Meet The Full Female-Forward Paretta Autosport Team Taking On The Indy 500

Elizabeth Blackstock
55 minutes ago

As 33 cars line up for the start of the iconic 500-mile race tomorrow morning at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the final starter on the grid will be making history. The No. 16 car will be driven by Simona de Silvestro and is fielded by Paretta Autosport. This is not only the first time a woman-owned team will be aiming for the iconic win—it’ll be the first time a female-forward crew will help make that effort happen. And today, we’re going to introduce you to the women on the team that are breaking boundaries.

“With this IndyCar team, I have some veterans, and I have some women that are new to motorsport,” Beth Paretta told me in an interview with A Girls Guide to Cars. “I’ve done that on purpose, because I don’t necessarily want to do things the way everybody else has been doing them. This is meant to be more than a race team. I need people to understand that this comes with all the extras, because all the extras are what makes it special.

“When I’ve been hiring for the pit crew, I let them know: you’re going to have to do some public speaking,” Paretta said. “That’s not normally on the job description!”

That’s because this team is designed to show women that motorsport is more than just a male-dominated sphere. It’s a place to showcase your engineering skills on the big stage. As Paretta said, it also provides immediate feedback: instead of having to wait to see how your work fares on a car that’s set to be launched in a year, you can see it every single weekend on the race track.

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