Ruth Buscombe has always known exactly who she is. Yet, in a sport long dominated by male engineers, mechanics, and drivers, it's not surprising that the Cambridge graduate, former Formula 1 strategist, and now TV pundit, felt compelled for a brief time to dull a bit of her signature sparkle.
“In my first job there was maybe a bit of pressure to change and dress a certain way. That lasted for about two weeks,” she says with a laugh, recalling the time she briefly stopped wearing makeup in an effort to avoid standing out. Over the next decade, however, Buscombe did anything but blend in. She became a consistent presence on the pit wall, often one of the only women visible during the F1 broadcast as she helped shepherd a young Charles Leclerc into the paddock and famously played a pivotal role in securing Sebastian Vettel’s first win at Ferrari.
It may have been a surprise to some when Buscombe announced her departure from her head of strategy role at Sauber last year and headed to F1 TV, where she now provides technical and strategic insights to the world feed. “People ask, ‘Do you miss strategy?’ But with all the technical departments I get to work with within F1, I feel like I'm a strategist for the people at home,” she explains. “It actually feels very similar to being in a Formula 1 team: everyone’s competitive, and everyone cares about racing.”
She’s also free from the tight grasps of team-issued polos and rigid uniform standards. “Walking into the paddock in my own clothes for the first time actually felt very empowering. It was really quite a full-circle moment,” she says. “It’s been great to express myself through outfits,” she went on, joking that she was “unbearable” after receiving a compliment from Lewis Hamilton on media day in Austin last month. “Forget the seven-time world champion — the co-chair of the Met Gala complimented my outfit. I was unbearable for the rest of the day.”
Her new role also allows her to look at the sport from a fresh perspective.“In broadcasting you really get to celebrate everyone’s wins,” she said. Having permission to celebrate all 10 teams on the grid is, oddly enough, echoed in the decor of her London home, which she shares with her husband, Nathan Divey. The pair tied the knot earlier this year after meeting in the F1 paddock when he was Hamilton’s number one mechanic.
“I’ve collected quite a few bits of memorabilia over the years, so between myself and my partner, who worked with Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, we look like generic F1 super-fans with no loyalty,” she laughs, noting that a signed poster from Vettel thanking her for his maiden victory with the Scuderia still has prime position in her home office. “We’ve got about five or six different teams represented on the wall, which actually works really well now that I’m with F1.”
Speaking of home, London-born Buscombe couldn’t be happier to be living in the UK for the first time in her adult life. “It’s strange to say but I lived in Italy when I was working at Ferrari, and then I lived in Switzerland, so this is really my first time here,” she explains. “Because of my personal situation I really wanted to move back home, so that was one of the things that motivated [the move to F1 TV].” She went on, “It was also pretty organic. Your dream when you're young may not be your dream when you get older. And I was speaking to teams and different entities in Formula 1 but this felt like a really great challenge to do something new and different, and of course I’ve reunited with my old boss, Stefano Domenicali.”
Stepping in front of the camera has also taken her celebrity status to new heights. Although Buscombe has a rule against Googling herself — “If there’s something really positive I should see, my mum will probably send it to me” — she’s driven by the opportunity to inspire others. “When you hit those moments in your career where you wonder if all the time away is worth it, knowing you can help others is one of the things that keeps me going,” she says.
“You don’t set out to inspire people, you set out because you’re selfishly passionate about something. But when people say, ‘I’m going to be an engineer because of you,’ it’s the coolest thing. There are people in teams now who I met when they were in school. It’s a joy you don’t think about when you’re growing up ... I never want to be ungrateful for this position, and one great interaction is worth 100 trolls.”
While she’s happily settled into her role at F1TV, Buscombe hasn’t ruled out a return to the pit wall one day. “The only two people I’ve ever truly fangirled over were Ross Brawn and Adrian Newey, which tells you where my engineering soul truly lies,” she says. Reflecting on her career, she recalls one particularly defining moment as Haas’ head of strategy at just 26 years old
“I had a lot of imposter syndrome,” she says. “But I was the equivalent of a three-year-old skiing: they're fearless because they don't know what it's like to fall over. I looked at the numbers and we’d be doing something completely different to everybody else with Romain Grosjean. I wasn't worried about it though, because I had no idea what it was like to fail or to deal with any of the scrutiny. I remember halfway through the race [in Melbourne 2016] the big teams started copying our strategy and we finished P6 … I think that was the moment where I was like, ‘Oh I can do this. And I deserve my seat at the table.’”
When asked if Buscombe would ever consider returning to an F1 team, perhaps in a more senior role, she’s candid about the fact she doesn’t have a roadmap anymore.
“If Formula 1 has taught us anything, it’s that things don’t go as planned - you never would have thought we’d see Hamilton to Ferrari,” she says. “Being obsessed with one future probably isn’t a good thing in F1. If you think ‘I want to be the head of strategy at this team and win championships, or I want to be a team principal here,’ there are so many things outside of your control that could take that away.”
She continues, “The only thing you can control is your attitude: do everything you can and what will come, will come. I never could have predicted this 12 months ago, and compared to where I was personally and professionally this time last year, I'm so much happier and so much more fulfilled. After a lot of Type-A anxiety, I’m trying to be a bit more free about what the future holds and not attach my self-worth to things outside my control.”
