Women who occupy the position of team manager in motor sports are very rare. Milena is the head of the Forward team which has been recently presented, and she explained how she got to this position to Gpone.com's Matteo Aglio.
“I was born in Gera, 20 minutes from Sachsenring, She says. I was 13 when my grandparents took me to see the GP. They were in the stand, I wanted to enter the paddock but I didn't have a pass. I waited two hours at the entrance, then a security guard let me through. »
Milena then entered the industry as an umbrella girl, whose removal from certain car races is currently controversial. « I don't see this as a very reasonable decision, believes Milena. The problem is not the girls, but the heads of these men who think they are available just because they wear a short skirt, high heels and are next to a motorcycle. Maybe they do it to finance their studies or to be part of a world they are passionate about. »
Milena later takes on a more important position “By becoming coordinator of the team of Giovanni Cuzari and Andrea Dosoli in 2009. I then worked in MotoGP for 5 years as press manager for the Tech3 team, I also learned a lot there.”
And last year, Cuzari contacted her to offer her the position of team leader... « I have to thank him, he put his trust in me and that was the most important thing. I had doubts, I didn't know if I would be capable, I didn't know if the team would accept me. But after the first test, I already felt like part of the family, maybe because I had worked with many of them before.”
Are you facing harm?
“When you're a woman, they think you don't know anything about motorcycles, like you have to be an engineer to manage a team. If you are a man, you are automatically respected, but if you are a young woman, you are not. I'm known for being a pitbull, a general (she laughs), it helped me. Plus, having done a lot of work before becoming a team leader, I know everything about what happens in a team, it's hard to make me lose my mind ».
You are now something of a pioneer...
“I don't feel like that, I know there aren't many women in certain roles in the paddock and I don't expect that to change. Few of us are interested in the World Championship, it's a question of numbers. Also, a team, faced with two people of equal competence, will always prefer a man. A woman can be a problem and also a cost, she needs different clothes, sleeps in her own room. Little things you might not think about. »
Photos © Forward Racing Team
Sources: gpone.com and Forward Racing Team
