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.
