Racing driver Charlie Martin on winning races, hearts and minds

Ben:

Hello and welcome to Ashurst Business Agenda. My name is Ben McAlary and you're listening to our Outpacing Change miniseries. In today's episode you'll hear my conversation with someone who knows more than a thing or two about outpacing the competition. It's professional racing driver and LGBTQ+ activist, Charlie Martin.

It's a particular privilege to have Charlie on the show because she is genuinely making history. Just last month, Charlie became the first transgender driver to compete at the oldest and greatest endurance race in the world at Le Mans.

In our discussion, Charlie talks me through how motorsports went from a passion to a successful career and the courageous decision she made to not only come out to her friends and family, but to a racing community that ultimately accepted and encouraged Charlie to bring about true change in motorsports globally.

Along the way, Charlie highlights how innovation is helping her achieve great success, the significance of teamwork, stakeholder management and the importance of knowing when to change to wet-weather tyres. Charlie also provides timely advice to business leaders who are trying to summon up the courage to bring about positive change in their field.

It's definitely a wide-ranging discussion with plenty of inspiration and takeaways for business leaders, innovators, and anyone really seeking to break down barriers and bring about change in their industry. I can't wait to share this with you so let's jump right in and hear the conversation. Hello Charlie, and welcome to Ashurst's Outpacing Change miniseries.

Charlie:

Thanks, Ben. It's a pleasure to join you.

Ben:

Charlie, we know millions of people enjoy watching motorsports, some even dream of becoming a professional racing car driver, but obviously only a few select actually achieve that dream. How did your passion for racing begin and how did you actually turn that into a career?

Charlie:

Well, I actually grew up wanting to be a fighter pilot. I was obsessed with flying and Top Gun was pretty much responsible for that. It was only around the age of about 10, 11, I started to realise that dream would be quite hard to actualize because I'm terrible at maths and physics and you need good grades in those subjects.

And around that time, I guess a combination of things, but largely one of my best friends, his dad, Greg Bibby who used to race, not professionally, but a very, very good club racer and raced all his life. I think I went away with them one weekend to go to a race. Yeah, we were camping. Just spent the whole time in the race paddock, all vintage cars, all kinds of cars actually and I just really, really loved it. It really inspired me, just kind of lit that passion inside me. I guess that love of flying planes, adrenaline and adventure and everything, it kind of just morphed into the racetrack.

So I used to go away with them whenever I could as a kid. And then my friend Hamish, he started racing with his dad when he was 19. I guess I just started to look at racing at that point as being something that maybe I could do as opposed to being something that other people did. That was quite an important distinction. So, having sort of experienced a lot of club racing and real grassroots racing, that really made me want to just give it a go.

At that point I had no big ambition of becoming a professional racing driver and things were quite slow to get going, I suppose. For a long time I was racing on a shoestring and just doing everything myself, but I guess over the years I got more and more into it. I ended up going and racing in France for three years and I was competing in hill climb at this point in time, which is where it's like a time trial. So you're not racing with other cars on the track at the same time, it's against the clock.

And over in Europe, they basically closed the road between two villages and you drive it as fast as you can. At that point I was starting to try and get a bit of sponsorship and it had gone beyond the stage of a hobby, but it wasn't a career.

Ben:

Amazing. So talk to me about 2018. Why was that, that sliding door moment for you? Was there anything in particular that happened that year?

Charlie:

I felt like I'd got as far as I could go with hill climb and I pivoted into circuit racing, which I guess is the more traditional form of racing most people think of, and that was a big step-up financially. But I guess the crux of that was that potentially because it was a more widely known form of motorsport, that it would be easier to find more sponsorship and more backing.

So I realised that I would need to have a big profile, a big platform if I was going to attract any sponsorship. Therefore, if I was going to do that, I would also have to come out in that environment because I didn't want to hide my identity. So I guess all these things kind of collided and came together in that moment. Yeah, it just sort of felt right, this is the way it's going to happen.

Ben:

So Charlie, for all the car enthusiasts out there, what type of car do you actually drive and what is the endurance racing class?

Charlie:

The racing I've been doing for some years now is typically known as endurance racing, where you can race for anything from one hour to 24 hours. People typically think of the big races, 24 hours of Le Mans, 24 hours of the Nürburgring, Daytona.

I guess the distinction is that you are sharing the car with either one or two other drivers. So it becomes like a relay race. The races I've been doing the last few seasons in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo are 50 minutes.

So it's not that long, but the thing is, yeah, I share the car with another driver. So midway through the race, come in to jump out, the other driver jumps in and that adds a whole element of strategy and sort of changes the dynamic.

You imagine you've stood there on the pit wall, car comes flying into the pits and you're jumping in right in the middle of the race and you've just got to turn it up to a 100% straightaway that moment you leave the pits. So it's really, really exciting. Also, I love the fact that it feels a bit more like a team sport. I mean, of course in any form of motorsport you rely on the team to run, prepare, do everything with the car, but when you start getting into longer races, because of the amount of pit stops you do, tyre changes, strategy calls, there's so many things that happen throughout the race where the team comes into play.

Ben:

When people think about motorsports, they typically think about a man with a helmet tucked under his arm, maybe a wreath around his shoulders. He's just won, popping champagne, wasting all that nice champagne with young women or models around him on the stands there. It's a pretty macho, heteronormative image. But in 2018, you came out as transgender. You've admitted at the time it was pretty scary.

Talk me through what your fears were during that time and how you came out and how the racing community responded.

Charlie:

Transitioning was hard for me in all aspects of my life, my personal life, in sport, at work, you name it. I'd reached a point where I just couldn't carry on living as me any longer. I'd been having counselling, therapy and I'd come to the end of the line and I knew this was the only way to carry on living.

So one of the things that really attracted me to motorsport was back when I was a kid, when I was going with my friend, Hamish and his dad was the fact that it was this amazing community as well. It had this feeling of being a very welcoming, friendly place because everyone knew each other, everyone helped each other out. That's really relevant because when I started competing, as much as I love racing the car, I loved all the people and going and seeing my friends and feeling that sense of belonging, which I'm sure anyone who plays in a sports team or has a hobby that is very social, you have that same feeling.

Being unable to see any LGBTQ+ visibility in that space, and as you said that there being such a heteronormative, sort of male-dominated environment, I was convinced that I just wouldn't be welcome. I wouldn't feel comfortable in that environment. People wouldn't know how to react to me.

So I gave up, I walked away, and I honestly thought that's it. It's easy just to close that chapter of my life. Thankfully, I hung onto my race car. I don't know, 10 months later or so, my family and some of my friends were saying, "You really should at least just try and go back. Just don't worry about racing, just go back and see if you want a race and just see, it might be all right. It might be worse in your head than it is in reality."

I knew they had a point so I plucked up the courage to go and see everyone. I'll be honest, there were only a few people that knew, really what was happening in my life. Walking into that space therefore, was one of the scariest things I've ever had to do in my life. I think people perhaps didn't recognise me. Yeah, I didn't know it was me or just thought, "Why on earth is there a trans person here today?" It was really, really awkward.

It was really tough, but something really amazing that happened was that a small group of my friends who did know what was happening, who did know that was coming that day just really supported me, just really were there for me. It was amazing example of allyship doing something very simple. Just as soon as they saw me, came over, gave me a big hug. "Oh, yeah, yeah, you know? How're you doing? Oh, do you know it's really good to see you? Come on, talk to us. Hey, what's going on?"

Just very, not super direct, but just like, "Let's not pique about it. Let's just be like ... You know, talk to us. How are you doing? How are you finding things? We've really missed you. We really want to see you back in the paddock next spring." And it just really made me feel like they wanted me there and I realised how much I'd missed them. You know, it makes me feel a little bit emotional talking about it now, but had they not done that, I wouldn't have gone back racing the next year.

There's a really profound message I think about the impact people can have on other people's lives when you just need that hug, that person say, "Hey, I think you're really brave and I just want you to know I'm your friend and none of this is going to change. I'm always going to be here for you."

So it's pretty much in that moment that day I thought, "Well, do you know today's not been easy, but if this is as hard as it's going to be, I can build with this, I can start with this and I can work outwards." So yeah, I went back the next year and since then it's been really just a case of initially taking baby steps and getting up to 2018 when people that knew me, knew my history, knew that I was trans. I felt I had some amazing support from people, but I wasn't really trying to do anything in terms of activism at that point with my career. But I realised that, I guess I felt a bit of an obligation. It'd been so hard for me and I could so easily have given up, and I thought, "There must be so many people who go through this same process."

I thought, "Yeah, I'm going to ..." I'd already been vlogging about my transition on YouTube as a way to try and help inspire and encourage other people. I just thought, "Well, what an amazing opportunity. If I'm going to build this profile, why not do that in a way that I can try and inspire positive change in my industry, in my sport and beyond that?" Things like, yeah, Silverstone that year, we had our big race of the season in June supporting the British GT Championship, which is a big, big series over here.

I thought I'll ask everyone to put a Pride sticker on their car. Seems like a pretty small thing to do, but so far as I knew no one had ever done anything like this in motorsport. I got a load of these. I mean, I literally came up with this idea the day before, a couple of days before I went. Got a big roll of Pride vinyl printed, cut it all up and spoke to all the drivers at briefing in the morning. Sort of asked them, explained why this was important.

I said, "Do you know, I'm sure every one of you here knows somebody in your life directly or indirectly who identifies as LGBTQ+. If they watch your race this weekend on television, when they tune in what do they see, to tell them that we're people that are welcome, that we belong in this space? They see nothing.

"You know, put this little sticker on your car. It's a small thing, but it will mean a lot to a lot of people." And it was a massive success. I wish I'd had more stickers. I gave out every one. That, really for me, I guess it kind of set the tone of everything that's happened since.

Ben:

It's a amazing story, Charlie. Truly an amazing story and it just shows that one small or that one courageous step that you took and the snowball effect that, that has had thanks to, like you said, this network, that you're surrounding yourself with these people that just accept and want to help. I think it's a really wonderful story.

Talk to me about what's happened since. So the stickers went on the car. What else has happened?

Charlie:

Yeah, so Racing Pride was set up and launched the following summer. I don't know, I'd like to think that having that event at Silverstone, that helped to perhaps be a bit of a catalyst for that, for the creation of something much bigger, which really brought a lot of people together from within the industry, whether they're drivers, whether they are ... Obviously, there's so many roles and jobs and careers in motorsport that aren't just driving.

So it really drew on the experience of a lot of people within the industry to come together and try to create something that just uses that visibility, that creates more education. So much of creating progress, I think is just educating people. It's creating that awareness and acceptance and drawing people in and just getting people to appreciate, it's not always easy. Not everyone has the same route in, and for some people it's very easy to look at a sport and not see themselves represented. By creating that visibility, we start to create more welcoming, more inclusive environments.

So in the years since then, Racing Pride has worked with a variety of Formula 1 teams, has had some really big, high-profile things happen like that. Drivers like Sebastian Vettel who've been ... Lewis Hamilton of course, who've been fantastic advocates for LGBTQ+ inclusion. You have a situation where Motorsport UK, the governing body for motorsport has been doing fantastic work across the board with inclusion, not just LGBTQ+ inclusion, but for people with physical impairments and disabilities, for ethnic inclusion, for more gender parity in the sport.

So there's been some really, really amazing things happening and it's fantastic to see everybody coming together and getting behind these kinds of initiatives.

Ben:

It is. It's truly wonderful and you really have become the embodiment of change that you wish to see in motorsport and I think that's fantastic. I wonder now, what advice would you have for any of our listeners who are trying to summon up equal amounts of courage that you've shown to bring about a positive change in either their business or their particular industry?

Charlie:

I would think to where I was at the beginning of my journey and having this big vision and thinking, "Wow, imagine this," but then not knowing where to start. I think it's very easy for people to trip themselves up when they think of inclusion because they're worried about getting everything right from day one.

Of course, it's a bit of a learning process. I think therefore it's very important to just focus on taking those initial small steps. Again, coming back to my own story, it was about being a bit brave, maybe experimenting with different things, trying lots of ideas and see what worked, and then thinking, "Actually, yeah, that had a really positive impact. That landed really well. Great, that's a good direction to go in."

I'm sure anyone who's a leader in their business trying to drive forward positive change, people can be resistant to change. And it's a balance, I think. My experience in the industry has been that I want to bring people on that journey with me, but at times I have had to probably tread on a few toes. There are moments when you do have to have that courage of your own, believing in your own convictions and believing, "Okay, this is the right thing to do." Of course, that come about as a result of talking to people, consulting people, "What's that look like?"

Well okay, if you're a leader who's trying to drive forward inclusion and specifically around the LGBTQ+ community within your workforce, it's important about speaking to the people, hearing people's experiences, asking questions. "What are we like as a business? Where are we right now? Do people within our company feel like they've been supported? Have we done the right things?"

But obviously it's important to have that information and listen to people before you set that path and set that direction. I think as well, you need to be prepared to, I think knock on a few doors and be prepared to connect with people and build that network around you. Having that little team of people around you in your inner circle that you know you can trust, that you can bounce ideas off, that you can lean on when you're having tough times is really, really critical.

I think it's also being a bit persistent, being a bit tenacious, being a bit patient. These things take a lot of time and sometimes it's easy to lose a bit of heart and get frustrated, but you have to keep going. You have to believe in that process. You have to believe that you can see it through. Inevitably, there'll be times when you get to win passes. You need to just have that resilience to keep driving forward and just believing in that vision and dream big.

I had a great mentor for quite a few years who always used to say to me, "Do it now." I'd have a chat with him and he'd be like, "Oh, you know ... Oh well, I've had this thing I'm thinking of doing." He'd be like, "All right, why don't you do it now? What, right now? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Get off this call and do it now. What's stopping you?"

He's like Obi Kenobi. Sometimes in my head it's like, we all start somewhere and you just need that voice to be like, "Right. Okay. I'm going to make this happen. I'm going to do it."

Ben:

If not now, when? Yeah, it's great advice. Really, really great advice. So throughout this whole Outpacing Change series we've been speaking with innovators across a huge range of sectors across the world. We know that motorsport is a hotbed of innovation, but as a driver in a class where all the cars are the same, how does that innovation come through in the work that you do with whether you're collaborating with engineers, the pit crew, owners, co-drivers to improve the overall team's performance? What does that actually look like?

Charlie:

Yeah. I mean, the last few years I've raced in classes where, as you say, everybody's in the same car and there's only certain parameters we're able to tweak and adjust in terms of setup and things. In one respect it's great because it keeps the cost down and it keeps it at a very level playing field. It comes down to the driver ability, but it does mean that you have to be quite innovative. We're always looking for those incremental gains, things that you can do within the rules, but ultimately to doing things that will extract that extra bit of performance, whether it's from a physical thing, from the car, whether it's from people, whether it's human performance.

I work continually on my fitness, my performance, whether it's using a simulator, whether it's doing things that help me work on my reactions and my ability to think and process quickly under pressure, trying to create that feeling that we were alluding to earlier. When you're in the car and it's 60 degrees and your brain is melting, and try and make sure you don't crack under pressure. But it's things like having strategies, strategy, especially as you start looking at longer races and endurance racing, the strategy and the various strategies you can deploy, how, where and when you do that.

A typical example would be, you know you've got a race where it's chopped down with the rain before the start, but the ambient temperature's quite warm. So you'd be starting on a wet track, but you know that, "Okay, the race is going to be an hour," and you know that the track's going to be drying out pretty quickly.

So do you start on wet tyres knowing you'll be quick at the beginning of the race, but very quickly the track's going to dry out and you're wet. If you drive on a dry track in a wet tyre, the tread blocks move around and basically just destroys the tyre quite quickly, or do you start on a slick tyre and struggle with grip, but know that the tire's going to come on very quickly?

All that comes down to, again, the individual driver that's in the car for that stint there, how comfortable they are in wet conditions. There's all these permutations of variables that you have to juggle, consider. And sometimes you get a bit of luck thrown in as well.

We had a race, first race of the season actually in Imola, which we won and we had this bizarre weather that I've never experienced anything like this in my life, where I was driving on a dry track, but then it was about, I don't know, 5:30 in the evening. It went black as night and the wind was blowing stuff off the trees. It was like there was a bit of rain, but you couldn't see, it was so dark. And our cars have headlights, but they don't do anything. They're just there for, they look good.

It was so dark you couldn't see if the track was wet or dry. Then suddenly thunder and lightning in the distance and the team's saying to me, "We're doing the driver change in two laps. Do we stay on slicks? Do we go to wets?" Everybody was having this weird situation because we couldn't tell if the track was slippy or not. It was like a bit slippy, but not full wet slippy.

But then my teammate is not as confident as me in the wet, and you're trying to drive the car, but also think about this stuff and you're relying on your race engineer to make the call as well. I think I called wet two corners before I came into the pits just as the heavens opened and it turned out to be the right call.

We did our pit stop early and we won our class, but it's really ... Yeah, sometimes you call it right, sometimes you call it wrong and you have to rely on the team around you as well. They're making calls, they're making decisions. In moments like that you don't have the brain capacity to think about all this stuff. You just have to rely that the decision we make in that instant is the one we go with. It's after the race you can sit down and talk about it and break it all down. But yeah, again, this is why I love endurance racing because it's not just like the driver goes out and then it's down to them. It's everybody working together in those moments to find the best solutions. Yeah, it's fascinating.

Ben:

An amazing call. I would've loved to have heard the post-race analysis. It would've all come down to that call, a bit fascinating. All right, we've reached the part of the episode where we're going to go through our quick-fire questions. There's five of these. Are you ready to go?

Charlie:

Yes, let's do it.

Ben:

All right. Okay. The first question, how would your colleagues, so I guess that's your pit crew and engineers and co-driver describe you in three words?

Charlie:

Driven, fun-loving and adventurous.

Ben:

All right, second question. If you could have a coffee meeting with any leader from either the past or present, who would it be?

Charlie:

I think Michelle Obama.

Ben:

Yeah. Nice answer. What is the biggest myth or misconception about your industry?

Charlie:

That all racing drivers get paid to go racing. I wish we did. Most of us have to pay to get in the car.

Ben:

That's why those checks at the end of the race are so important when you're standing on that podium. Right?

Charlie:

Yeah.

Ben:

When it comes to generating new ideas, are you a morning person or an evening person?

Charlie:

Definitely a morning person.

Ben:

And finally, can you name one book or podcast that you would recommend for business leaders?

Charlie:

There's a great book I can think of called The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone's Mind by Jonah Berger.

Ben:

So Charlie, finally our podcast audience contains many different business leaders from across the globe. What is your advice for them who want to go further than morning teas with staff or public support during months like June, the Pride Month? That they really want to just embed themselves into some real, authentic and long-term change within their organisation or industry.

Charlie:

Yeah. I think for any leader, of course, they set the direction. I think once you start looking at inclusion and making it part of your strategic priority in a business, yeah, it's understanding the value that it can create, not just your leader, your whole exec team.

I've gone and done talks at companies who've done a real belt and braces job in terms of getting everybody on board with this process and then thinking, "Okay, great. We understand this. We know it's important. How do we roll this out?" I think a big part of it is, yeah, it's encouraging empathy and compassion.

It comes down to, I think trust and sharing, psychological safety. All of these things that you want to create in the workplace to create a supportive environment where people can be authentic, people can be their true selves really. The environments we create for our teams in business is one of the most important investments we can make.

Happy people, they're key to your creativity, your innovation, your profitability. You know, it's a never-ending thing. I think when you start to get all these elements working together, it's a bit of a virtuous circle. So I think it's really allocating the time and the resources to make these priorities happen.

Ben:

Absolutely. That culture piece is just so important. I'd love to go on, but I think we'll need to wrap it up now, Charlie. I really appreciate you giving us your time and sharing your honestly, just amazing story. Before we go, could you let people know where they can find out more and follow you on your journey?

Charlie:

The best way to find me is on Instagram probably, where you can find me pretty much most social media with GoCharlie @gocharlie. Well just search GoCharlie on Google. That's my moniker I came up with. So yeah, pretty easy way to find me that way. Yeah, for sure, if anyone's interested in following my journey, we'll be racing next at the Nürburgring, later this month at Southport round. I'm currently third in class in the championship, so everything to fight for with three rounds left to race this season.

Yeah, please give me a follow. And also on LinkedIn, you'll find me on there. If anyone's interested in hiring me as a public speaker, as a motivational speaker to come in and do some D&I training in your business, please do reach out too.

Ben:

Amazing. Thank you so much, Charlie.

Charlie:

Thank you.

Ben:

Thank you for listening to Ashurst Business Agenda. This episode has been part of our special Outpacing Change miniseries where we speak with innovators and disruptors who are changing the world around them. To make sure you don't miss any future episodes, subscribe to Business Agenda on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. While you're there, feel free to leave us a rating and a review. Until next time, thanks again for listening and goodbye for now.

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