Of late India has registered its presence in F1, with Narain Karthikeyan , Karun Chandok and now Indian Grand Prix will be held on 28-30 th October. Have you ever wondered what connects Dehradun and the F1 ? Well for starters it is a lady who connects this capital city Uttarakhand to the Sauber F1 team.
Monisha Kaltenborn born as Manisha Narang, spent the first 8 years of her life in Dehradun. She studied in Welham’s Girls School before her parents moved to Vienna where her uncle was working at an Atomic agency. She happens to be first woman CEO in history of F1 motor sports, it is indeed a matter of great honor that the first woman CEO is an Indian. When she was asked does she feels a little absurd in male dominated world of F1 she wittily replied
I look it from other point of view that i get to wear shoes that very few women get to do.
Rise to CEO :
Her rise to position of CEO of Sauber’s team has been meteoric, she even confessed that even in her wildest dream she had never thought of working for an F1 team. After her family moved to Austria she completed her law studies from Vienna. Then she completed her Masters from London School of Business. After graduating from London School of Business she joined an asset management firm Fritz Kaiser Group which had a stake in Red Bull Sauber F1 team.
When the two partners separated Peter Sauber offered her a position with he team. With BMW’s exit from the team she was elevated to the position of CEO.
Involvement in FIA’s Women and Motorsport Commission :
Being a mother and managing a team in F1 is indeed a very tough task, juggling between family and work is quite a challenge in itself. Her mother has flown from Vienna to help her, however she has managed both the fronts quite well. Hats off to her for efficiently working on both fronts which is a daunting task in itself.
She is also involved with FIA’s Women and Motorsport Commission and hopes to see a girl in F1 soon. The main focus as she has rightly pointed out is to support promising girls from GP2 and Gp3 which are feeder schools for F1.
Her Sauber team has done reasonably well and is currently in 7 th position with 36 points. She hopes that her team will improve in future and has admitted that the unexpected exit of BMW hit them pretty hard last season. With all that behind we hope to see her at Buddh circuit in Greater Noida , that would be sort of homecoming for her and it would be pretty fitting if her team can score some more vital points before the end of this season.