It's been a bad few weeks for the motor sports and the car industry.

Of course, things are economically bad in metal world but reputation-wise think about these lowlights: this week The Australian's Nicola Berkovic told us that "the former Australasian head of the Fezzer car company, Herbert Appleroth, who alleges he was sacked in October last year for having an affair with a female subordinate, alleged in his Federal Court statement of claim that the relationship was 'not inconsistent with the expected behaviours of the CEO' or the company's code of conduct."

Interestingly Ferrari's values of individual and team, emotion, integrity, tradition and innovation, passion and excellence don't mention not having affairs with staff or the expectation that the top brass are expected to share the love around.

Instead, it was a "notorious fact" among senior officers of the company that "very senior officers of the Ferrari group of companies routinely conducted consensual sexual relations with subordinate employees without adverse consequence for their employment."

Then online media and marketing mag Mumbrella's Meggie Palmer wrote on the BP Supercars all-stars Eseries, a COVID-19 replacement for real racing by real people in real cars. "Enter Supercars with a great concept, an e-series as well as a celebrity Bathurst virtual race. The fans get their fix and Supercars nabs sponsors and decent ratings. Win win, in theory. The execution, though, was sloppy."

"Their 'celeb' friends were 24 men. Among them AFL player Jack Riewoldt, NRL's Nathan Hindmarsh, DJ Carl Cox and radio announcer Matt de Groot. 24 blokes, no women."

Motorsport is a truly equal sport. Effectively there's no women's teams or special sections for girls. But it's one of the few parts of life where participation rates for women at the top level are worse than they were 85 years ago. Across all motorsports in Australia, female participation is about 10 per cent. For karts it's 7 per cent.

Rachelle Stirling, the founder of The Women's Motorsport Development Program and Race Chix Motorsport, told me: "There's a disconnect on how to get involved, then add in the gender part … girls not seeing women in the sport … you can't be what you don't see."

Rachelle was a supercar fan for 20 years with no thought of getting involved. It wasn't till she saw a CAMS 'come and try' stand at a race that she realised she could get on the track for $36 in her Subaru Liberty. She hasn't stopped since.