30 June 2026 / By David Ferguson
Women are coming to the fore across the world of motorsport with no areas off limits to the fairer sex.
One young Scot demonstrating that better than most is Gail Whyte, the Larkhall girl who now travels the world as transmission technician for the M-Sport Ford World Rally Championship Team. That’s when she isn’t co-driving.
So, before we get to grips with how Gail got to this point, let us start with ‘transmission technician’. Is that the job she was dreaming of when she stared out of the window at Larkhall Academy?
“Probably not,” she admits, in a short break from work, “but that’s only because I wouldn’t have known what it was back then. I did dream of being involved in motorsport, right from the days of going to rallies with my mum and dad and just being around cars, but when I was young it didn’t seem to be a place for girls.
“Finishing college and getting the job at M-Sport was a kind of dream come true, and I certainly know a lot more about transmissions, diffs, gearboxes and set-ups these days.”
Expert knowledge now helping McErlean’s WRC rise
There is little doubt about that as Gail returns this week from playing her part in a fine sixth place finish and first World Rally Championship stage win in Greece for M-Sport’s Irish duo of Josh McErlean and co-driver Eoin Treacy – it would have been fourth but for a seatbelt penalty. His M-Sport team-mate Jon Armstrong was running third after setting a first fastest WRC stage time on Friday, but a double puncture and turbo failure on his Ford Puma Rally1 agonisingly forced him out.
There could hardly be a sharper end in the world of rallying and Gail and the M-Sport team earned their crust in the Greek sun and dust. So, how did it come to this for the girl from Lanarkshire?
“My love of rallying came from my dad, Graeme,” she explains. “He didn’t drive but he was a panel beater and loved servicing for a friend, Andy Kelly, who drove Evos from memory when I was growing up, and after a break came back in a Mark One Escort.
“Mum used to come with us when I was really small and so I got the bug for being around rallies, and service areas and stuff, and it was a family thing. Mum would probably say she just did the wife thing of going along at the start, and back then you would mostly see women tagging along at service parks, supporting the men, and we’d all go out for a family meal after the event.
“But it’s quite different now. There’s still not as many women involved as men, but you see women all over the place doing all kinds of jobs from driving and co-driving to preparing cars and fixing them, which is great.”
‘I didn’t think motorsport was a place for girls – you didn’t hear about them’
The now 27-year-old didn’t just ‘go along’. As she grew she became fascinated by her dad’s work in repairing cars and getting them back on the road in top condition, and eager to help.
“I got more involved when Andy bought the Escort, helping dad doing the prep at night, and that really enhanced my understanding and my love for it. So, when I left school, I went to college to study mechanical engineering.
“I still didn’t think motorsport was a place for girls to be, because you didn’t really hear about girls being involved, but I stuck in on my two years on mechanical engineering, which is totally different from vehicle maintenance by the way. A lot of people get that mixed up.
“We did quite a bit of maths, a fair bit of design work, computer-aided design in things like plant-based systems, refrigeration, air con… We got hands-on in the workshop as well, creating things.
“And in that first year we were a women-only class, with nine of us and we all supported each other. In the second year, they split us between all the classes, so we had a mix, but by then I was spending more time watching rallying and I knew about M-Sport from being around rallying, and watching WRC highlights.
“I got some confidence at college as well, so I decided to apply to them for a job. They were really nice and I got the chance to come down for a wee tour about, and then they gave me a trial. And I’ve been there ever since!”
‘We’re seeing more and more girls coming into motorsport’
That was 2018 and after landing the junior transmission technician role, she has gone on to become a leading transmission expert on the WRC stage. She is also something of an inspiration for young woman with similar interests in motorsport, and is pleased to have seen the number of female employees at M-Sport rise – particularly on the workshop floor – in her eight years with the company based in Cumbria, founded by Malcolm Wilson and through which the top British and Irish WRC drivers have emerged.
“It’s a great company to work for and if you work hard you get your chance,” Gail continued. “But we’re seeing more and more girls coming the sport now, which is brilliant.
“We’re still pretty small compared to the big teams out there, but our cars are competitive right across the WRC, ERC and British events, and I get a real buzz out of seeing them performing on the world stage against top manufacturers.
“We run Fords but people forget we’re not a manufacturer-backed team I think because we’re so competitive, and Josh and Jon are doing a great job as our full-time drivers this year. We’re also running Garry Pearson in the BRC and he’s doing really well.”
Co-driving career taking off with help from big names
Gail is also getting closer to the action by co-driving, having first had a taste in 2018 in single-venue rallies and going on to guide Rich Millener, the M-Sport Team Principal, to class win in the Malcolm Wilson Rally, the late Colin Christie to class runner-up in the Scottish Tarmack Rally Championship, and even Jimmy McRae to a class win in the Grampian, in a busy 2024 season.
The Coltness Car Club member competed in 14 events last year and has six under her belt already in this, so is that becoming a new career?
“Not a new career,” she said, “I’m happy at M-Sport. But I am really enjoying it. Winning the class with Jimmy McRae was quite a highlight and I had a lot of fun with Colin in the Tarmack, and I navigated for Niall Cowan Jnr last year and we won our class in the SRC, so, yeah, I think it’s fair to say I’ve got the bug.
“I’d like to keep my co-driving going and keep working on it, and just see where I end up, but I just absolutely love rallying. At the ‘Jim Clark’ I was out with my dad marshalling the night stages and then was in the car with Niall on the Sunday, and, unfortunately, we had an accident, but you can’t beat being out there.
“I went from the WRC in Portugal back home for the ‘Jim Clark’ then to Japan – my fifth time at Toyota City I think – then home again, did the Air Tech at Crail with Beefy Fraser, and then off to Greece, and it’s Estonia next in the WRC, so it’s pretty full-on.
“But I like to be busy,” she added. “I know that I’m living a dream that loads of girls, and guys, have, so you just want it to go on for as long as possible.”
