Susie Wolff, Female Drivers and Formula One

Lets be fair to them. Cerruti quit for unknown personal reasons (and she really did quit as it was less than 24 hours before race day and Trulli had to make an emergency call to Liuzzi who even had to borrow a helmet) but had been given little chance to show anything in the god dam awful Trulli car.

Legge hasn't be replaced but has had commitments elsewhere (WEC) and will be back for the European races (apparently). I agree she'd hardly covered herself in glory in the races she was in though but she has looked pretty steady elsewhere.

Indy Cars gets a lot more female drivers than F1 it has to be said.
 
Formula E had the perfect opportunity to take on some female drivers as a progressive sport but they didn't....

For me, the obvious question is: how many females are being dissuaded from pursuing motor-racing at the beginner levels simply because of their gender? Unless and until THAT changes, female representation in the upper echelons of motorsports will remain comical.
 
For me, the obvious question is: how many females are being dissuaded from pursuing motor-racing at the beginner levels simply because of their gender? Unless and until THAT changes, female representation in the upper echelons of motorsports will remain comical.
Exactly! There's no incentive for girls to even give it a go. Girls night at kart tracks to get more to give it a go, maybe?
 
I'm going way back since I haven't been on here much lately, but why get rid of the grid girls? Yeah, it kind of objectifies women but I don't think anybody is forcing these specific women into being objectified.
 
But why do girls need more incentive to go kart racing than boys? If they don't actually want to do it then I don't see the point of making a solution out of a non-existent problem. Should boys be incentivised more to ride horses? That's a similarly expensive hobby/sport which where I live at least is practiced by almost exclusively by girls. It's unusual to see a young boy taking part.
 
I don't think it should be incentavised but it should be made an environment comfortable for the to be in where gender isn't an issue. If you have karting instructors telling young women they can have a go at karting but due to biological reasons they'll have to work harder and they'll never be as good its hardly a help is it?

Its kind of a viscous circle really. The old boys club has made it a 'men drive, women wear tight clothes and hold the signs' environment for so long that very few women want to jump into that world and the only thing thats going to change that is seeing a woman in the sport compeating and setting an example. We've seen so many sports take a boost in people getting into them when someone comes out of the blue and compeates in it - especially if its a woman - cycling and heptathlon are just 2 examples - good role models breed youngsters getting into the sport and then a generation down the line the sport benefits.

Eventually someone will come along and do that and then attitudes and views will have to change. I hope its sooner rather than later
 
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And speaking as a female I can't say I've ever noticed being discouraged or encouraged. It's not a generalisation, girls are not as in to driving fast cars as boys. There are some but but proportionately probably quite low.
 
What is the point of having a woman only F1 championship ?

Put Danica Patrick in a half decent cars she will embarrass a lot of those drivers who get into F1 based in sponsorship
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Going back to Susie - she is only in Williams to make good PR for the team which is actually initiated more to maintain good relations with Mercedes if anything else.

Just a note Mercedes back in DTM days ran Ellen Lohr in their factory team who remains the only woman to win a DTM race so really I think its more Mercedes initiative.
 
Put Danica Patrick in a half decent cars she will embarrass a lot of those drivers who get into F1 based in sponsorship
I'm not convinced. I think she might be able to put in an equal performance to some of the paydrivers, but I don't think she'd embarrass them. Transitioning from Indy or NASCAR to F1 is tough. Now give her a couple seasons to settle into F1? Maybe she'd embarrass them, but I still rather doubt it - she's good, but she's not great. I'd certainly go as far as to say she's their equal though.
 
Dash Racing Danica though seems to have the right mental application to prepare for racing and is no slouch behind the wheel . She would have been good for F1 not just because of her looks
 
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