Rebecca Lee

Rebecca Lee made history in 2023 when she became the first female official race starter in Formula 1’s 72-year history, wielding the lights that launch the world’s fastest drivers into battle from the gantry above the grid.

EARLY YEARS

From Hartlepool, Rebecca Lee’s path to the Formula 1 grid started about as far from motorsport as you could imagine. “I never set out to want to pursue a career in motorsport,” she’s said plainly. Instead, she built her early career in the transport industry, working in operations and legal compliance—a world of regulations, logistics, and keeping things moving on time. Not exactly glamorous, but it turns out those skills would translate better than anyone might have guessed.

Her sidestepping into motorsport happened almost accidentally, moving into service and contracts within the Formula 1 paddock and British Superbikes. For three years, she immersed herself in the organized chaos of race weekends, absorbing the adrenaline-fueled atmosphere and learning the intricate machinery—not of the cars, but of the operations that make race events actually happen.

Then she left. For six months, Lee stepped away from the paddock entirely. It was the absence that clarified everything. “I realised I wanted to be back because I was missing the adrenaline, the atmosphere and the challenges,” she admitted. That realization brought her back, this time to the FIA itself, where she’d start building something unprecedented.

OTHER INTERESTS

Beyond the grid, Lee keeps her cards close. There’s no public record of hobbies, creative pursuits, or what she does when she’s not analyzing track conditions and sporting regulations. For someone who operates under the intense scrutiny of millions of viewers every race weekend, maintaining that privacy seems entirely reasonable—and maybe even strategic.

EARLY SUCCESS

Lee’s rise through the FIA ranks was hands-on from the start. She worked in all aspects of track operations, including the decidedly unglamorous job of manually installing lights on the pit wall. She coordinated with marshals on lights and flags, managed events, and supported race starts—learning every component of what makes a Grand Prix tick from the operational side.

Before Formula 1 ever came into the picture, she served as the official starter for the FIA Formula 2 and Formula 3 series. Interestingly, she found those junior category starts more nerve-wracking than F1 would later prove to be. The reason? Inexperienced drivers. When you’re controlling the lights for rookies still learning racecraft at 200 mph, the margin for chaos is considerably wider.

In September 2023, the FIA appointed Lee as the official Formula 1 starter, initially to assist the previous starter, Bryll, before taking over the role permanently. “Originally I was there to support the guy who was doing it previously, and then eventually I ended up getting stepped up to the permanent starter,” she explained in a 2024 interview with MotorsportWeek. Simple words for a historic shift.

The job itself is deceptively complex. Lee monitors the grid, presses the start button to extinguish the lights (that heart-stopping moment when twenty cars explode forward), and handles the curveballs: additional formation laps, aborted starts like Lance Stroll’s incident in São Paulo 2023, handovers to race control, red flag restarts, and deploying the chequered flag from the finish gantry approximately seven laps before the end of each race. It’s roughly 200 meters behind the start line, and she’s up there watching every move, every potential disaster, every split-second decision that could change a championship.

By December 2025, her role had expanded even further. She’s now Head of Single-Seater Operations and F1 Permanent Starter—a dual title reflecting both the breadth of her responsibilities and the trust the FIA places in her judgment.

NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS

• 2023: Appointed as Formula 1’s first female official race starter, breaking a 72-year male-only precedent in the sport’s history[1][2][4].
• 2024: Served as official starter for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina Circuit, confidently managing race starts before a global audience[3].
• 2025: Promoted to Head of Single-Seater Operations while maintaining role as F1 Permanent Starter[5].

INSPIRATIONS

Lee hasn’t publicly discussed racing heroes, mentors, or figures who inspired her path. What comes through instead in her interviews is a focus on the work itself—the regulations, the teamwork, the human beings strapped into those cars waiting for her signal. If there’s inspiration driving her, it seems rooted in the job’s demands rather than any childhood dream of motorsport glory.

REPUTATION

Within the paddock, Rebecca Lee is regarded for her hard work, determination, and the steady competence she brings to one of F1’s most pressure-filled roles. She’s quick to credit the team around her. “I work with every department within the FIA single-seater sector and that means I work with a lot of people. That’s one of my favorite parts about the job because I couldn’t physically do it without the great people that I’ve got around me,” she told Arab News during the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend.

Media coverage of her appointment has been overwhelmingly celebratory, emphasizing the historic nature of her role and the breaking of a barrier that had stood since Formula 1’s inception. The FIA itself featured her in official videos, with one December 2025 piece capturing her pre-race focus: “When I come up to the gantry in preparation for a race start, I’m completely focused. What I’m doing first of all is analyzing… what could happen. So, you know, what conditions we’re dealing with. I’m listening to the coms and race controls so I know exactly what’s going on around the track. Every week I remind myself of the sporting regulations so I’m deploying the right commands and I’m following the correct processes… And I get an adrenaline rush when I’m up here. But one of the things that I always think about is there’s a human being sat [in each car].”

Public and fan reaction has been mixed, as it often is when gender becomes part of the conversation in motorsport. Some comments praised her achievement with straightforward support—”Well done Rebecca Lee”—while others questioned whether the emphasis on her being female was necessary or relevant. It’s the familiar tension that accompanies any “first woman to” milestone: celebration from some, eye-rolling from others, and Lee herself getting on with the actual work regardless.

What’s notable is her own comfort with the pressure. Speaking at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, she said simply, “I feel confident and comfortable with what I do.” For someone standing on a gantry in front of a global television audience of millions, tasked with starting races worth hundreds of millions in commercial value and potentially deciding championships, that confidence isn’t just reassuring—it’s essential.

FUTURE GOALS/PLANS

As of December 2025, Lee continues in her dual role as Head of Single-Seater Operations and F1 Permanent Starter with the FIA. There’s no public information about specific goals beyond 2025, team affiliations, contract details, or long-term plans. Given the trajectory of her career so far—steady, competent expansion of responsibility—it’s reasonable to expect she’ll continue building influence within the FIA’s operational structure. But she hasn’t telegraphed those ambitions publicly, and perhaps that’s part of what makes her effective: focus on the work at hand, not the speculation about what comes next.

References:

Exclusive: Getting to know FIA F1 race starter Rebecca Lee – Motorsport Week
Who Is Rebecca Lee, F1’s First Female Race Starter? – The Sports Rush
On the grid gantry with FIA’s first female official F1 starter – Arab News
FIA appoints first female official race starter for Formula 1 – RaceFans
FIA Insider: Rebecca the Race Starter – FIA YouTube