There is an unmistakable sense of quiet confidence, a deserved and hard-earned yet amiable assuredness that makes the former driver, and now Formula One presenter, Naomi Schiff, compelling company. F1 has few enough women working within the sport, it has fewer still women of colour yet Schiff has carved out a remarkable career with admirable equanimity in the face of the prejudice and obstacles that remain an unpleasant reality of modern sport.

Schiff is adamant she does not want race to define her but she is unafraid to address it. “I have been subject to loads of racial abuse,” she says. “Obviously social media is a terrible place at times. A study came out that me and Lewis Hamilton were subject to the most racial abuse of everyone in F1 last season but I’m not insecure about the colour of my skin, of who I am. It’s just very sad to think that’s what you are being judged on.”

The 28-year-old made her debut last season as an analyst for Sky Sports’ F1 coverage and proved immediately popular. As F1 revels in the brash, hype and noise of its second grand prix in Miami this weekend, it is worth acknowledging that it was Schiff’s knowledge of the sport as a driver, her calm professionalism and insight in the paddock that struck a chord with fans. Yet inevitably racial abuse followed on social media. Hamilton swiftly came to her defence and he was not alone. There was a genuine sense of outrage within the sport.

Nonetheless Schiff was nothing but dignified in her response. “It comes with the territory,” she says now of the events with no little understatement. Indeed, she emerged believing that it proved ultimately to be a positive experience.

“It was a great moment for me to see the people inside the environment, the people that mattered, respected my work,” she says. “Lewis spoke up, Max [Verstappen] said something, Seb [Vettel] said something. My colleagues at Sky reached out to me. I felt very protected and it was good to know that so early on.”

Having committed to forging a new career in front of the camera, Schiff considers her visibility as a black woman in motor racing has become even more influential. Not that she accepts she has hung up the helmet quite yet. “I still don’t tell people I have retired from racing because that’s too hard to say,” she says with a laugh. “I will always be a racing driver, I just haven’t raced for a few years …

“But I absolutely love what I do now. I am happy to be recognised by the audience as a driver. Just as I did not have a real identifiable role model – Lewis was acting as that – there are not that many role models for young girls and especially young black females in the sport. So having my face on screen helps with that.”

Hamilton, as the only black driver in F1, has long been an influence in her career. Schiff, who was born in Belgium but grew up in South Africa, took to karting when she was 11 years old at a friend’s birthday party on an indoor track. “By the end of the day I was really upset because I didn’t want it to end,” she recalls. “Then when Lewis entered F1 in 2007 it was my first competitive year in karts. Me being one of the very few girls on track and the only black female, Lewis was an obvious target for me to look up to.”

When she was 14 she would meet him at South Africa’s Kyalami circuit having ducked out of school to do so. Hamilton was at a corporate event at the track and Schiff and her friends sneaked into the pit lane in an attempt to meet him. They were swiftly ejected but stuck to their guns, waiting behind the fencing until a McLaren employee passed their hopeful entreaties on to the British driver.

“So we waited and then he came over and stood with us for 10 minutes and we had a great chat,” she says. “At that point that was the best moment ever in my life. It’s funny to think we have gone from that to where we are today, it’s very much a full circle.”

The circle was completed when she recounted the episode and how inspiring he had been to Hamilton during an interview they conducted last year. Hamilton was enthused by the opportunity, believing it to be the first time he had been interviewed by a woman of colour in F1. “This is history,” he said.

Just as the seven-time champion has changed perceptions and continues to challenge the sport to do better on diversity and inclusivity, Schiff’s presence can only be welcomed – but notably for her knowledge and insight as much as her undoubted value as a role model.

There is an element here of control for Schiff, of being able to ask the pertinent questions, that one senses she has regained after frustrations in her career that were out of her hands. After success in karting, Schiff went on to race in single-seaters, GT cars, prototypes and was in the inaugural all-female W Series in 2019. She threw herself into all of it but with some inevitability the dream was dashed because of a lack of funding and some downright bad luck. Her big shot at making an impression in Europe was scuppered when the series she had put her family money into joining went out of business after a single race, taking all her backing with it.

Covid interrupted her place in the W Series so she turned her hand to TV and then film, working as a stunt driver on the 2021 Bond movie No Time To Die. A gig that she very nearly accidentally dismissed.

“I was contacted by someone in their stunt division on social media and I didn’t believe it, so I ignored it,” she says. “Eventually a friend said: ‘People are calling me about this, are you not going to respond to the Bond opportunity?’ I realised I had been ignoring them but they were real’.”

After some TV work with W Series proved interesting, she was enthused to join Sky. It proved an unqualified success, Schiff bringing a sharp eye for analysis and apposite questioning to the role.

So with Hamilton having already endured a torrid season last year, similarly on the back foot this year and not expecting any great improvement this weekend in Miami, what does Schiff make of the seven-time champion with his back against the wall? The qualities that inspired her on a journey that ultimately led to F1 are still there, she believes.

“Considering how hard last year was, it’s so impressive he was able to keep his cool, to maintain a very good relationship with the team,” she says. “I remember him in the paddock in Baku at 2am, he was still working with his engineers. The guy is really hard working and he hasn’t given up, that was the most positive thing to see.”

On the track in Miami, George Russell topped the timesheets in first practice. The Mercedes driver was two-tenths clear of his teammate Hamilton. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was in third with Verstappen in fourth for Red Bull.