It's all very well to talk about how it would be great to have a woman driver, a woman with sponsors and marketing, that's all great but to get into that drive you have to perform. That's what I realized early on when I got into Formula One.
When you're a driver, you are very selfish and you only need to focus on your own performance because ultimately, it's your name on the side of the car.
Because it was my decision to stop racing, I feel fine not being a driver anymore.
When I stopped racing, I kept being asked to comment on diversity in the sport but I really felt I had done my part.
I'm a great believer that if you knock on enough doors and stay at the level maybe an opportunity comes.
As a woman people judge you on your looks regardless of the fact you're just there to race.
I'm a development driver, which means I'll be doing a lot of work in the simulator.
I'm simply trying to go as far as I can go in racing.
I think as much as people talk about Scotland as being a place where it's raining all the time it's a fantastic country. Considering it's such a small country you have to realise how successful it's been in the world of motor sport.
I started racing at club level, then the Scottish championship, then the British championship, then the European, then the Worlds. I went through all the various ranks. I spent a good ten years doing karting.
When I decided to stop as a racing driver in 2015, I knew I wanted to continue with the challenge of competitive motorsport.
I was always very clear when I took some time out to start a family that I wanted to come back and get my teeth into something and of course I could not work for Toto or a competing manufacturer.
Just as sport can, art has the capacity to cross so many boundaries like education, race and religion.
I am not someone who lets my head get down.
Love it or hate it, motorsport is not purely talent. It never has been and never will be.
When a sport comes down to physical power, then it definitely needs to be split between men and women, but motor racing is a little bit like horse riding where we fight with the same tools. I believe that motor racing is a sport where women can take on men.
For me, it's all about taking things a step at a time, proving I'm good enough and on the right path.
There always will be stereotypes that women can't drive. When I hear the comments, it just makes me more determined to prove them wrong.
I realised at 13 or 14 when I said, OK, I wanted to be professional racing driver, there wasn't anyone to look up to that I could aspire to or get inspiration from. But that didn't stop me.
I followed my dream as a child and I'm loving every minute of it.
