The Pros and Cons of a Women’s-Only World Motorcycle Championship

MotoGP 2023 has officially come to a close and Ducati’s won everything (again), snatching #50MotoGPwins for Team Red – well, one of the teams, at any rate.

The season’s successes will soon be followed by harder concessions (courtesy of Dorna’s recent talks with all teams involved); meanwhile, a gander at the MotoGP circuit reveals the usual lack of female pro talent, leading to the following question:

Has a woman ever ridden in MotoGP?

To date, not a single woman in the history of MotoGP has finished a season on the Grand Prix’s grid (Gina Bovaird started a premier-class race, but that’s it)… so when a Women’s World Motorcycle Championship was announced back in October as a part of the World Superbike support bill in 2024, you could imagine the conflicted reactions: 

Should male and female racers be in the same series?

Is the idea of a female-exclusive championship demeaning?

Mat Oxley – Isle of Man TT winner and a prolific writer – logs some perceptive responses from a hearty fistful of influential women riders. 

First up: The 2023 Women’s European Champ, a 21-year-old Spaniard by the name of Beatriz Neila. Neila believes that anatomical differences are largely the reason for MotoGP’s male-dominant circuit:

There have always been women competing against men, but none have reached the top: MotoGP or World Superbike…because women and men are different, physically different – which is why the new [Women’s World Championship] is a present to us, because it allows women to fight for a world title, to see who’s the fastest woman in the world.” – Beatriz Neila, Women’s European Champ (Mat Oxley, Motorsport Magazine)

Next, words from a major icon of female racing. UK-based Maria Costello is the only woman to ever be awarded “Member of the Order of the British Empire” (MBE) – a well-deserved honor that speaks volumes on her accomplishments, but doesn’t come without its own sacrifices:

I love the fact that we can compete on equal terms with men…There are already women racing in the Moto3, Supersport 300 and MotoE world championships, plus team owner Faye Ho is doing amazing things with her all-women team in the British Junior Supersport series.” I love what Formula 1 is doing with its F1 Academy, which is nurturing women drivers from the grassroots up. What we need in motorcycling is the same kind of support, not women-only racing.” – Maria Costello, Women’s European Champ, MBE (Mat Oxley, Motorsport Magazine)

Arguments posited by both Neila and Costello are legitimate… but what do the guys think about women having their own motorcycling championship? 

A certain news editor by the name of Charlie Rous certainly left little to the imagination when speaking of the female role in racing as a whole (this was back in the 1960s):

Personally, I am very much against women taking part in racing. I’ve got nothing against them, in fact I think they’re rather nice, and I would like to see them stay that way.” Motorcycle racing is dangerous, and frankly, I think their presence adds to the danger.” – Charlie Rous, Editor, Motor Cycle News (Mat Oxley, Motorsport Magazine)

Today, Rous’s words are echoed back in spades with the experiences of Patricia Fernandez, a highly talented pro racer who has frequented the Super Hooligan Championships, King of the Baggers (KOTB) Championships, and the Bagger Racing League. 

Suffice it to say that a racing woman’s experience is far from “nice:”

In the first years when I started pro racing, there weren’t very many girls, and it was nasty… I’ve had my own teammates tell me they would take me out before they’d ever let me beat them.” In the last 10 years that I’ve been around, [it’s gotten better], but that’s because there are more women, and we’re around more. I’m also more established now, so I think it’s harder to bully me around versus a newbie that just started.” – Interview: Patricia Fernandez, The Girl Who Raced a Bagger See also Amanda Quick· Motorcycle News ·November 20, 2024·9 min read Souo’s Insane Flat-Eight Muscle Cruiser and a New Rocket Duo

Oxley’s own opinion roots deep into the part of racing history where “FIM rewrote the rules in the early 1960s, banning women from Grand Prix.” With an airing out of the past, Oxley looks to the future by quoting superstars like World Superbike junior category winner Ana Carrasco, the first woman to win an individual world championship motorcycle race:

I always try to be confident, because… when fans watch MotoGP riders, maybe they think these guys are from another world, but we are all the same. Some of us are racers and others are builders or doctors – I don’t see any difference… you listen to those who want to help you and everything else means nothing.  It’s always important to know who is trying to help you and who is trying to destroy you.” – Ana Carrasco, Supersport 300 World Champ (Mat Oxley, Motorsport Magazine)

So where does this leave the Women’s World Motorcycle Championship? 

So far, women from all corners of our industry show both love and lack thereof for a dedicated women’s only world racing event. As somebody who has never set wheel to a professional circuit but stands proud as a female motorcyclist, I will always be in support of opportunities that get female talent stretching muscles for the big leagues… but I don’t think the Women’s WMC need be a final stop, folks. 

Coincidentally, neither does Oxley:

The FIM wants its new series to be a final destination for women racers, but it’s a fairly big step down from the Moto3 World Championship, which Carrasco currently contests…” It’s difficult to see the world’s fastest women racers wanting to contest the Women’s Motorcycling World Championship. In which case, what’s the point?” – Mat Oxley, Motorsport Magazine

Big thanks to Mat for the continued inspiration to cover full-fueled topics like this; do you think the Women’s World Motorcycle Championship will be “a final destination for women racers?”

*Media sourced from Ducati, as well as our own interview with Patricia Fernandez and Maria Costello’s Facebook page*