Susie Wolff, Female Drivers and Formula One

[cider_and_toast]

I posted this in the Team Enstone thread but it goes better here:

I'm actually angry about this. It makes a mockery of women in motorsport and sets back (yet again) the cause of developing top female drivers alongside their male counterparts. For crying out loud, what in chuffs name can she develop with that "outstanding" career to date?

Bloody publicity stunt. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Okay how about Christian Horner's one..

 

[RasputinLives]

On that subject Beitske Visser (who has flatly refused to do poses like that) will be having a second season in WSR 3.5 this year. Her season wasn't outstanding last year but she mixed it up in the midfield and had a great drive in the final round at Jerez to get a 5th place with Gasly in a quicker car sitting on her rear wing all the way.

If you're looking for a woman who is out there trying to do it the way it should be done and has talent then she's the one to look at. Is she good enough to be in F1? No. But she has got where she is from driving and is attempting to develop and improve not buy her way up the chain.

 

[RasputinLives]

Oh and I'll give a mention to 22 year old Tatiana Calderon who has just signed for Carlin for a 3rd season at European F3 yesterday.

She was interviewed just before the Macau Grand Prix

http://m.scmp.com/sport/china/artic...ana-calderon-gains-respect-her-driving-skills

"No boy ever likes being beaten by a girl"

 

[sushifiesta]

I think probably I had the same opinion as most people when Susie Wolff first got her chance at Williams but now I really don't have an issue with it and in fact I'd say I support it. Carmen Jorda may not be good enough to get a race seat (by far) but it's planting the seed of associating women with F1. The same goes for Susie Wolff, they are there to show that F1 is open to having female drivers in the sport. It gives young girls a reference point to show that they really could give it a go. Frankly, despite F1's many recent failures there is no doubt that more women are finding their way in to high profile places in the sport, just look at Claire Williams and Monisha Kaltenborn.

As far as her image goes, I have no problem with that either. She is stunningly attractive but she is not being presented in an overtly sexual way in my opinion. She is being shown in the same way a female model or celebrity would be, and isn't it good to show that you don't have to be a dirty, greasy fat bloke in the back of a garage to be involved in motorsport? In fact, the picture of her in the mildly revealing clothes isn't even being distributed by official sources, Lotus etc. have pictures of her in her race overalls only. I'd also argue that the male drivers are presented in exactly the same way, consistent with how male models/celebrities are represented in the media (there are clear differences between how men and women are represented in the media but that is global issue, not an F1 issue). Just look at the outrageous amount of chest Jenson is showing here, for example:

Finally, let's not pretend that we don't have male drivers in F1 who don't deserve to be there. These female development drivers have the potential to achieve a hell of a lot more for F1 than the likes of Max Chilton ever will...

 

[Kewee]

Doesn't seem fair to criticise female drivers for using every asset they can including looks and money to try to advance their careers, considering the number of male pay drivers in F1 and filling the GP3 and GP2 grids. A bit discriminatory to single out the girls and ignore the boys who have bought their way forward.

 

[cider_and_toast]

I wouldn't mind so much if a women racer did pay her way into an F1 seat. The trouble is, the teams use them as a publicity stunt with no real hope of racing. In the case of this young lady her record behind the wheel does not justify the role she has been given in the slightest. We may scoff at drivers such as Maldonado, Chilton, Stevens etc but at least they have all won races in lower formula.

 

[sushifiesta]

There is currently no Louise Hamilton or Nicole Rosberg waiting around in GP2 ready to step up and take F1 by storm and there never will be unless women get exposure and gain interest in motorsport. It may be a publicity stunt but that's exactly the point, it gets the ball rolling.

 

[Kewee]

I know she's not everyones flavour of the month but the year Danica Patrick came within a lap of winning the Indy 500 Bernie said women should wear white to match the rest of the kitchen appliances. Lets be honest, what chance have females got with that sort of archaic thinking from someone of power within the sport. Hopefully attitudes like that aren't too entrenched, if they are woman have no show at all.

 

[FB]

I suspect Kewee that it is not the choice of the women to flaunt themselves in this way, rather some misogynistic PR man who can't think of any other way to get the general public interested in their driver unless they "flaunt their assets". Desire Wilson was one female driver who could mix it with the men but never got a chance in F1 proper and I've mentioned before Michelle Mouton who came so close to winning the World Rally Championship. I don't recall seeing either of these ladies draped provocatively over a car, they got to where they were due to their ability. They cannot be the only women in the World who can drive a car fast.

 

[Kewee]

Hope your right FB. Michelle Mouton drove for Audi in the New Zealand World Rally during the years she was a works driver. Spent the entire rally chasing it from stage to stage each year. Took a lot of planning and knowledge of NZ roads but it was amazing how many stages you could take in with a well thought out plan. Used to have so much fun. I was thirty years younger then and had a very quick turbo hatch. She was a wonderful driver. You could hear those bloody big Audi's backfiring through the forrest from miles away and at night you got the flames out the rear as well. Group B FB, there will never be another era like it.

 

[cider_and_toast]

There is currently no Louise Hamilton or Nicole Rosberg waiting around in GP2 ready to step up and take F1 by storm and there never will be unless women get exposure and gain interest in motorsport. It may be a publicity stunt but that's exactly the point, it gets the ball rolling.

But it doesn't get the ball rolling. It gets peoples backs up because they are not seen as serious racers and therefore they tar everyone with the same brush. The press concentrate on their looks and not their ability (especially if they have no clear ability to speak of). All round it achieves very little.

There would be a Louise Hamlton or a Nicole Rosberg if big teams supported female drivers through identifying talent and placing it within a young driver program.

How would you feel if you were flying in an aircraft that had been developed by a good looking, young girl who'd only had a few hours training behind the stick of a light aircraft but because Boeing wanted to encourage more females into engineering, they promoted her to senior aircraft flight development?

The best way to promote women in motorsport is through idenfitying tallent and backing it. As RasputinLives has already posted above, there are women at GP3 / Formula Renault 3.5 level that are infinately more tallented than Renaults new recruit who could be backed through a young driver program and brought on that way.

 

[F1Yorkshire]

Sniff sums it up nicely.

http://sniffpetrol.com/2015/02/27/f1-fans-reveal-outdated-views/#.VPBq0fmsU8R

Women trying to get into F1 have a tougher job then men, not only would they need the talent to compete but also the strength. Added to that, in order to get the funding required to get to F1 then you have to fit in with the sponsors image, public image sells and the sponsors are always going to favour the driver who is more pleasing to the eye.

This is not the case for male drivers. I will cite Mr Maldonado as an example.

 

[teabagyokel]

Women trying to get into F1 have a tougher job then men

Carmen Jorda and Susie Wolff haven't. In order to get close enough to pay their way into a seat, Max Chilton and Charles Pic were 4th in GP2, Giedo van der Garde won Formula Renault 2.0, Esteban Gutierrez won GP3 and Will Stevens got a top 4 finish in Formula Renault 3.5! Jorda has failed to score a point in three years of GP3; Susie Wolff scored 2 seventh-place finishes in seven years of DTM.

I don't care if you're a man, woman or alien of indiscriminate gender, you should not be getting into a Formula One test seat on a palmares which actually makes Yuji Ide look competent.

They're not the best women, and they could do what Amati did in 1992 and poison the well by being so bad they allow the troglodytes to tar all women by the same brush. I expect the best men in F1, and I expect the best women too.

You do also seem to have missed the point of the Sniff post.

 

[P1]

I think one must remember that in Saudi Arabia where many of the motorsport financiers come from, women are not allowed to drive.

I know its not relevant but felt like sharing anyway.

 

[Bill Boddy]

Presumably any female driver would not be allowed to race in several Gulf states.

 

[Jen]

Not necessarily, business is always paramount, and if a woman increases revenue it would be accepted - albeit begrudgingly!

 

[FB]

Well done WEC, now just need F1 to drag itself into the Twentieth Century.

http://www.motorsport.com/wec/news/wec-getting-rid-of-grid-girls-for-all-events-including-le-mans

 

[RasputinLives]

Formula E is set to do the same thing. I wonder if F1 will fall into line.

 

[teabagyokel]

No, Bernie is halfway to bringing back front-engined engines, he's so 1950s.