. It certainly is required in motorsport. But remember, no one watches women's sport. And that was what but but but they were not wrong. I mean, at that time, they didn't, you know, the stats of the people in watching women's sport was really small, and we all need luck. And in 2019, because of the Women's World Cup, I think that that started to change the way that people looked at women's sport, you know, they believed for the first time that it could become commercially successful. I mean, if you look at what we achieved, just in the UK, with our channel for broadcast, we became just within six races, we became the second most watched motorsport in the UK after f1. And we were the second most watched female sport after football. So I mean, what that did demonstrate to us is that there is a potential audience out there. Well, there is an audience, it's no potential, you know, we believe that there was a potential audience, but we demonstrated that they're actually actively an audience. And of course, what we're looking to do is, you know, grow that audience significantly, both in the UK and in the rest of the world this year.

 

Farah Nanji  17:58  

 

Definitely. And so going into a bit of the drivers and what you look for when you're picking the selection for the grid, what are some of the most important mental strengths that you look for in a driver? And what are some of the techniques that the series uses to train for high pressure and mental fatigue?

 

Catherine Bond Muir  18:16  

 

So I will say, because I am not a motorsport person, I have absolutely no involvement in the selection of the drivers. But ultimately, what we are in the team is looking for is they're looking for talent, either current or future talent. Now, what unashamedly what we are looking for is stars of the future. So we had a very large selection process in 2019. You know, we invited applicants. We had over 100 applicants that we whittle down to about 56 drivers that we took to malc for our first selection process. And then those were whittled down to eventually go into our cars. And then we had the final selection process to get to the 18 drivers plus two reserves. But ultimately, it was just about you know, who we thought were the fastest drivers, you know, that that's what we're about. But I think if you look at the work that the FIA has been doing, you know, with Ferrari on the rising their rising stars programme, I mean, they've certainly identified a number of extremely talented young drivers across the world and you know, we'll be looking out I think for those and seeing how they get on and hopefully in the future we'll be inviting some of those drivers to join w series.

 

Farah Nanji  19:40  

 

Definitely. And what about the pressurised juice training and do you use anything interesting to kind of train the drivers around that aspect?

 

Catherine Bond Muir  19:50  

 

Yes to I mean, we had physical trainers and people who were, you know, who pay Pull who the drivers could speak to about their mental toughness. I mean, last year, we had started our whole programme, which, you know, unfortunately came to a grinding halt when COVID hit. But these drivers are pretty resilient women themselves, you know, they, by definition, because of their age, and because, you know, they, they have had a successful motor racing career when really they were the only female drivers around. I mean, the biggest comment, I think that the drivers had, when they all got together to begin with, there was absolutely no idea that there were so many women who could drive single seaters. But, you know, we did recruit from all over the world. So, you know, they were only driving in whichever series, you know, they were driving. And so I think the drivers that we have at the moment all have extraordinary characters, and an enormous amount of resilience. But that's because they've had to, because if they didn't have those qualities, that then they wouldn't have have achieved the success that they that they would have had to have done in order to qualify for W Sarah's

 

Farah Nanji  21:14  

 

100%. Now, you've spoken a lot as well about long term wanting to get women and girls in a much grassroot much more grassroots level. So do you see the series kind of branching out a bit more into funding maybe karting series or? Yeah, the match kind of younger ages?

 

Catherine Bond Muir  21:31  

 

Absolutely. I mean, this is certainly an ambition that we have for the future, we're still trying to figure out what an academy looks like. But you will understand with COVID, etc. What we've got to concentrate on is ensuring that w series, as it stands at the moment, is a commercial success, before we can start putting investment into grassroots. But certainly, we do want to create a ladder to encourage more young drivers want to go into the sport, and to and to give ambition to drivers who don't believe that they will ever be able to get the money themselves, we need to create some sort of ladder that will encourage them to enter the sport, and they've got something to work work towards by going to W series. And of course, the fastest drivers will go beyond w series and go into more and more senior series.

 

Farah Nanji  22:29  

 

Definitely. And talking about COVID. What did you advise your drivers to do in this time period when they obviously couldn't really race?

 

Catherine Bond Muir  22:41  

 

But I think I mean, what we offered was counselling around mental resilience, I think, you know, you know, everyone was having a difficult time to deal with it. But I think that the esports championship that we did we put that together incredibly quickly. And that I think gave the drivers some sort of focus and that reminder that, you know, over a period of time, they realise that they wouldn't be racing in 2020. But it was, you know, it's, you know, it wasn't great as far as being a motor racing driver was concerned, but at least it kept them that then sharp. And also, what they did produce was this fantastically successful series that people actually wanted to watch. You know, we had over a million people watching us online. I mean, which for me is extraordinary. But I think I find that extraordinary probably could because of my age and and i don't understand, you know, the the digital motorsport audience but you know, we had some some great races, you know, I think we knew that biker was always going to be the most competitive just because they're all of our drivers obviously spend quite a lot of time on our simulators. So she always punched above her weight, the same as last year in 2019.

 

Farah Nanji  24:08  

 

Yeah, I remember listening to an interview with you recently about where you're one of your drivers. I think it was on marks Mark Gallagher's podcast actually, and I was just you know, amazed because I remember hearing that like one of the drivers during this time had to you know, kind of get a job in logistics and I think it was Hermes or something and the shows you're doing your delivery foreign, you know, it really just shows you know that the human the human level and and that you know that the just how intense it is to carry out your dreams particularly when a lot of these girls have you know, it's going to be such a huge impact you have taken a year out.

 

Catherine Bond Muir  24:48  

 

It is but what I don't want to do is pick up on any, you know, individual, you know that the whole world has found either the law Last year, incredibly difficult. I would expect that our drivers, because of that resilience that I talked about before, would actually cope with it better than the average person because, you know, they had to deal with setbacks. You know, when I mean, I do remember very clearly one of the most memorable, memorable moments of 2020 is when I was at the town hall, where the drivers actually told them that we weren't going to race in 2020. And their immediate reaction was asking me, was I okay, am I All right? And not, you know, they weren't thinking of themselves at all. I mean, it was absolutely extraordinary. And then there was a lovely counterpoint to that, that, when I told them, they all came on to the, you know, the, the same zoom call, for me to tell them that we had done the deal with Formula One that they're done. And their reaction is just another reaction that I couldn't react, I couldn't have predicted at all, because they didn't say anything. I was expecting them all to be screaming and shouting and saying, This is great. And I was going, isn't this good news. And I think I was so shocked. I think they were. I think that they had had, you know, such a bad year. And they were almost expecting more bad news. And when I didn't just give them good news, I gave him great news. And it took a bit of time to process. Now, after that, at the end of the zoom call, then I got loads of messages from them directing something with all the happy emojis and doing cartwheels and playing and personal messages. But it was just so funny to see them not immediately reacting in a fantastically excited way. Actually, one of them did, Vicki period. So, but the rest were quite quiet.

 

Farah Nanji  27:00  

 

That's awesome. I just have to give a little shout out here to one of our Patreon members who actually had a question in the audience q&a section. What was the driver's reaction like when you told them about the news of f1? So just a shout out there to Neve now talking about f1? And obviously, you know, huge congratulations, what a what a milestone, what a victory. And so when we're looking at the grid, would you ever or do you consider taking the W series to more controversial locations such as Saudi Arabia, where there's clearly you know, feminism issues? Do you think that wasting there would be a powerful way to compliment your message?

 

Catherine Bond Muir  27:38  

 

Yes, I do. I mean, I, I do believe in the positive force of sport. I believe that in order to make the world a better place, you need to talk and you need to communicate. I think if people don't, you know, share the same values as you, which is the promotion of women. But I I, I mean, I know a number of Saudis, and I know a number of female Saudis, who are very happy and very successful, but I think there are, I think the best way of getting over any hurdle is to go and demonstrate how you do it. So I would welcome the opportunity to go there because I would welcome the opportunity of Saudi seeing in the, you know, the Saudi people seeing in their own backyard, you know, what w series is and what we've achieved,

 

Farah Nanji  28:33  

 

yeah, what about it, and what a better way to, to really share that message.

 

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Talking about something a little bit, you know, is difficult. When Nikita Maspin did what he did recently, being inappropriate publicly with a woman. How did the team's reaction make you feel? Do you think it fundamentally compromises the sports value of erasers one? And what kind of message do you think that might send to the world that you know drivers behave like that? But there isn't really any reprimand for it? 

 

Catherine Bond Muir  29:53  

 

Yeah, I find it very difficult to actually talk about this publicly because I would just, I would be concerned if something happened to one of our drivers, for example. And then I had everyone else commenting on me, and I had the Hass team, you know, commenting on the way we dealt with something. So what I don't want to do is his comments too much about this. But certainly, you know, we are about the promotion of women. We're all very, very robust women. And, you know, I will just leave it on the thought that we want all women to be treated with respect at all times.

 

Farah Nanji  30:38  

 

100%. And fair enough. And just one more question, sort of maybe not on that topic. But what kind of common behaviour Do you have you seen that maybe has derailed more drivers careers?

 

Catherine Bond Muir  30:53  

 

I think it's not behaviour, I think it's all about money. I think that's the, what we need to do is try and find a way obviously, that more women can be involved in motorsport, but that it's not all about the money. Now, obviously, it's not about what motor sport is, this is this wonderful sport, because there are so many ways that you can get involved in motor sport, you know, you can be a marshal, you can be a steward, you can work for a team, you can set up a motor racing series, there are lots and lots of different touch points. But where we can encourage more women to come in directly is, as you know, engineers and mechanics and you know, we that there was a lot of effort on our behalf to try and find and encourage more female mechanics and engineers. At our Brands Hatch race, we bought 100 young girls from a charity called London youth. And there were a lot of relatively underprivileged girls who came along. And it was interesting to see their reaction when they were showing up all around w series and our garaging is that they didn't necessarily want to become a driver, but lots of them said, I didn't know I could become a mechanic, because they saw female mechanics, and I think, you know, that is is very important for W series is to promote women's roles in not just in driving, but also in all other aspects of motorsport.

 

Farah Nanji  32:38  

 

Yeah, definitely. And I think data is different, or is there now No, women in motorsport, make an amazing example of going into schools and organising those kinds of days, and really showcasing all the different career paths. And so you talked a little bit earlier about, you know, the pause that COVID gave and the reset. So, of course, you know, as it is, just the first few years, as you mentioned, running a business really are like no other. And then when a pandemic hits, you know, it's just nuts, especially when there's been such global recognition, applause, turn the naysayers into believers, all of that stuff. And I know that you said as well, that, you know, going racing just wasn't an option, particularly because one of the main reasons was that, you know, obviously, you have drivers, they're all from different countries. So kind of, logistically that just doesn't work in a time like this. So could you maybe shed a bit more light into the areas that you decided to switch gears into in the business during this time?

 

Catherine Bond Muir  33:37  

 

Well, as I said, it was we did the esports series, and that took a huge amount of time and effort for that to put together. We reset our strategy, our long term strategy for the business. And, and also, we've just been working very hard, you know, getting the Formula One deal over the line, obviously, that that takes a lot of work. And obviously shoring up our finances and getting commercial partnerships underway. And so we'll be having, you know, announcements throughout this year on those partnerships.

 

Farah Nanji  34:16  

 

Watch this space. So talking about, you know, the career path and the switch. Was there a huge freedom that came from just starting from scratch? Or was it quite nerve wracking?

 

Catherine Bond Muir  34:30  

 

Both 5050 So, there is a joy to having an idea and then making it happen. I mean, that that was extraordinary and are when the cars came around the corner to line up on the grid at Hockenheim, our first race that was actually quite an emotional time for me because you thought you know, we've done it and and and that there was no A great sense of personal pride and pride for the whole team that that we were able to do that,

 

Farah Nanji  35:07  

 

As a parent to a young child, and I think family, women at heart running such a global and fast paced business, what are some of your success habits?

 

Catherine Bond Muir  35:19  

 

Well, that's interesting, because having lots of women discussed having a business life and about having children and and say, you know, as the, you know, phrase lean in, you know, you can have it all. And I personally believe that, while for me, I'm in a constant state of I, I, I should be better at both. So it is really just the time that I would like to spend more time with my son, you know, now, I'm working incredibly hard. I've worked the last two weekends. So obviously, whilst you know, I'm in the same house as him. Because I've worked the last two weekends, I haven't been devoting, you know, hours and hours a day, and just doing things that I could do with him, you know, playing football, going for a walk, you know, just having quality time with him. So, the successful habits, I'm not sure I do have them because I don't feel as though I am the best mother that I possibly should be. I think the upside for Hamish is that he has a role model and a mother who has, you know, who has made something from nothing and has built a motor racing series. And I think for him going forward, that's fantastic. But I would always like to spend more time with him. And you know, I can't do that whilst I'm doing w series. And I think that's just a question of perspective. And my perspective is that, you know, I'm never always going to be the best mother I want to be, because I can't spend all my time with them.

 

Farah Nanji  37:17  

 

That's a huge sacrifice, you know, and you're fighting a much bigger fight for so many people, not not just one, right. So, you know, hopefully over time, and also just the dynamics of working at home at the moment has allowed you a bit more of that time.

 

Catherine Bond Muir  37:33  

 

And I'm also spectacularly bad at homeschooling.

 

Farah Nanji  37:40  

 

Yeah, that's a really tough one. My parents run Montessori schools. And, yeah, it's been, it's been nuts to just see, you know, the Well, I mean, in some ways, you know, got to look at things in a positive way. And I think there's so many reforms, and that needs to be done in so many industries. And you know, the education system is definitely one. So hopefully, this is a time where some of those resets will happen. And so we're moving on into the audience q&a, the patron round. So you've already answered one, which was about the drivers reaction. So the other one comes in from Ali, who asks, Would you ever consider having men enter the series to prove that you can be an MC series?

 

Catherine Bond Muir  38:22  

 

That's a really, really, really interesting question. Our w series is about women at the moment. I mean, maybe at some point in the future, we can have Wm series. But you know, we aren't there yet. That's not on our strategic plan. But it is something that I would enjoy enormously. And I think it would be good fun. You know, I've never been to people when they first criticised w series, they said it was all about segregation. I mean, I, I've never read, you know, recognised that word. I don't believe we segregate all of our drivers and go off and racing against men, you know, throughout the air, you know, when they can race obviously. And, you know, and we encourage them to do that. But it's a great thought and something that I wouldn't rule out.

 

Farah Nanji  39:20  

 

Fantastic. Well, we will be watching when that happens. So final part of the interview quickfire round and we've got five questions for you 60 seconds on each. So I know that you're a lover of disco music, so I'm a DJ, it's my job So with that in mind, what track would you want to play on your way to the podium?

 

Catherine Bond Muir  39:52  

 

Dr. Talking

 

Farah Nanji  39:54  

 

Nice, nice. Okay, noted. So, second one, what is the perfect glass of line two, watch Formula One with all the W series.

 

Catherine Bond Muir  40:03  

 

Pollini. manasu.

 

Farah Nanji  40:05  

 

Nice. Okay scale of one to 10 how good of a driver are you?

 

Catherine Bond Muir  40:13  

 

I'm brilliant. Now I've been getting tartous f3 car but I'm a reasonable driver. I'm quite, I'm quite good at reversing into space.

 

Farah Nanji  40:23  

 

Very good. Very good. Okay, number four, what's for dinner tonight?

 

Catherine Bond Muir  40:31  

 

My husband is an exceptional cook. And we have an I know him and because he's making it already. We are having lamb stuff. Dope machines

 

Farah Nanji  40:43  

 

are fantastic. And number five, what is the best thing that happened to you this month?

 

Catherine Bond Muir  40:55  

 

Someone has been working on and off with w series. And I called him up and told him we were giving him a full time job.

 

Farah Nanji  41:05  

 

Ah, that's very nice.

 

Catherine Bond Muir  41:07 

 

He's such a nice man. It was just and he was so happy. It was a really, really lovely thing to do.

 

Farah Nanji  41:15  

 

That's fantastic. Well, Catherine, thank you so much for your time. We really, really appreciate it. And we wish you a fabulous weekend, Good Friday night, and all the best.

 

Catherine Bond Muir  41:28  

 

Thanks very much for having me. Farah. It's been a delight.

 

Farah Nanji  41:31  

 

You've got to take your hat off to Catherine for the incredible marks she's made on the sport in such a short space of time. It definitely takes courage and I hope it's left you feeling really, really inspired about the changing face of women in motorsport. We've got some amazing guests coming on the show this season. So be sure to share the show with your friends and subscribe to us on Apple, Spotify, YouTube and wherever else you listen to your podcast. And do feel free to reach out to me at @missionmakers or at @DJ.N1nja on Instagram. Thank you again for listening. And if you're interested in supporting the show and getting some really cool rewards like DJ lessons and life coaching with me and my teams, don't forget to visit www.patreon.com/mission-makers