Racing Pride standing tall at Silverstone with return of the Pride Hub and on-stage appearance

This week, the week leading up to the British Grand Prix, is one of the most important weeks of the year for Racing Pride. As the leading motorsports organisation for the LGBTQ+ community, we have hosted some of our most memorable events at Silverstone, and there’s more coming this year.

The British Grand Prix is, of course, one of the most storied events on the Formula 1 calendar, and it’s a track where the Racing Pride organisation has a tremendous history, too. It was at Silverstone in 2019 that we attended our first event in an official capacity; in 2022, it was where we held our landmark Pride Party, which was, as far as we know, the first ever Pride Party at a UK race track; and, fast forward to 2024, where we opened our first Pride Hub at a Formula 1 race. 

Situated at the heart of the United Kingdom’s Motorsport Valley, Silverstone is a fan-favourite venue and close to where many members of motorsport’s LGBTQ+ community live and work, serving to make the British GP weekend one of the most important on the calendar for Racing Pride. So, this year, we have two key focuses: the return of our Pride Hub and our appearance on the Drivers Inn Stage on Friday. 

We’re aiming to make even more of a splash than we have before. Our Pride Hub is returning for the third consecutive year, bringing our pop-up back to the track by the Woodcote A grandstand. It remains as important as ever for the visibility of LGBTQ+ fans and personnel in motorsport; the British Grand Prix is the biggest motorsport event of the year in a country that has one of the largest motorsport communities in the world, so making sure that members of the community feel seen, heard, and included is absolutely crucial.

It’s the third time that we’ve brought the Pride Hub to Silverstone, and it’s always one of the most important moments of our year. We connect with a huge number of members of our community, and show them that motorsport is where they belong.

Alongside this is another exciting moment, as Racing Pride will be appearing on one of the track’s three event stages. If you’re attending, make sure to follow signs for the Drivers Inn Stage and arrive before 11:00 on Friday morning.

There, I will be speaking to some of our members and volunteers; to be able to tell the story of Racing Pride and share the ideas and projects that are making such a difference remains so important, and to do so with a platform as large as this is huge for us.

The fact that we are looking forward to another landmark moment in our history at Silverstone is very fitting for our organisation. We have come such an incredibly long way since our formation in 2019, growing from a small group of ambassadors, including Matt Bishop, who was then the W Series Communications Director, and Charlie Martin, a transgender racing driver, to having a fully-fledged membership programme and annually attending the British Grand Prix.

The Pride Parties and Hubs represented this evolution from a small, fledgling organisation into one that can represent the whole community. This growth is also reflected in the continued participation of racing organisations in our programmes alongside a variety of organisations and teams such as McLaren, Mercedes, Aston Martin, and Alpine. 

That experience of building Racing Pride has been shaped by our three core pillars: visibility, community, and education. This fits with what we are doing at Silverstone this weekend. We are visible at the Pride Hub and on the Drivers Inn Stage, showing LGBTQ+ people that they are represented, while simultaneously working to educate those who don’t yet understand why we are so important.

We bring together the LGBTQ+ community, both across Silverstone and more centrally at our two activations, allowing them to meet like-minded individuals and form long-lasting connections in a sport that has been historically closed off. 

Each of these ideas – and our enthusiasm in bringing them about – shows that our work did not finish on June 30th, at the end of Pride Month, when some companies will remove the Pride flag from their graphics portfolios and will assume that they have completed their LGBTQ+ representation for the year. Indeed, our work continues year-round. 

We will be present at both the MotoGP round at Silverstone in August and at the Silverstone RunFest in November, alongside numerous further activations in and amongst the motorsport community. 

There’s still a long way to go in ensuring that every LGBTQ+ member of the motorsport community feels seen. That’s why our Pride Hub and stage appearance are so important. But on this British Grand Prix weekend, it’s important to recognise how much has changed. If you’re coming to the track, do say hi – we can’t wait to see you there.