I was pleasantly suprised with her relative pace but when but into perspective it wasn't tht great. It's a real shame that as of yet we haven't seen an emerging female talent that has shown legitimate pace, both in the lower formulas or in a testing event.
I think shear weight of numbers are against it really, it can't be more than 1% of drivers in continental or world series are female.
(RANT MODE, not aimed at you sarge but the whole subject as a whole so really just speaking out loud like I mostly do.) Of course it doesn't, my only problem is her using it as a weapon just to make more publicity for herself, she's crap, her whole career is proof of this. Nobody had a problem with a Female coming into F1 and doing well and winning world titles until Susie Wolff started opening her trap saying "things need to change" and she was the person to do it! Her approach to this has been rubbish, if anything she has made things worse for herself now as more people want to see her fail rather than succeed deep down. She put the line down of gender inequality, not the F1 society which she likes to think in that bizarre head of hers. All she did was hit a bee hive with stick multiple times just to get some attention. If she doesn't get into F1 she'll pass the blame onto everybody else in F1 and declare they have a "gender problem" and that F1 as a whole "must be changed for the better!" She's the only problem in my opinion as she isn't taking this seriously enough because it's a ****ing game of publicity to her so she can make money for herself. She's a ****ing strawman until a real Female F1 calibre driver comes along and does the job for her but I'm sure with 10-15 years down the line we'll get some ****ty BBC documentary titled: "Susie Wolff: The Woman who changed F1." She'll make more of a killing out of being a strawman than an actual race driver and that's how I see it, she's is a plastic leech out to make a fortune on people's stupidity. Toto I reckon influenced this whole stunt so to make his wife a Danica Patrick mk2 and rake in the money for a few years until the gig was up in that reality she was just a **** racer as proof with the new influx of female talent. If Susie felt so incensed on this subject she should of set up her own bloody academy and told her millionaire husband to fork out the cash for it and help F1 that way. She would help "real" young female racers into F1, rather than acting like a fugly spice girl with a chip on her shoulder because she failed in her racing career and cant seem to let it go. Beitske Visser is the main "Female racer" I'm rooting for to enter F1 and all the other young females out there! What next after Gender? Is being too short for F1 the next issue to resolve?!?!? well Verne Troyer will always have my support on the matter!
Silver, good post. Just going to zoom in on one little statement you've made: Given that I've seen people casually throwing around sexist terms in topics concerning Susie's performance yesterday, even when it came to grudging acceptance, I don't believe this statement is as true among the majority as people like to believe. To use an example from football, it's in the same way that no-one had a problem with Sian Massey being a linesman in the Premier League, except that as soon as she made a high-profile mistake she was a "stupid bint" "keep women out of football" and all the rest of it. Her gender's not got bugger all to do with her ability as a linesperson and other people made it to do with it. These people aren't good for women, or bad drivers like all women, they're good or bad full stop, and if a female racing driver in F1 hadn't been significant then no comment would have been made. Now, with regards your second point, it's important to remember that we are (I'm making assumptions here) mostly young males, and probably quite privileged ones if we have internet access and an interest in motor racing. As a result it's difficult to understand another perspective and to look at life through a rose-tinted outlook. My laboured point is there are not really many positive female role models within the top level of motor racing. Sabine Schmitz was one good one in terms of upbringing but wasn't actually that good at racing, while Danica Patrick (who you mention) got pushed by the wrong people into FHM photoshoots and all the rest of it. Apart from that motor racing is very male dominated - just look at the gender ratios among the technical directors and the like. Which means there's a gap for a female role model that needs filling. So yes, Susie and her husband are being media-savvy, and I find it frustrating at times too, but the thing is that they're doing it in a better way than it has been done and, to return to my original point, engendering some sort of feminine pride could actually be a good thing for the sport as a whole, now we've got Monisha Kaltenborn at Sauber as well. Now, as for another complaint, that she's managed to get this far mainly on account of Toto - let's take a look at the grid, we've got so many drivers on there who are there because of who they know. That's a much deeper issue with the selection process for F1 which hasn't changed in years. GP2 and GP3 were meant to be low-budget formulae with F1-style regulations in order to allow teams to better choose drivers on the basis of talent. That became bollocks fairly quickly when drivers like Piquet Jr. turned up, allegedly using his dad's influence to test at each track for ages in order to get the set-up perfect. This isn't something that can be easily fixed though because it needs much more money to filter down from the top of the system to the bottom in order that external sponsorship - especially driver-specific sponsorship - becomes unnecessary. Hell, it pretty much needs an entire change of system. Just playing devil's advocate here. I think you make some good points, I just think that at times you do contradict yourself and narrow in on the fact that she is a woman, and get a little defensive of your gender equal position.
I have no problem with Women in F1 as I have an Older sister who used to beat me up when I was younger so I don't doubt Womens "aggression" or "lack of strength" if anything My real deep bias with people no matter how hard I try will always be those "race cards" being applied. Prejudice has many forms and not just because of race, gender or nationality, I've been on the end of that many times yet I don't see society trying to change around me, I have to adapt around it. Call my cynical but I will never shed a tear for this kind of issue when there are much more important things to sort out which again I couldn't give a flying crap about as I'm a anti-social SOB and it serves me well as it means less thinking for me.
Silver got beat up by a girl. This explains a lot now Anyway I was visiting the rents yesterday and was chatting to pa pa about this and saying how it was great that she got the opertunity but didn't really deserve it on merit, only getting it because of her husband which is correct. But mother called me a male chauvinist....stupid woman doesn't understand
