Former Formula 1 grid girl Leilani Dowding has spoken openly about her time in the sport, dismissing rumours of a partying lifestyle and describing the experience as highly professional.
The 46-year-old former glamour model and Page 3 star appeared on the F1 grid multiple times in the early 2000s, mingling with some of the sport's biggest names. She recently shared a throwback image of herself on the grid at Silverstone in 2001, wearing an iconic Hot Wheels outfit.
Since grid girls were removed from the sport in 2018, Dowding has been vocal in her opposition to the ban.
Professional Atmosphere on the Grid
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Star Sport, via OLBG, Dowding said the reality was far from the rock 'n' roll image people might expect.
“I think everyone was really professional, so you never spoke to the drivers, you never distracted the drivers or their teams, everything was really very professional,” she said.
“Also obviously the guys didn't get where they got by getting distracted on the grid or anything like that.”
Despite being close to the drivers, Dowding said the grid girls' role was completely separate from the work of mechanics and drivers before a race.
“Everything was really separate. You just were told you must not distract anyone, only speak to the people working there if they speak to you. You're not meant to go and distract anyone, the mechanics or the team or anyone that are meant to be doing anything.”
No Big Parties After Races
Dowding said there was little time for socialising after races, with teams either celebrating a win or dealing with disappointment.
“I think by the time the races were done, everyone was just so exhausted, it was all packing up,” she explained.
“It was either like the excitement that they were in and the team were in if they won, that they went off and did their thing. And obviously if they didn't do well, there was disappointment, so there was no real time where anyone got together or celebrated.”
“It was all actually quite boring in that respect, there was no huge parties with the grid girls or anything like that, it was all kept very, very, very professional.”
Basic Accommodation and Early Starts
The accommodation for grid girls was far from the luxury hotels the drivers enjoyed, Dowding revealed.
“So we would get there on a Friday or a Saturday and we would sleep there the night before and they'd have like these this big container, like one of those like transport containers but it would have beds in,” she said.
“There was like 20 or 30, but then we'd all sleep in this kind of like bunks in this little caravan thing. Then we'd get up the next day and they'd want us to all be there first thing.”
“We'd go down to the grid before anything happened really early and we'd figure out which spots we're going to stand in. I don't know how we were allocated positions actually, it was like ‘you're going stand there, you're going to stand there, you're going to stand there.’”
“We just kind of walked out into our positions and just stood there until we had to move out of the way.”
While some girls treated it purely as work and left quickly to avoid traffic, Dowding said she would stay to watch the race.
“Some people would be like right let's just go home now and get out before the traffic because to some people it was just work - get the money and get out before everyone else tried to get out,” she said.
“But some of us would stay back and I would watch as much of the race as I could because we were there and we didn't have to pay for a ticket. I could just watch it all, enjoy it and take it in.”
