Listen to this article Launched in December 2020, the initiative derives its name from a plan to have over 25% of new starters at the organisation coming from under-represented groups until the end of 2025. Mercedes says that the target was exceeded in its first year, with 38% of new recruits fulfilling the definition. Female employees now account for 14% of the workforce, up from 12%, while those from ethnic minorities have risen from 3% to 6%. Due to the constraints on technical staff numbers created by the F1 budget cap many of the new starters were on the business support side, rather than in engineering or STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) fields, as the team hoped. Mercedes has tried to improve awareness of diversity issues within the existing staff via internal education programmes, including an Accelerate Inclusion workshop. The team also now operates a Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Forum which consists of 25 team membe …