Formula 1 Racing

Meet F1’s coolest strategist turned TV personality: Ruth Buscombe

Ruth Buscombe, as Sauber Race Strategist in 2018 at the Bahrain GP

Ruth Buscombe has always known exactly who she is. Yet, in a sport long dominated by male engineers, mechanics, and drivers, it’s not surprising that the Cambridge graduate, former Formula 1 strategist, and now TV pundit, felt compelled for a brief time to dull a bit of her signature sparkle.

“In my first job there was maybe a bit of pressure to change and dress a certain way. That lasted for about two weeks,” she says with a laugh, recalling the time she briefly stopped wearing makeup in an effort to avoid standing out. Over the next decade, however, Buscombe did anything but blend in. She became a consistent presence on the pit wall, often one of the only women visible during the F1 broadcast as she helped shepherd a young Charles Leclerc into the paddock and famously played a pivotal role in securing Sebastian Vettel’s first win at Ferrari.

It may have been a surprise to some when Buscombe announced her departure from her head of strategy role at Sauber last year and headed to F1 TV, where she now provides technical and strategic insights to the world feed. “People ask, ‘Do you miss strategy?’ But with all the technical departments I get to work with within F1, I feel like I’m a strategist for the people at home,” she explains. “It actually feels very similar to being in a Formula 1 team: everyone’s competitive, and everyone cares about racing.”

She’s also free from the tight grasps of team-issued polos and rigid uniform standards. “Walking into the paddock in my own clothes for the first time actually felt very empowering. It was really quite a full-circle moment,” she says. “It’s been great to express myself through outfits,” she went on, joking that she was “unbearable” after receiving a compliment from Lewis Hamilton on media day in Austin last month. “Forget the seven-time world champion — the co-chair of the Met Gala complimented my outfit. I was unbearable for the rest of the day.”

Her new role also allows her to look at the sport from a fresh perspective.“In broadcasting you really get to celebrate everyone’s wins,” she said. Having permission to celebrate all 10 teams on the grid is, oddly enough, echoed in the decor of her London home, which she shares with her husband, Nathan Divey. The pair tied the knot earlier this year after meeting in the F1 paddock when he…

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