Sport has become more inclusive and former driver’s decision to come out as gay will hopefully inspire others
Long a bastion of male heterosexuality, Formula One is a sport that for years positively revelled in all that went with it. The drivers living a glamorous high-life alongside beautiful women was sold to the extent that it became intrinsically linked with F1’s image. Change is happening for the better but as some of those in the sport note it has been a long time coming.
On Sunday when the former driver Ralf Schumacher came out as being in a same-sex relationship, he was only the third F1 driver to have done so since the championship began in 1950. Schumacher, brother of the seven-time world champion Michael, raced between 1997 and 2007 and was married for 14 years to Cora Schumacher, a former model, before they separated in 2015. Nonetheless rumours about his personal life persisted during his time in F1 and afterwards.