Susie Wolff, Female Drivers and Formula One
- Thread starter cider_and_toast
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Did anyone see Ecclestone's suggestion of a women's GP? Who would provide those cars?
Dash Racing
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I'm okay with grid girls, as long as there are an equal number of grid guys in equally skimpy clothing - otherwise, it needs to go.
I did see Ecclestone's Women's GP suggestion. I think Bernie's a sexist pig who's too long in the tooth. Any company that provides those cars ought to be boycotted.
I did see Ecclestone's Women's GP suggestion. I think Bernie's a sexist pig who's too long in the tooth. Any company that provides those cars ought to be boycotted.
Bernies suggestion reminded me of a conversation I had about an 'all womans' series before. Someone said to me that if someone suggested an 'all black' series people would coil away in horror so why does the suggestion of an all womans series merit discussion?
I suppose it's that other sports do it.
I refuse to believe there aren't enough talented women ready and able to come through the ranks. They need to be found and supported in the same way any talented driver is. The biggest question, if they are out there, is why aren't they being found? Most young drivers are spotted in karting at quite an early age where gender has even less of an effect on ability.
Dash Racing
Points Scorer
Societal expectations probably play a big role, and when there's no big-name female role models in F1, there's no inspiration there for the girls. Even if there were females in F1, if they were chosen for the wrong reason - because they're a girl - and they sucked at it, that's all the persuasion daddy dearest needs to not spend the family fortune on his daughter racing. It's a catch 22, if you ask me. Motor racing being the old boys club for as long as it has been is not helping at all. Now when all the old sexist pigs among the management and owners die/retire, women might get a fair shot. Until then, F1 will prove to be impenetrable to most female drivers of the average talent level found in F1, because in order to get in at all, they'd have to be Senna good, not just Chilton good.
Well, Senna good or Chilton wallet, I suspect.
In theory, women should be better than men, as they have faster reaction times than males. Maybe that is counterbalanced by not having the physical strength (although their stamina has been shown to be superior) that men have.
Wouldn't the majority have a weight advantage too?
Yes, as long as it wasn't the car/driver total weight which was decreed by the rules. Otherwise, their cars would have to carry ballast. Women are generally better at multitasking than we are and have higher tolerances for pain.
Given all of their advantages, it defies reason that there isn't a large number of women in all form of motorsport. Therefore, one can well suspect societal biases are the reason.
Given all of their advantages, it defies reason that there isn't a large number of women in all form of motorsport. Therefore, one can well suspect societal biases are the reason.
Dash Racing
Points Scorer
Ballast still gives women an advantage, they can better balance the car because they can shift more of the ballast around to do so.
I had hoped (evidently in vain) that the prowess of Michelle Mouton in rallying, the most difficult form of auto racing, would have put to rest forever the myth of women's unsuitability for the sport.
I have raced with the SCCA since 1993 and they have separate classes for ladies and for 10 years I have owned a kart track and 10% of our drivers are female, so I have a lot of experience with women in racing. You can disagree with me all you want but I can back it up with strong evidence. I'll try to make this short but it's complicated so I have to skip a lot. Some background on basic human development will help explain this. Basically, for at least 100,000 years, humans have separated the tasks of men and women. When there was a rustling in the bushes, the men have grabbed their spears and gone out to kill whatever was out there, and women have gathered up the children and hid them away for safety. These are two very different impulses when faced with danger but the divided tasks have allowed us to survive. Put simply, a male who didn't go out and kill for food or defense probably didn't have his genetics carried on, and any woman who had the urge to go out and kill for food or defense probably didn't have her genetics carried on, either.
Fast forward to today and we are told that men and women are the same and that simply isn't true, equal yes, but not the same. Men deal with a rush of adrenalin much different than women. Men rarely freeze up when confronted with a dangerous situation and I have watched hundreds of crashes at my track and men will always keep steering and stabbing at the pedals right to the bitter end, where women often are frozen at the controls and take their hands off the wheels and even cover their eyes. Staff joke that men crash because they refuse to use the brakes and women crash because they can't find the brakes. Men almost always start off foot to the floor and only back off once a crash is imminent, women almost always start off slow and get faster as their confidence builds. And this trend is exactly the same with the local karting club.
I am not saying that a woman cannot drive as well or better than a man, just that women in general are not as adept at dealing with everything going on inside a race car. I compare it to tall players vs short players in the National Basketball League. You don't have to be be 7' tall to be a great player in the NBA, but it helps. Being only 6' tall doesn't doom you to failure, either and the league has had some very successful players under 6' tall, they just have to work a little bit harder at it. A woman has to work just a bit harder than a man to be a great driver because the whole thrill seeking/adrenalin rush thing is not something that comes natural to most of them. I cheer most for Danica in NASCAR and I really want to see Susie have a shot at F1 because in many ways they have struggles the men don't have and I like underdogs.
What does my wife think about my opinions on this? She agrees completely because she also works at the track, has seen all that I have seen and she is an SCCA National Champion in the ladies class. In case you're curious, women make up 10% of our customers but represent 45% of our crashes and in 10 years, only 3 women have had the top lap time of the day (and two of those were students in my kart racing school, one was 12, the other was 50, the third female is the driver of the local FSAE car). And women should have an advantage in my karts, their average weight is lower than mens. Women showing up at our race events get more than their fair share of assistance, too and the local sports car club puts on a ladies only driving clinic every year. Anyways, I want females to be given a chance and I believe they add to the show, plus sponsors love the attractive ones, as do most of the fans. Believe it or not, this was the short version.
Fast forward to today and we are told that men and women are the same and that simply isn't true, equal yes, but not the same. Men deal with a rush of adrenalin much different than women. Men rarely freeze up when confronted with a dangerous situation and I have watched hundreds of crashes at my track and men will always keep steering and stabbing at the pedals right to the bitter end, where women often are frozen at the controls and take their hands off the wheels and even cover their eyes. Staff joke that men crash because they refuse to use the brakes and women crash because they can't find the brakes. Men almost always start off foot to the floor and only back off once a crash is imminent, women almost always start off slow and get faster as their confidence builds. And this trend is exactly the same with the local karting club.
I am not saying that a woman cannot drive as well or better than a man, just that women in general are not as adept at dealing with everything going on inside a race car. I compare it to tall players vs short players in the National Basketball League. You don't have to be be 7' tall to be a great player in the NBA, but it helps. Being only 6' tall doesn't doom you to failure, either and the league has had some very successful players under 6' tall, they just have to work a little bit harder at it. A woman has to work just a bit harder than a man to be a great driver because the whole thrill seeking/adrenalin rush thing is not something that comes natural to most of them. I cheer most for Danica in NASCAR and I really want to see Susie have a shot at F1 because in many ways they have struggles the men don't have and I like underdogs.
What does my wife think about my opinions on this? She agrees completely because she also works at the track, has seen all that I have seen and she is an SCCA National Champion in the ladies class. In case you're curious, women make up 10% of our customers but represent 45% of our crashes and in 10 years, only 3 women have had the top lap time of the day (and two of those were students in my kart racing school, one was 12, the other was 50, the third female is the driver of the local FSAE car). And women should have an advantage in my karts, their average weight is lower than mens. Women showing up at our race events get more than their fair share of assistance, too and the local sports car club puts on a ladies only driving clinic every year. Anyways, I want females to be given a chance and I believe they add to the show, plus sponsors love the attractive ones, as do most of the fans. Believe it or not, this was the short version.
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Dash Racing
Points Scorer
That's not necessarily factually correct, marksawatsky. Some skeletal research suggests pre-agrarian labor was divided much more evenly, and not along gender lines. The thinking that females did not perform the tasks the men did comes from post-agrarian patriarchal societal norms, and reflects later thinking, not necessarily biological fact. There's a lot of societal and historical whitewashing to dig through - all minorities have been subject to cultural erasure in an effort to control them.
These old generalizations cause problems for the girls that do want to race competitively. Those girls that do "drive like guys" don't typically get a fair shot because everyone assumes they're going to fit a gender stereotype.
If I were to ask everyone, right now, to tell the first driving joke that comes to mind, I'm betting most of the jokes would be about woman drivers. The fact that it's considered socially acceptable to use a woman as the brunt of a joke like that is a big part of the problem. What encouragement is there for females to even try racing when most of the world tells them daily "you can't drive because you don't have a twig and berries"?
These old generalizations cause problems for the girls that do want to race competitively. Those girls that do "drive like guys" don't typically get a fair shot because everyone assumes they're going to fit a gender stereotype.
If I were to ask everyone, right now, to tell the first driving joke that comes to mind, I'm betting most of the jokes would be about woman drivers. The fact that it's considered socially acceptable to use a woman as the brunt of a joke like that is a big part of the problem. What encouragement is there for females to even try racing when most of the world tells them daily "you can't drive because you don't have a twig and berries"?
There are women flying fighter jets in combat. I think that is proof enough of their ability to handle adrenaline.
'twig and berries' 
I stand by my research, in general, women are not as good at driving competitively as men and I can prove it.
Adolf Eichman could prove his theories too 
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