Our initiative in promoting women in motorsport continues with the support of two sisters from Germany: Tanja Germann-Hoerr and Petra Roehrig who provide us with an insight into their involvement in the industry as female photographers. 

“We are Tanja Germann-Hoerr and Petra Roehrig, siblings from Germany and the founders of Germann-Sports. The team at Germann-Sports has been active in motorsport for many years and currently consists of four women to cover a broad range of areas.

Years ago, we would regularly attend various races at the nearby Hockenheimring, and our hobby for motorsport turned into a passion. We quickly made connections in the industry, so we started managing the German Formula 1 drivers’ fan clubs, specifically Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Timo Glock. Today we have integrated our interests in motorsport and photography into our work at Germann-Sports, which has elements of photography, a motorsport agency, fan marketing & design. 

We are currently working for Honda Germany in the ADAC GT Masters, our favourite series. The highlight of our career in motorsport so far is this collaboration, which among other things, made it possible for us to be photographers at the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring, 2019. To be part of this race as a photographer is a great honour for everyone. Our favourite track is that legendary Nürburgring with its Nordschleife, labelled the ‘Green Hell’ by Jackie Stewart for how treacherous it was and is.

Our personal experience, and the experience of our female friends, in motorsport has shown that even today in 2021, it is more difficult for a woman to gain a foothold in motorsport than a man. But we are getting to know more and more women on and about the racetrack, which shows us that in spite of this the number of women in motorsport is increasing continuously. Without a doubt, this is very gratifying.

We launched the “Women @ Racetrack” project two years ago. We wanted to encourage young women to get into motorsports, regardless of whether they were racing drivers, engineers, mechanics, event managers or photographers. The list of professions in motorsport is long and varied, and all ripe for change.

As a young woman, you will surely encounter obstacles repeatedly, but you should always keep your goal in mind and fight for it. As a racing driver, you should definitely hire a management team that takes care of sponsors, formal interactions with teams and your social media content. Your focus should entirely be on success in motorsport. You should also concentrate on one series per season and not start too many series as a guest driver. We regularly introduce women in motorsport and share their posts to increase their awareness on our Instagram page. With our network, we establish contacts between team bosses and racing drivers, for example. 

Our goal is for women from all areas of motorsport to support each other. Therefore, we would like to encourage all young motorsport talents to get involved in this varied sport, and we hope that we can make many new female contacts in our network again this season. Our motorsport goal is to continue to work as an accredited photographer and motorsport agency at the ADAC GT Masters and get good orders here. What is important to us is having fun at work and a good additional income.”

Thanks again to Tanja Germann-Hoerr and Petra Roehrig for their fantastic advice. To check out more of their work see their website and their Instagram @germann_sports and @women_at_racetrack