Oscar Piastri may be the one racing at the Melbourne Grand Prix, but his girlfriend Lily Zneimer is quietly fighting her own battle to break into Formula One – a sport that hasn’t had a female race starter in over 45 years.
Only five women have ever competed in a Formula 1 World Championship Grand Prix.
Not one has started a race in over 45 years. At McLaren, one of the sport’s most storied teams, just one in ten technical staff is female.
It is into this world that Lily Zneimer, 24-year-old British engineering graduate and long-time girlfriend of McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, is trying to build a career.
And she is doing it with her eyes wide open.
‘I wanted to be here today, it’s really important to give girls the visibility and I would like to do whatever I can to help encourage more girls to this sport,’ Zneimer said at Melbourne’s recent In Her Corner event – a gathering of pioneering women in motorsport held as part of International Women’s Day.
Lily Zneimer, Oscar Piastri’s long-time girlfriend, is an engineering graduate determined to build a career inside Formula One
Formula One remains one of sport’s most male-dominated industries, with women making up just ten percent of technical staff
Formula One has long been regarded as one of sport’s most impenetrable boys’ clubs.
While its global fanbase has shifted dramatically – women now make up around 40% per cent of F1’s audience, with the 18-to-24 female demographic its fastest-growing segment – the paddock itself has been far slower to change.
Women represent roughly 31 per cent of total F1 staff, but in technical roles that figure drops sharply.
Red Bull reported just 6 per cent female technical employees in 2023, while Mercedes and McLaren have each climbed from around 5-6 to 10 per cent between 2021 and 2024.
For Zneimer, those numbers are not abstractions. They are the landscape she is navigating every time she steps into a paddock garage.
Yet her engineering degree, coupled with the technical instincts she has sharpened by proximity to one of the sport’s elite teams, means she is better equipped than most. She is not a spectator in the McLaren garage. She understands it.
‘When I’m in the garages I know what’s going on and I can understand – I’m not sure whether that’s dangerous or not – but I know it’s safe,’ she said.
That insider knowledge sets her apart. F1 photographer Kym Illman, who has observed Zneimer’s growing involvement in the sport firsthand, believes her ambitions are entirely achievable.
Zneimer is using her engineering knowledge and paddock access to encourage more women into the sport she loves
‘She’s keen to score a job in F1 too. And with her contacts, you’d think she’d be a fair chance,’ Illman said previously.
Her contacts begin with Piastri himself. The couple met as teenagers at Haileybury boarding school in Hertfordshire, England, began dating shortly before he graduated in 2019, and have been together since.
Piastri, now a race winner and one of Formula One’s most exciting young talents, has spoken warmly about their grounded and low-key relationship.
‘We keep it private, not secretive like some relationships are,’ Piastri said previously.
‘We keep it to ourselves and try to be out of the spotlight and just live normal lives.’
But Zneimer’s path into Formula One cannot be defined by who she is dating. The barriers facing women in the sport are structural and long-standing.
The pipeline of female drivers has thinned dramatically. The last woman to take part in a Formula One race weekend was Susie Wolff in 2014 as a development driver for Williams.
Before that, the sport’s most recent female points scorer was Lella Lombardi, who earned a half-point at the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix.
On the technical side, the culture has long pushed women out before they even get in.
That is why events like In Her Corner matter to women like Zneimer. Hosted by F1 strategy engineer Ruth Buscombe at Melbourne’s Carousel venue, the event brought together some of motorsport’s most determined women.
Haas race engineer Laura Mueller attended alongside F1 Academy drivers Aiva Anagnostiadis and Joanne Ciconte.
Rally world champion Molly Taylor and Aston Martin ambassador Jess Hawkins were also part of the lineup. Formula One president and CEO Stefano Domenicali attended the event as well.
F1 Academy driver Ciconte, who has experienced the long road through motorsport’s male-dominated junior ranks firsthand, delivered a message of hard-won resilience.
‘Discipline, hard work and tenacity are the pillars of motorsport,’ she said. ‘It’s a long road to Formula 1, so keeping the right mind set and focus on the long term goal is crucial for success,’ she said.
‘I am passionate to support women in motorsport, and to inspire women to thrive. I see a bright future in the sport for women and look forward to seeing our numbers continue to grow.’
For Zneimer, those words carry real weight.
