It’s about Managing People to Become a Team

Girls Only by WS Racing is an all-female endurance racing team founded by Nicole Willems back in 2019. In 2021, the team took a class win in the GT4 class of the iconic Nürburgring 24-Hours Race with Célia Martin, Carrie Schreiner, Christina Nielsen, and Pippa Mann behind the wheel. This year, they took a class podium in the Nürburgring 24h with Fabienne Wohlwend, Beiske Visser, Pippa Mann, and Carrie Schreiner behind the wheel. Recently, the team went through ownership and management change with TV presenter and off-road rally veteran Lina van de Mars stepping in as the new team manager. We caught up with Lina before her first race with the team to talk about this new adventure. Here is her story.

All photos © Lina van de Mars

Coming from a family that is not related to motorsport at all, Lina first found love in the sport through the Dakar Rally on TV. “My father is a photographer and my mother is a psychologist. So they have nothing to do with cars. But somehow I found Dakar Rally on television when I was a kid and it caught me. I really love to see these cars going in the desert.”

When Lina first got involved in motorsport herself, it was in a mechanic’s role. Then she also became a TV host. “When I became a mechanic, I was asked to be a female mechanic for one of the first female drivers in the Alpha Romeo Cup. I also very quickly started to have my first television show and was cast as the host of motorsport shows. In my 20s I had a variety of different contacts with motorsport.”

But all of Lina’s contacts with motorsport had been through roles not as a driver by that time. Her itch for driving hadn’t been scratched until she was 27 years old. “Burcu Çetinkaya (Turkish rally driver and current Chair of the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission) and I went to a convention together. She asked me to be her co-driver. Thanks to her, I finally found my own way into being a racer myself.”

Now with her first experience as a co-driver under her belt, Lina went on to be Burcu Çetinkaya’s co-driver in Turkey. Then with a bit of a nudge from another rallying legend, Jutta Kleinschmidt, Lina found her way back to what first got her interested in motorsport – off-road rallying. “When I started as a co-driver, I was racing in street rally as a co-driver, and I never got behind the steering wheel. At the time I thought this was it. Jutta and I have been on the jury for German car awards together for many years. One year, just out of fun, she asked me, ‘why don’t you try out a buggy and baja racing’. She said it could be something for me. So we went to Poland and did a 24h off-road race together. I’ve never sat in a buggy before that. After the first lap, I already loved it and I understood that it really was for me. You’re sliding and rolling and jumping up and down. We came in second overall in the race.”

As Lina found her true passion, she also realized some problems in the motorsport world. And she took it upon herself to become part of the solution. “When I started with baja racing, I realized that there were many girls interested in it, but not knowing how to get into it. Specifically in Germany back then, you had to go to Poland, Hungary, Italy, etc. to get in touch with off-road racing. It seemed like no one had this open door for the girls to walk through. I wanted to be that open door for them. So I started my own all-female off-road team. Immediately a lot of mechanics wanted to be a part of it. It was quite easy to find the team. But of course, it was always difficult with the financing. The racing we do, the European Baja Championship, is not broadcast in Germany. It was difficult when talking to sponsors. We had to find international companies who have operations in Germany. For me, luckily, because of my television background, I have been the commercial face for some brands. So it has been easy to find some contacts. I also have put a lot of my own money into racing, specifically when I did the 2022 championship, because I was so eager to do the whole season.”

People think that because we are an all-female team, all the attention just naturally comes to us. But our drivers and mechanics know that they have to be very strong in what they’re doing because they will be extra scrutinized and people will be waiting for us to make mistakes. It was like this when I was younger, and it still is the case now. It makes me sad that we still have to talk about women and men because it’s still not normal for some people to see women in motorsport. That’s something I really would like to change even more.

This year, yet another different opportunity and challenge presented itself in front of Lina – as the WS Racing team changes ownership, a new team manager for Girls Only is needed. “The new team owner of WS Racing asked me to be the team manager for Girls Only. I had so many experiences in racing, and there was such a long history behind the team, there was a lot of over-thinking on my part. I had a lot of requests for changes. I’m very confident about what’s coming. I’m also learning a lot every day.”

Having been the mechanic, the co-driver, the driver, and the team owner, almost knowing every role on a team, now being the team manager, Lina gets to be the connecting dot between everything. “The team manager is like the red line connecting the drivers, the engineers, and the mechanics. You have to give everyone the feeling that they are heard. You are helping everyone to enjoy whatever they are doing. The mechanics are eager to learn everything and the drivers are eager to do the best they can. For a team manager, it’s about managing people to become a team, making sure that one hand knows what the other hand is doing. The team manager is also like the brain. It’s about making decisions.”

When I was in my buggy, I knew if I made any damages, I have to pay for them. There are so many responsibilities on my shoulders. Sometimes I’m a bit tired because so much is dependent upon me. Now for the first time, I can breathe a lot because everything is taken care of.

Knowing every job on the team also means now as the team manager, Lina doesn’t have to be hands-on in everything. She sometimes has to take a step back and just let the team do the job. “On my off-road team, I am one of the mechanics as well. So I got out of my buggy and immediately started to work with the other mechanics on the car. When I was in the garage for the first time with Girls Only, just watching everyone work was really hard on me. I just wanted to get my hands dirty. Of course, I still learned how to do everything, because next year, when we are heading into the 24h Nürburgring, if something happens, I can jump in as a mechanic as well.”

What Lina also brings to the team is the spirit and the mindset of rallying. With her first race with the team coming up, she also wants the team to present itself with this new mindset. “It’s about the team. I want the engineers and mechanics to understand that we have to be a strong team with a very strong mindset. We want the drivers to understand that we have their back 100%. They can step into the car with 100% confidence and just do whatever they have to do by the steering wheel. It’s not just about being a good mechanic or a good driver. It has a lot to do with your mindset. For our first race together, I want us to be seen as a strong team sticking together. Before the race, we will have a chance to learn more about each other. It will give us a very different feeling coming to our first race. It’s all about accomplishing as good as we can, making sure the girls are safe once they are out on track.”

While she takes her experience in rallying to Girls Only, Lina also looks forward to bringing her experience with Girls Only back to her off-road team. “When I go back into the world of racing myself, maybe some of the girls on this team can also become a part of my off-road team. I’m also expecting to learn a a little bit for my own team so in the future I can also change up a couple of things on my own team.”

Sometimes I don’t know what’s going on tomorrow. You never know. I really learned to be very patient about my future, because it’s never predictable.

As always, in the end, we asked Lina to give some advice to girls who aspire to be in motorsport. Here is what she said. “Find a team close to you. Just be there for a weekend as a helping hand. You’ll learn a little bit about this world and what’s going on. If you are a hard-working person, you very easily will find another position. If you’re an engineer or mechanic, and people see that you’re really talented and you have interests in what you’re doing, it’s easier to get into it. You can always apply with us as well. We have international engineers. Young engineers can come in being shepherd by our more experienced engineers to learn on the job. You have to spend time to learn because it’s different from being in a normal garage. There are many opportunities all over the world.”

Lina’s first race with the team is the Adenauer ADAC Rundstrecken-Trophy this weekend. We wish her and the team all the best of luck in the race!