Grid Girls Become Grid Kids for Formula One in 2018

[Paul Jeffrey]

The FIA have confirmed children will replace the traditional grid girls found on Formula One grids in the coming season.

Having announced a few days ago that Formula One will no longer be employing the services of glamorously attired grid girls for the coming year, the governing body of world motorsport has now confirmed that young children will take their place on the starting grid in a move designed to engage younger audiences into the high octane world of Formula One.

The children will be selected by the local governing body of each race and are expected to perform similar duties to those undertaken by grid girls in years past. Quite how that will work out holding big and heavy flags in high winds remains to be seen...

Speaking of the announcement today, Formula One Managing Director Sean Bratches has the following to say:

"This will be an extraordinary moment for these youngsters: imagine, standing beside their heroes, watch as they prepare to race, the elite of the elite in motorsport, to be there, alongside them in those precious few minutes just before the start,"

"What an unforgettable experience, for them, and their families. An inspiration to keep driving, training and learning so that they can dream of one day being there themselves. What better way to inspire the next generation of Formula 1 heroes."
​

Both the Formula Two and Formula Three events that travel to the majority of Grand Prix are expected to follow suit in this new initiative, however it remains to be seen how quickly the rest of the motorsport world will take to adopt this new policy from the FIA.

If you like your motorsport fast and open wheeled, check out the Formula One sub forum and get yourself in on the discussion today!

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What do you think to the initiative of removing grid girls in favour of grid kids in Formula One? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[DND]

F1 is a clown show....

 

[Benutzername]

I could not agree on simply removing grid girls. They, for me, are part of a race weekend and the lead up to the race.

To twist the idea of grid girls up and let kids, which are really emotional fans and always the future of a sport, have the chance to be that near to their idols and be part of the pre-race procedure is nice.
Great idea!

 

[Giannis Christodoulou]

Are the grid kids going to be dressed with heavily undersized spandex like the "old" grid girls? F1 is looking to up its attendance, and pedophiles could be a big demographic it seems...

 

[led00m]

Yeah inspiring the future generations of f1 heroes... assuming dad has £30mil just laying around!

 

[Warren Schembri]

isn't this infringing on child labour laws?

 

[FeltHat]

pedobear joke in 3... 2... 1...


#bringbackgridgirls
(i dont even watch f1 and i miss them already)

 

[Metalogic]

Children in racing car paddocks. What could possibly go wrong? Er...

 

[Shaun Clarke]

So now comes the argument for Child Exploitation and Glamorising Children....

Oh please

 

[DND]

Just kind of surprised it was that high on the 'Things To Do Today List'. So having kids on the grid is going to grow the sport because kids will tune in because they aspire to be grid kids? Concentrate on the product ....oh hell nevermind. Goodbye F1 hello my old friend sports cars.

 

[RufGTI]

F1 on its way to absolute PC-ness...

 

[Evi]

I assume we are talking 10 to 14 year old here. Promising 16 year old are already driving.
sarcasm on -
Standing alone in noisy crowd for half an hour with your back turned to the very thing you are hoping to see (F1 car) holding some kind of plaque... not allowed to talk to your hero because he is preparing for race... unforgettable experience.

Or maybe this will be family affair - whole families will be allowed to stand there...
-sarcasm off

In sum - not a good idea. Give kids access to pits, to teams. Don't parade them. Even in football it's done with more taste and purpose than this.

 

[Shaun Clarke]

What they have not mentioned is that if you work with Under 18yr olds, you need to have now LEGALLY a DBS check, which is a basically a security check, I know as I used to run a football team that my lad played for.

So everybody, and I mean everybody, TV Crew, Teams, Mechanics, Drivers, you name it, anybody connected with the sport will need a DBS check LOL

EDIT - Oh, have they not read the rules also....anybody under the age of 16 has to be accompanied by an adult on the grid...Grids going to get a little busy HA HA HA So where is their Hero...buried in a sea of people

 

[ears]

What they have not mentioned is that if you work with Under 18yr olds, you need to have now LEGALLY a DBS check, which is a basically a security check, I know as I used to run a football team that my lad played for.

So everybody, and I mean everybody, TV Crew, Teams, Mechanics, Drivers, you name it, anybody connected with the sport will need a DBS check LOL

Maybe they all got one done when Max Verstappen joined Toro Rosso.

 

[PaulH]

Sorry, all I can think of looking at the main pic "gust of wind"

 

[Wexodius]

A sad day for motorsport and in my opinion a bad move from the new owners of F1.
I can't imagine Hamilton being too happy either about this move. What the hell is going on in this world? Seems like everything must be ethically cleansed by some overthinkers. Sad sad world.

 

[Austin Ogonoski]

Nothing says "fighting for women's rights" like getting a whole bunch of them fired from their jobs.

 

[farjam]

fun fact ,
if you ban grid girls to make some feminists happy and start using kids on the grid , after a while they will say it's child abuse or Child labour !

 

[Joseph Wright]

Stupid. I was watching an interview on the BBC the other day with a former grid girl and she loved the job as it was more than just parading around on the grid. It was so much more than that, and it is ridiculous they have removed it! All they had to do: mix it up and add some guys. I know not everyone would be a fan but better than kids! IMO anyway.

 

[ETandK]

At least the Kids can enjoy swinging on the Halo Loops while waiting for the race to start...... What a joke F1 has become... MotoGP fan