I hear that MarÃa de Villota drove the Renault R29 at at the Paul Ricard Circuit earlier this month. Apparently, she "achieved some very reasonable laptimes". Bernie was also there. Her gender is very important and could play a huge role in whether she becomes an F1 driver: Lower teams might hire a female as a PR move to increase sponsorship and interest in the team. Men are generally superior as athletes, but does that mean females will be less able in F1? Women are better at multitasking Could some team bosses positively discriminate? (or the opposite?) Could we see Maria become an F1 driver soon? No sexist jokes please.
Damn it!! I'm sure there are women who are capable race drivers, I can't see them having the strength to cope with the high G-forces though. From a publicity point of view it would be a great move, and she'd have something to set herself apart when seeking sponsorship through the lower formula.
I reckon women could handle the g-forces to compete on F1, my reservation is if they have the skill to be competitive and not just a PR opportunity. I do not think that generally men are going to be more skilled at driving a car than women and if you take 100 males and 100 females and bring them all up through karting and the lower formulas and they all have and retain the same interest then they will probably finish with a roughly equal amount of males and females who are good enough for F1. However you do not get this, males outnumber the amount of females that want to be an F1 driver by a vast amount and thus it is just math that suggests that when there is a women driver she probably is not good enough. You could argue that because so few women want to be racing drivers that the ones who do want to be one and do come through the ranks must be good because of that, this however I believe not to be entirley true, they still are not different to the many men who want to be a racing driver and come up through the ranks but are just not good enough. If you got more females wanting to be racing drivers at a grassroots level and retain it then you will get women drivers who are good enough eventually.
You can see it in the lower formulae, there simply aren't enough females entering the sport early on. Theres no reason why they can't be fast, but they need to start early if they want to make it to F1. Those who watch the BTCC will know that there are a few females about in the various Formulae you see on the ITV coverage throughout the day, but theres no stand out female in the "big" cars. I still fully expect to see a larger female presence in 10-15 year though, the uptake in lower Formulae has (what seems like) double in even the last 5 years.
Some very good points above. G-Forces are not a particular problem for women. As has been said above, the reason for so few competitive female drivers is primarily due to the relative numbers interested in motor racing in the first place. Tandem to the above: compared to females, males are fundamentally wired to be more competitive. This is not to say that any individual cannot vary significantly from the norm. But the competitive instinct is a fundamental tenet of motor racing. There are other factors which should not be ignored in principle, even though they vary from one individual to another. One of the many differences in the way male and females brains work is the faculty of spacial awareness, where the male brain tends to hold the advantage. Another is the oft quoted 'multi-tasking' capacity of women. It could be argued that both of these are important in motor racing, and of course that would be true. However, spacial awareness is the most fundamental aspect of high speed driving in the vicinity of other cars, particularly when they are being driven by people who are trying to beat you. And in general, this is the domain of the male. Of course, I emphasise that there can and will always be exceptions. But exceptions are always just that: they are exceptions.
The problem will always be the female's eye wandering to the crowds - checking out what the girls are wearing, and missing the braking points! Also some would object to their hairstyle getting messed up by the crash-helmet. Others might be sensitive about the guy who fixes the seatbelt by reaching into the the crotch! Just imagine when someone overtakes - they might burst into tears......
It's a scientifically proven fact that women don't crash as often as men, yet claim not to know what their doing. So they haven't got a clue how to drive, but they do it well. Apologies if this is a touch confusing.
No, it's not Cowboy! For a start, such a statement requires a definition of 'crash'; but I trust that we will agree a working definition, in order to proceed with the following refutation… Accidents involving male drivers tend to be more serious (which is the logic applied to the respective insurance premiums between the sexes), but actually women have far more little shunts of minor consequence, and far more little knocks which damage the car; but these are less likely to cause injury.
If a driver is good enough to be in F1, they will make it there on their own merits. If a driver is reasonable, but also has a large amont of cash following them, they will also make it. Until a female driver shows either of the above, they will not be in F1. There have been some close calls recently, Katherine Legge could have made a go at it. She held her own against the IndyCar brigade, showing good speed many times. Shame she nerfed a Minardi on her very first out lap of an F1 car...........
Of course, somewhere like Valencia she could win by default by virtue of being the only one checking out what the girls aren't wearing. I can see it now:
Hey I remember her father's debut in F1 back in 1976. Didn't realise he had two offspring who have taken to racing. Who knows how far she could get? Look at Danica Patrick in the US. I'm not sure if consistently performing at the very top against hombres is possible but making an impression is not beyond the realms of possibility.
My daughter may only be 8 months old but if her grasp of her walker is anything to go by then she is a future F1 star. I've never seen someone who can't crawl never mind walk do a 3 point turn flawlessly first time. And as a foot note, women don't multitask, they lack the ability to prioritise ;-)
Your daughter sounds exceptional Bob. And further backing up your point, I may be in danger of getting too close to the edge here: It could be argued that 'multi-tasking' is the very antithesis of focussing entirely on one thing - to the exclusion of all else.
Females cannot focus.... I offer the fact that when choosing shoes (simple surely?) they have to try all stores and lots of shoes - but usually return to the first store and buy those they already tried on !!
The only reason Danica Patrick is (Finacially) successful is because she's hot. She sure as hell can't drive
She's doing (and has done) alright in IndyCar, so using that evidence she's a pretty good driver, probably not F1 standard, but not a million miles off.
Theres what, 30ish cars in a IndyCar grid? She's come 12th, 9th, 7th 6th, 5th, 10th and 12th(currently) in the seasons she's entered. So on average she's at least in the top 3rd. Thats not too shabby.
