WRTV talks with Marissa Andretti about women in racing

[Music] [Applause] thanks for joining us for inside Indy and Megan Shin the countdown to the Indy 500 gets shorter and shorter as we approach the green flag dropping I sat down with Marissa Andretti for Andretti Otto sport she takes me inside the business and talks about women in the expansive world of racing and the automotive industry inside the Andretti Autosport headquarters off Zionsville Road in Indianapolis always been a second home to me personally Marissa Andretti follow me takes us thr

ough what makes this line of work so special it's always great to go around and chat with all of our our people and just have fun while we're doing some pretty cool stuff she says it begins and ends with people we're always trying to look for the best talent that we can from the mechanics visitor basic IndyCar stack the drivers it's a big business to oversee it means women like Marissa take on multiple titles vice president of Andretti Auto Sport on the team side of things managing director of i

ngenetti Technologies I am working on our new headquarters build in Fishers Indiana at least two titles and a 200 million dollar project for a new Universal Motorsports headquarter all of our different racing series all under one proof so that is of course the massive undertaking with everything and then we're also going to have a museum element to it and then a restaurant portion too 90 Acres creating 500 jobs jobs women can fill you're a leader here in Android auto sports and we don't see many

women who are in the Autosport industry it obviously is a male-dominated sport you know historically speaking so we try and do the best we can to be able to support bringing you know like you said women into our our world according to Deloitte in 2020 women accounted for only 26 percent of the total Automotive Workforce in the United States we actually have a pretty decent amount of women within our team and within our driver stable Danica Patrick who drove for us for a long time she you know s

he won with us in Japan back in that day as our driver and she was the first woman in IndyCar to woman in IndyCar to win Simona de Silvestro with us for the Indy 500 and for Formula E for a long time Marissa says they have three female drivers right now as a company Andretti's nearing 50 percent women for executives across the board I know it's a family lineage for you but also it's a personal decision right so what motivates you to be in this Auto Sport industry I love the business side of what

we do it's a busy family business it's kind of crazy um but it's just it's always a lot of fun because my brother Marco still drives for us for the Indy 500 and just working with my dad every day and obviously we're seeing Mario around and things like that do you call him grandpa or do you actually I actually call him Nono which is uh grandfather in Italian no no or Mario Andretti one of the most successful drivers in the history of Motorsports now his Works Crossing generations and genders tha

nk you no problem you're amazing there's granddaughter Marissa and other women in the industry as if she doesn't do enough Marissa is part of the women in Motorsports North America organization it's a new community of professionals who are devoted to supporting opportunities for women across all disciplines of Motorsports also Marissa says in new Andretti facility in Fishers is expected to open in 2025 will keep you updated on the progress of that project