For the second year in a row, the FIA Girls on Track Career Development and Mentor Program has been held at the Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix.
 
After a successful launch of the inaugural program last year, 25 girls were selected out of a massive 600 applicants to take part in this year’s special day, which gave the lucky participants an exclusive insights into Formula 1.
 
With a collection of FIA Girls on Track ambassadors on hand to help run the event, the 25 girls experienced an unforgettable day that included an exclusive tour of the Formula 1 pits and multiple team garages.
 
Some of the ambassadors in attendance included Alfa Romeo’s Krystina Emmanouilides, Triple Eight Racing Engineering’s Jess Dane and Romy Mayer, Extreme E and rally star Molly Taylor and motorsport journalists Emma Notarfrancesco and Nadine Armstrong.


Similar to last year’s program, the event began with a number of group workshops in the morning and included a Network lunch with industry professionals.
 
New inclusions into this year’s program were a Q&A session with a participant from last year, while Sophie Wisely was presented with the first ever FIA Girls on Track High Achiever award.
 
Following the Network lunch, the participants got an exclusive tour of the Formula 1 paddock before spending a large portion of time at the Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake garage.
 
During their time at Alfa Romeo, they enjoyed a catch up with the team’s star drivers Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas, did a tour of the garage and enjoyed a special pit stop challenge using the team’s Formula 1 cars.


Alfa Romeo wasn’t the only Formula 1 team part of the tour, with the girls also getting an insight into the Williams Racing garage.
 
Following on from the day, one of young participants, Nadia, walked away with plenty gained from the day.
 
"Today was a great experience and to have the opportunity to actually just immerse myself in the sport," Nadia said.
 
"Coming from Perth to here and getting to know people within the industry and to have some really great chats with them was amazing.
 
"It's also really comforting to know that some people worked really hard to get where they are. And I love a bit of a challenge and I'm prepared to take myself to wherever I want to go.


"The garage tour was overwhelming to say the least. But it was just amazing getting to see how the team operates behind closed doors. The Drive to Survive stuff becomes irrelevant when you're there in the paddock and garage, talking to the engineers and seeing how they are working on the cars.
 
"It made me believe that anything is possible and hard work pays off and I think the one thing I took away is that every person counts. It doesn't matter where you are, what part of the team you're in, it’s all being together which is important."
 
Click here for more information on the FIA Girls on Track program.