Formula One fever has descended on Istanbul once again and the TV and newspapers were full of florid previews of what the viewing public could expect. If the press was anything to go by apparently what we should expect is lots of legs. The Sunday television magazine programmes provided plenty of gratuitous shots of short skirts and female thigh as presenters holding measuring tapes marvelled over the 110 plus centimetre legs of the grid girls. These giraffe like women, ranging in height from 1.75m to 1.84m (5ft 7’ to 6ft) are mainly professional models and are employed to hold up the lap numbers as the cars spin round the course. Like the girls who parade round boxing rings with round numbers the Grid Girls are beautiful ornaments used to glamorise a dangerous and brutal sport.

As if the pointless Grid Girls were not enough (surely a machine could do the job just as well?) certain columnists were lauding the arrival of the Formula Una trolley dollies. In Italian Formula One is Formula Uno, so Formula Una is the feminine version of the same word. İt’s hardly surprising that a country whose political leader calls his middle aged women supporters ‘the menopause section’ and who has attacked the majority female Spanish cabinet as being ‘too pink’ (nine women, eight men) has named the Una concept.

The Una girls are ten hand picked ambassadors for their country during the four day racing period. They join drivers, teams, VİPs and press in the paddock section and their job is to mingle and talk with guests and participants and answer questions about their home country. Apparent qualifications for the post are ‘interest and knowledge of Formula One, likableness, chattiness, a smiling countenance and excellent spoken English’. They also have to be aged between eighteen and thirty and attractive. The Una girls are a project sponsored by the new ninety percent male Red Bull team who find the lack of women involved in the sport disheartening and are attempting to redress the balance, at least in the paddock area. Perhaps free tickets for some Istanbul ladies to watch the races might have done more to entice women to the sport, but then the teams wouldn’t have had the chance to meet those women or to ensure their attractiveness.

Red Bull communications director Ms Serpil Çubukçu explains that the three thousand five hundred applicants were winnowed out over a two month period after personal interviews where their knowledge of Formula One was tested as well as their general knowledge and deportment. She says; ‘Their good looks to one side we were looking for girls who can use their heads as well.....they will be attending every event, every party and be expected to talk with everyone. In their conversations they should be trying to tell people about Turkey, Turkish culture and Turkish women.’

So who exactly are these paragons of Turkish womanhood, the youngest is twenty and the oldest is twenty seven. All of them were either students or had finished university and are working. They are svelte, well groomed and lithe. Amongst them are ex-model and actress Eylem Şenkal and actress Selma Merter. A quick glance at the website www.redbullformulauna.com (Click: ‘Get to know the latest Formula Unas’) is instructive in the scrupulous ethics of the committee who chose them, there’s not a single plain girl amongst them. These girls are not good examples of Turkish women, they represent a small minority of Europeanised females and yet they say; ‘We are here to show how modern Turkish women are and to change opinions’.

According to a report compiled by the Turkish Family Planning İnstitute in 2007 the average Turkish woman is 1.63m (5ft 4’) and she weighs 63 kilos. İf this average woman had the legs of a grid girl she would only have a foot and a half of body left for her torso and head. Average Turks are 48% of medium complexion, 25% of dark complexion and 27% of fair complexion, the Una girls are 40% of medium complexion, 10% of dark complexion and 50% of fair complexion. 52% of all Turks have black hair but only 10% of Una girls (that is to say one girl) have black hair, whilst 50% have brown hair and 40% are blond. While 41% of Turks have never bought a book all the Una girls are or have been at university. They are as representative of Turkish women as a Slush Puppy is of an Arctic iceberg. İf Red Bull was interested in presenting a more accurate view of the cornucopia of modern Turkish women at least one of them should have been wearing a headscarf and another an İslamic turban.

The marketing idea behind the project that inviting attractive women to attend as special dignataries might encourage more women to enjoy Formula One seems entirely fallacious. The Australians have been much more upfront about how to get women going, this year for the first time they’ve introduced Grid Boys, the man candy equivalent of the Grid Girls. Model and former face of the Melbourne Grand Prix, Grace McClure, said it was about time there was some eye candy for the ladies; ‘There are plenty of girls who love motor sport so why shouldn't they have something to look at?’ Why indeed? İf we can’t have real women to stand in the paddock for us let’s at least have the equivalent male bimbos.