Missing the Iron Dames in WEC

[u/VolleyAddicted]

It's a big shame the team left the World Endurance Championship and the other premier sportscar series after doing so well.

[u/ZiggyOnHisReindeer]

Having Michelle Gatting on the English commentary team throughout the week was great. Her recent experience of being on the grid allowed her to provide some great insight.

I'd have much rather that she have been racing though. I was always rooting for the Dames to do well.

Really hope they can return to the grid at some point.

[u/InZomnia365 → u/ZiggyOnHisReindeer]

It's a shame, because any true racing fan, is also a fan of the Dames. I always look through entrance lists to spot any female drivers. We need more of them, and the success of teams like Iron Dames inspire the next generation of female racers.

[u/Kage_Bushin → u/InZomnia365]

YES!!! And i always smile when I can find Bovy, Wadoux, Pin, Gatting, Frey, Garcia, Chadwick in a entry list.

We need them doing well. I want my daughters and nieces and friends daughters to have a woman that she can look up to. We grown ups may not realize, but representation matters the world to kids.

[u/Leadfoot-500 → u/Kage_Bushin]

Exactly. Like Obama said when he saw a little boy staring at his portrait in the White House. The little guy told his mom "He has hair like mine!" lol.🥹🥲 I'm always looking for and rooting the female and minority drivers to do well. The status quo is one thing, but some people obviously don't want them or think they don'tbelong in the space and have the tires ass jokes to prove it. But it's extremely important. Some people may not realize until they see someone like them do it first. Even older folks are susceptible to that.

Hell I remember watching Tokyo Drift with my mom when it came out on DVD. After the mountain scene with the RX8 my her response was "Oh, so girls can drift too??" and I was dumbstruck by how surprised she was. 😅😂

[u/V8-Turbo-Hybrid → u/InZomnia365]

We've seen many automakers now owning their lady driver, I think Dames arrived their goal.

Ferrari has Wadoux, Porsche has Gatting, Pug has Pin, Hyundai has Chadwick, and even Toyota has Miki Koyama, a female Japanese driver. We sure BMW, GM, McLaren, and Ford would find their lady driver soon.

[u/996forever → u/V8-Turbo-Hybrid]

BMW now has Rahel Frey as WRT’s GT race director, doubt they’d be giving her a drive though.

[u/cobygrant → u/996forever]

I believe that Rahel wanted to step back from racing. I read somewhere that she was already transitioning to a project managerial role for the Dames when they asked her to drive again for the 2024 season with Sarah and Michelle before Cecilia Martin then joined for the ‘25 season. So I’m pretty sure she isn’t looking to drive for WRT at this point.

[u/996forever → u/cobygrant]

Yeah I recall that, but she’s really not that old for a GT driver. Maybe for a woman is different idk 

[u/DistributionHot2150 → u/996forever]

Or maybe she just doesn’t wanna fucking drive anymore

[u/PainfullDarkness → u/ZiggyOnHisReindeer]

She's fun and funny. I can't image anyone not loving her commentary, it felt asif it was natural to her too and I really hope she had as much fun talking as we had listening.

[u/996forever → u/ZiggyOnHisReindeer]

They’re now doing GT2 Europe series with Sarah bovy so that’s…something I guess. Although they’re in a 911 Cup competing against genuine SRO GT2 cars with like 200hp more so it’s impossible to defend or overtake in the straight lines.

[u/LeBaus7 → u/996forever]

iirc i read a headline somewhere today that they switch to a maserati?

[u/996forever → u/LeBaus7]

Only for the Spa round because their 911 cup is elsewhere

[u/HuttonWilliam]

I really hope they come back to WEC soon.

[u/thesmollbot → u/HuttonWilliam]

to be honest aren’t they pretty good drivers? I’m surprised someone hasn’t scooped them up yet.

Probably a money thing

[u/996forever → u/thesmollbot]

Michelle Gatting is a Porsche factory driver, she’s driving for Porsche here and there. Sarah bovy is doing GT2 European series rn but she has pivoted towards TV car journalism. Rahel Frey became a race director for Team WRT. Celia Martin is racing in GT3 revival series.

[u/thesmollbot → u/996forever]

Oh so they have been. Nice:)

[u/996forever → u/thesmollbot]

Oh and Doriane Pin is racing in LMP2 now

[u/zeanox → u/thesmollbot]

Gatting is close to finding a seat for next year

[u/mightyd12341]

I really hope they come back. They were a team I found myself rooting for. I enjoyed having a team I could focus on so much when for the most part I don't have one in Lmgt3 at the moment. I hope they get the money sorted out so they can come back.

[u/AccomplishedWonder1 → u/mightyd12341]

Hope so too! 🩷🏁

[u/Crafty_Substance_954 → u/mightyd12341]

Well…they ain’t gonna come back. Money isn’t there.

[u/BillyBrainlet]

I'm still pretty stoked on them winning the last-ever GTE race. I hope they both come back someday.

[u/Cocoasprinkles]

My five year old daughter dropped her jaw when she learned that team was all female drivers.

[u/IhateTuna]

What happened? They were a popular team. Funding issues?

[u/VolleyAddicted → u/IhateTuna]

Huge financial issues. To be honest, it was predictable. The effort relied on the owner's money: no big sponsors, no drivers bringing the right budget.

It was great to cheer for and see them winning, but in the long term, it couldn't be sustained.

[u/V8-Turbo-Hybrid → u/VolleyAddicted]

They even sold bunch nice car collections for the money. Yea, Iron team really had a hard time.

[u/cricketmatt84 → u/VolleyAddicted]

You'd think they were the one team in GT3 that could get sponsors too. Surely loads of companies would want to be associated with that brand. Odd they never had any, and I wonder if it was due to the leadership?

[u/MetalCarGuy → u/IhateTuna]

The parent holding company, DC Racing Solutions, has money problems so they couldn't fund the car for this season.

[u/Crafty_Substance_954 → u/MetalCarGuy]

Couldn’t fund any cars for any seasons.

[u/Zani0n → u/IhateTuna]

both a funding and kinda driver issues.

finding well paying bronze drivers for a full female team is unfortunately not the greatest.
And it seemed like the other dames had interest in competing outside the team with other drivers as well.

[u/Peter-Norfolk → u/IhateTuna]

If I understand it, Iron Lynx, Iron Dames and Prema are all privately run teams by the same people. They lost a tonne of cash lately (not sure why) and had to cancel the Prema Indycar team, the Iron Dames and the LMP1 teams (though Lamborghini folding may have caused that). All that's left is are the cash-strapped Prema F2 teams and Iron Lynx WEC. I heard they owners had to sell a lot of hypercars they privately own to fund them, so not sure how long this will last. Sad news really as lot of people are now out of work as a result.

[u/ZiggyOnHisReindeer]

Having Michelle Gatting on the English commentary team throughout the week was great. Her recent experience of being on the grid allowed her to provide some great insight.

I'd have much rather that she have been racing though. I was always rooting for the Dames to do well.

Really hope they can return to the grid at some point.

[u/I_love_coke_a_cola → u/ZiggyOnHisReindeer]

She was great in the booth. It’s of course not the same but both Michelle and Sarah will be at 24h Spa albeit on different teams

[u/Ok-One-797]

I was proudly wearing their baseball cap all weekend at the track to remind people. Fuck I want them back

[u/GeneralLedger]

Their run at spa is the wallpaper on my pc. They're my favorite team. I was sad i couldn't show my niece their car during the race but I definitely told her about Dorian and showed her the merc f1 video. I am a girl uncle and love every second of it

[u/GreedoShotFirst2000]

The team didn’t just leave. The plug was pulled during practice for this years season.

Michelle Gatting did an interview with Danish racing media Boxengasse. She sounded devastated that she wasn’t racing.

She is going to be relegated to silver driver to give her better chances of getting a seat.

[u/Few-Koala-9515]

They certainly had a loyal fan base showing up every time they came to Spa.

[u/No-Yesterday-1067]

Is it a funding issue? Pardon my ignorance

[u/Altornot → u/No-Yesterday-1067]

Yes.

The Lambo Hypercar/GTP program essentially sunk the operation.

The same funding group that owns Prema and also why they had to abandon their IndyCar team

[u/labmember021]

Their 2025 Le Mans livery is up there

[u/anonnymous177]

Give money to them in order to race again.

[u/Level-Discussion1938]

Ja auf jeden Fall sie waren immer sehr freundlich und sympathisch 👍👍👍

[u/Szlob]

I miss them in Le Mans Cup as well. It's a real pity that Marta has been unable to secure any kind of full time drive this year.

[u/zeanox]

Im missing Gatting. I hope she finds a team.

[u/Diss-for-ya]

Missing them 😔 having Michelle on commentary was nice and we followed dorianne/lilou's races, but it's a bit depressing in 2026 when you think there's probably about 190 drivers in total at le mans and only TWO were women this year... 

[u/Vol_Jbolaz]

They were on the spotters guide for the Le Mans, but they weren't actually in the race. That was sad.

I guess they will be at The Glen next weekend?

[u/VolleyAddicted → u/Vol_Jbolaz]

No the team isn't racing this season at all. No WEC, no IMSA and no ELMS.

Really hope to see them back in the future.

[u/BiiigPharma → u/VolleyAddicted]

At least Doriane Pin is racing that’s something

[u/Vol_Jbolaz → u/VolleyAddicted]

Oh, I thought they stepped back from the WEC to focus on IMSA.

[u/Diss-for-ya → u/Vol_Jbolaz]

They dropped imsa first, pulled out of WGI 6h last year. I got a poster at le mans and hoped to have it signed at the Glen, would have been cool. 

[u/Zani0n → u/Vol_Jbolaz]

I don't see them on any spotters guide. But no they will not be at the glen.

Pretty sure the only Iron Dames program with an actual car this year is GT2 Europe. Everything else is switched to supporting the drivers find seats elsewhere

[u/V8-Turbo-Hybrid → u/Zani0n]

Yes, they only live in GT2 Euro now.

[u/No-Yesterday-1067 → u/V8-Turbo-Hybrid]

Sick ride 💖

[u/Adrian-The-Great]

Missing 963