There are reports today from Spain that suggest that Maria de Villota has “real possibilities” of a Formula 1 drive next year. I doubt it, and to be quite honest I hope not. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see a competitive woman driver in Grand Prix racing, and I think it would be of immense value to the sport, but the important point here is not getting any woman into F1, but rather getting the right one so as to clear away all the preconceptions that exist in this macho world.
De Villota has nothing in her CV that suggests that she is capable of being on the pace in F1 and her age is obviously no great help either. Modern F1 drivers tend to arrive in the sport in their early twenties and by the time they are 31 they are either established or have moved on. Buying a place in F1 will not help matters because today even the pay-drivers have considerable talent as there is no room for those who do not. I would argue that having a woman pay-driver in F1 will actually do more damage for the cause of women in motor racing than it would help. De Villota’s recent test of a 2009 Renault at Paul Ricard was pretty disappointing, from what I hear, and I think that trying to pretend that the irrelevant Superleague is the right background for F1 is simply wasting energy.
If one were to put De Villota into F1 right now, the chances are that she would perform poorly and soon disappear. That would affect the chances of all other female racers who want one day to be in F1 because it would give the prejudiced more ammunition in their argument that women cannot be F1 racers. The first woman in the modern era to break into F1 must be one who proves that there is no reason why women cannot do it, just as Danica Patrick proved that to be the case in IndyCars. Right now, there are few signs of that right woman in the junior formula despite the efforts in recent years of Natacha Gachnang and Natalia Kowalska in Formula Two and Alice Powell in British Formula Renault. The women who are racing in the United States have more to lose than gain by trying to switch into F1. I am told that there were some discussions a year or so ago about Danica perhaps having a look at F1, but that she decided that NASCAR was a better longterm option for her.
All of this is why the FIA recently established a Women in Motorsport Commission, the aim of which is to help those with the right kind of talent to move up, by understanding the reasons why girls have tended to quit the sport after karting, rather than moving into cars with the men. There are many reasons for this and there is a clear need for support for the talented women racers at various moments in their development. Once those foundations have been laid and women start to make more progress in the junior formulae, then more will have the confidence to follow them and then it is really just down to the right talent coming along.
In may respects this is no different to the search that is on to find a suitable Arab, Chinese or American racer. One can perhaps find pay-drivers but getting the real thing is a different story.
Had Honda not pulled out of F1, do you think that Danica could have tested and even joined the team?
She would have been the perfect person, as not only she is pretty good as a driver but would have brought in immense glamour value and F1 could have tapped the US market
Ravi,
Maybe.
My point exactly, Joe. I did a piece on it yesterday, well more a short comment about it, saying that apparently her colleagues in the Supereague series, Antonio Pizzonia and Enrique Bernoldi had told her, she had what it took. I mean seriously, what authority do they have?
I’m in two minds here. I think it would be fantastic for a woman to be in F1, it’d add to the sports appeal and remove some of the arrogance of it.
However, should a worthy male driver miss out simply because they have a different gender?
I honestly hope that when a woman does make it to F1, she’s earned it, much liker every driver.
I totally agree with you, Joe!
What do you think about Simona? She’s had some good runs on the road courses in what is far from a race winning car.
Patrick’s results on road courses has been disappointing, but Simona de Silvestro looks more promising. She’s the right age and I hope someone gives her a GP2 test.
Nicholas,
She has more to lose by returning to Europe, particularly with Danica moving to NASCAR. I do not see her coming back to Europe. It makes no sense.
Formula One has historically been fuelled by testosterone, not oestrogen.
The cars are a lot easier to drive these days with driver aids, etc, compared to twenty years ago, so the physical input from the driver is less today.
It will fundamentally alter the image of F1 with women drivers, perhaps no bad thing as it may help increase audience numbers.
I’m glad that Danica hasn’t made it into F1 for much the same reasons that you’re hopeful that De Villota won’t make it to F1.
Danica’s awesome at PR, but she’s not good enough for F1. After all she’s not the best driver in her own team, or even the best woman driver in the IRL.
Jim Hughes,
I think Danica has done a terrific job.
Joe, we’ve had quite a few very good female kart racers here in New Zealand over the years, generally in the Junior classess. Scott Dixon’s older sister Adele was one and the Vercoe sisters, whose father was an engine builder, were particularly memorable. Funnily enough, if you wanted a yardstick for how good they were, Jessica (the younger sister) progressed through from Midgets (now the Cadet class), Junior Restricted and then Juniors at the same time as Scott Dixon was learning his craft in Auckland and around the country. If you ever get the chance to speak to Sott Dixon in your travels please ask him who his toughest competitor in karts was. I’m pretty sure he would say Jessica Vercoe. I’m not sure how many National titles they each won but it was generally at the expense of the other.
And like you say not too many progress past karts. The three I mentioned all married top kart racers, Adele married the son of Scott’s old kart engine builder (not a Vercoe) and Jessica became a lawyer (I think).
Not to be pedantic joe but Alice Powell is in her 4th season of single seaters and all she has done is win one race in a poor club series. This year she got trounced by a lot of rookies. If she goes up the ladder next yr I will be surprised!!!!!
F1fan
Did I say she was World Champion material?
Danica would have been little better, she struggled enough in Indycar when they ran street/road course races. If F1 went all-oval overnight Danica would be the prime candidate for a female F1 driver.
Having said all that I have long believed that, absolutely oppositely to the notion that F1 is closed off to women, if the PR opportunities are sufficiently large enough even if she is just a little bit worse than the worst current male F1 driver then there would be a reasonable chance of seeing a woman in F1.
I think we saw what de Villota has to offer in Superleague. If left alone on the track she could do laps that were close enough in time to the rest of the field that she wasn’t embarrassing. Put another car into the mix and she was awful. In particular her racecraft – loosely defined here as occupying more-or-less the same part of the track as another car without hitting it – was dire. She wasn’t as bad compared with the rest of the field as Milka Duno was to the other IndyCar drivers on road courses, but she wasn’t far off.
Simona is a huge loss to the F1 ladder. I agree with Joe that, career-wise, American is where she’s best off. But she’s had a brutal season of injuries, even without any hangover from emerging unscathed out of the Vegas horror, and she wouldn’t be human if she didn’t at least spare a thought to coming back to Europe. This might be the right moment for a canny F1 team to offer her a place in the season-ending young drivers test.
To be fair to Alice Powell, she didn’t just win one race – she did actually win the championship. She’s always suffered from a lack of money and I suspect, without knowing for sure, that her drives have often come because the teams wanted her there but had to concentrate more resources on her team-mates who brought big money and sponsors. If had a spare few million I’d be looking to invest in her career as she’d be a marketer’s dream should she ever actually make it in F1…
joe, please excuse my negligence as i only became a hardcore f1 fan in 94, but what was the impression of the female f1 drivers in the 80s like? were they any good or were they only there because a sponsor got onboard for gender readons?
No to be fair you didnt. But what I’m saying is that she isn’t even formula Renault uk material!
Danica is the real deal, but lost forever to NASCAR now; de Silvestro has shown flashes of brilliance; don’t disregard Susie Stoddart – doesn’;t deserve it, but marrying the big cheque book
@patrick
The physical demands are huge. Drivers spend a lot of time on their fitness.
Also, I would argue that F1 is fuelled by ego, not testosterone. I know plenty of women with big egos.
Joe,
The rumours about this have been circulating for quite some time ever since the Renault test. Strangely Renault, in its website, reported that Maria did a good job and gave some technical feedback too. Her manager reported back then that he was doing everything he could to get her into F1 as a third driver or so. I found it puzzling too – how could anyone give a 30+ driver a chance, one who hasn’t had much notable success? Is the lure of money so great, or is it publicity to get a woman on board – particularly considering she is the daughter of Emilio de Villota? That’s when I remembered that in 2003 or 2004 Minardi brought in a 40+ Israeli driver called Chanoch Nissany as test driver! So stranger things do happen.
By the way Joe, do you think Vanina Ickx should have had an F1 chance? She proved to be a solid driver in sports prototype racing and the Le Mans 24 Hours, though the results haven’t been very illustrious.
In the 61 years of the Formula One World Championship there have been only five women drivers who have taken part in Grand Prix events. Only three have managed to qualify a car, although only two of them actually count in the record books because Desire Wilson’s race for Tyrrell in the 1981 South African Grand Prix was not considered to be a Grand Prix because of the ongoing FISA-FOCA war at the time. The race was deemed to be a Formula Libre race, rather than as round of the World Championship, as had been planned. The manufacturer teams from Ferrari, Renault, Alfa Romeo and Ligier (Matra) did not appear but there will still 19 cars, all powered by Cosworth engines. Wilson qualified 16th, ahead of Derek Daly, Geoff Lees and Eliseo Salazar. Wilson had previously failed to qualify a Brands Hatch Racing-entered Williams FW07, prepared by John Macdonald’s RAM team at the British GP in 1980.
The first woman to race in F1 was Italian Maria Teresa de Filippis. She took part in in five World Championship Grands Prix in 1958 and 1959.
Lella Lombardi was by the far the most successful female F1 racer, qualifying for 12 of her 17 races, starting with a privately-entered Brabham at the British GP in 1974. In 1975 she landed a ride with the factory March team with backing from Lavazza and finished sixth in the shortened Spanish GP, earning half a point.
Divina Galica tried to qualify for three races between 1976 and 1978. The first was the British GP in 1976 where she drove a Shellsport-sponsored Whiting Surtees TS16, which was run by Nick Whiting, Charlie Whiting’s brother, which she had raced this with some success in the British F1 series. The other two races Galica tried were at the start of 1978 when she had an Olympus-sponsored factory Hesketh 308E, but she failed to qualify in both Argentina and Brazil.
In the modern era only Giovanna Amati has come close to racing in F1. She appeared in F1 at the start of 1992, after having had one test with the Benetton team. She drove a Brabham but failed to qualify in her three attempts. Her team-mate Eric Van de Poele. Eric qualified in South Africa but the cars were difficult and even Damon Hill, who replaced her, could do little. Hill qualified just twice before the team went out of business that summer.
Since then Sarah Fisher did a demonstration run in a McLaren at Indianapolis in 2002; Katherine Legge tested a Minardi at Vallelunga in 2005 and there was talk of Danica Patrick testing for Honda in 2008, but that never happened. Earlier this year Maria de Villota tested a Renault F1 car at Paul Ricard.
Joe,
Good point about the Women in Motorsport comission. There are (admitedly only based on my TV viewing) quite a few girls in Karting, finishing in respectable places. But by the lower formula these series are almost all dominated by males. I’m not sure of the very rough chance of getting into F1 – 1:20 to get into F1 from GP2? 1:20 to get into GP2 from F3? That’s already 1 in 400 to get from F3 into F1. Not good odds if you’re the only woman in F3!
Obviously the key to this ‘goal’ of a female F1 driver is to massively increase the number of women in the lower formula.
Does seem that the ladies being considered are all “easy on the eye”. Is it as important for male f1 drivers to be attractive?
We used to have the late great Pat Carsson come to events at ours with her daughter – probably the greatest female british driver ever? I think she got results through talent & tenacity rather than ability to flutter her eyelashes. Perhaps if female drivers were promoted on ability rather than PR value they may come through from a stronger base
simon bates,
I don’t think any of that comes into it. If a girl is quick enough she can be ugly. Yes, it is true of the men as well…
If she’s not quick enough for F1 send her and her cash to race in Indycars…..they are always looking for a few flush drivers.
I truly don’t get it when it comes to forcing a woman driver into a business just for the sake of saying we have a woman.
If they are out there and talented and strong enough to compete, then welcome them with open arms. if not, why go looking?
Dan (God bless hm) had all the talent in the world and yet couldn’t crack the F1 barriers because of funding. I agree with Joe, Why bring in marginally talented drivers with a lot of cash when there are good drivers available with a lot of cash???
Joe:
Why do you figure it has been so difficult for a woman to break through into F1, is it a matter of too few girls getting into karting at the right age and progressing up through the feeder series, or is it a matter of discrimination. I imagine physically there is not a real issue since F1 driver are for the most part on the petite side, fit but by no means large muscular men.
I have always wondered this, specially in the present and imediate past, I dont think there would be such a reluctance of parents to let their girls take up the racing when very young, at least not like it would have been a few decades ago.
I cant imagine it would be a matter of the teams, FOM or the FIA discriminating as a competent female driver would bring in a lot o attention and therefore sponsors, just as Patrick has done for her teams and series.
6 wheeled tyrell,
Why do I figure that? Because I have looked at the question in great depth (for a magazine) and it is not about girls getting into karting. There are plenty. The problem is making the jump into cars. It has got nothing to do with physical attributes, nor discrimination, but rather about the support they get when they try to jump from karts to cars. This is why the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission is working in this area. Once one girl has made the breakthrough many more will follow.
Joe,
You mentioned Sarah Fisher in a later response, but wasn’t she worth a mention in the original post?! I’d offer that in the years before Danica appeared on the scene, it was *Sarah* who proved women were up to the task of IRL, managing two or three podiums, a pole, and a fastest lap; and all that whilst never driving for a top team.
True, it was Danica who got the breakthrough win, but Sarah did enough to justify her presence in the pack.
What about Carmen Jorda testing Kolles HRT car at Vairano?
I think it was right after Monza race….
Kathrine Legge is willing and able. She has continued to develop since her 05 test. Somebody please get that driver on an F1 team!
My opinion of Danica went up a few notches when I heard her being interviewed at Vegas when it was stopped but before news of Dan’s death came. Saying something to the effect of she’d returned to running down low on the track even though it was a bit slower, and of course opens one to ‘wimp’ talk (her words), as her judgment was that was the better/safer place to be. (Dario I think did the same.) That move on her part may have just been the difference-maker for her as it appeared she only just missed the carnage by being low.
Ravi,
I totally believe that if Danica had entered Formula 1, the US public would’ve forgotten her, and the US market would’ve been no more tappable. To my memory, Mario Andretti’s winning exploits enthused some Americans who were already interested in racing, but didn’t serve to move F1 out of the “other series” sub-sub-subsection of the “auto racing” sub-subsection of “other sports” subsection of the sports section of US papers.
As for female racers in general: no one’s mentioned Carmen Jorda, of Spain. She’s some F3 podiums to her name, and for some reason her Indy Lights ride didn’t gel. See her website. AND, she is, as we crude Yanks like to put it, a definite “hottie!” even more than Danica. Lament it if you like, but for a woman that’s what supercharges the public attention.
Joe:
My apologies if the tone of my question was not clear, I was not questioning your judgment in the original post as in “I don’t believe what you are saying, justify yourself”.
The statistics are very clear, as you explained there is only been a very small number of women who have had the opportunity to drive in F1, which leads me to the obvious conclusion that there must be more stumbling blocks in the carrier path of female drivers that there are for their male counterparts. My post meant to ask you what you thought was the major hurdle that was preventing women from reaching F1 (which you answered…I just wanted to make my intentions clear).
Best regards,
6WT
Alice Powell will be racing in one of the support races at the Indian GP, so might be the opportunity she needs to meet the right people or be seen, as succeeding in motorsport is as much about having the right money/financial backing and knowing the right people as it is purely about just having the right talent.
Joe, do you think there needs to be a junior level single seater series exclusively for women, such as Formula Ford Women or F3 Women. The winner of the championship could get a test in a GP2 or World Series machine. But I believe it will be hard for the girls to acquire sponsorship for an entire season. Like Formula 2, the FIA could conceive a relatively low cost but competitive racing series just for upcoming women drivers – drivers from karting.
PT
No.
Are there really that many women who are interested in a racing career? Over the last few years, I have done several “fantasy camps” with driving various race cars on a track with some 60 or 70 other people in total, and only two have been women. Or in watching the “GT Speed Academy” recently that Nissan and Playstation had to get an American in a sports car “from virtual to reality”, there were 16 final contestants after some 40,000 or so competing online. All 16 were men. Maybe that will change over time. Perhaps some special funding will find some genuinely talented women for F1. But I fear they may end up with a moving roadblock like Milka Duno.
BTW what is the definition for a ‘pay driver’?
In my understanding Santander pays Alonso’s whole salary and plenty more to Ferrari. And them being there at all is directly linked to the fact that Ferrari hired Alonso.
Isn’t that a typical ‘pay driver’ situation?
I hate the whole idea of finding female drivers about as much as I hate seeing woman driver rather than female driver.
It’s like the ‘looking for an (insert country or region here) driver” except slightly worse.
Why do we care that their aren’t female drivers? I don’t. I don’t care that their aren’t any African drivers or that for ages we had no real Aussie/NZ drivers. I don’t care we don’t have any drivers from North America.
Why should their be acommision? maybe it’s because I don’t live in europe where big bodies try to socialise market structures, or maybe its something else. I’m not too sure, but for I don’t understnad why anyone cares.
The only reason why I say region drivers are vaigly better than gender drivers are because atleast having an Indian driver say would promote F1 in India where it wouldn’t get the media coverage it would otherwise get.
In Australia we rarely got much coverage until Webber started doing well, and races were delayed and in the middle of the inght. Now with Ricciardo and Webber we have almost all quali and all races live. We have RPM (car show) back through more interest.
Women on the other hand I don’t hink need to see a woman up their to pay interest or get the coverage. The coverage will be their by having ‘a’ driver from that country regardless of gender.
And moving on, I would question if atleast in some minds having female drivers would infact lower the reputation of the sport. For many it wouldn’t matter, but for some the idea of a sport is very gender based. OVer the age of 10 or so girls and boys play seperately in sports. You watch soccer/your football and you don’t see women running around playing with Beckham do you? If you wwtch gridiron/USA football you see men ramming each other not women and men. To some the idea may lower the already questionable perception that F1 is a sport at all due to its level of fitness.
Joe another cracking article
There is no reason why women could not compete at the highest level in motorsport. If you look at equestrian events, women compete alongside men and achieve great success. Many of the skills needed to control half a ton of an animal with a brain the size of a walnut and a natural flight tendency are the same as those needed in motorsport. If memory serves me right Stirling Moss put his feel for a car down to his early years being spent clinging on to the family pony as it hurtled round a field. His sister is the afore mentioned Pat Carlsson who also spent her youth this way. But I would argue that horse sports is one of the reasons why it is unlikely we will see a truly capable women in F1 for some time. At the risk of being attacked by Germaine Greer and her friends it’s down to what little boys and little girls like. Boys like cars and soldiers, girls like dolls and ponies. If a child is from a family that can afford their children participating in either sport the boy is more likely to go down the motorsport route and the girl the horsey one. Therefore there will allways be an in balance in the male/female demographic in motorsport and with fewer women in the lower formulae there will be less chance of them prgressing.
Talking of Pat Carlsson the only women I can think of who achieved any succes in motorposrt are Pat and Michelle Mouton in rallying. Joe or anybody have you got any reasons why they achieved success in this discipline?
Sarah Moore is better than Alice Powell.
I don’t really know how to ask this without sounding incredibly ignorant, but in regards to the physical requirements to drive a modern F1 car to its fullest, is a female capable of matching a male? I ask because when it comes to most professional sports/endurance sports, there is a reason why males and females do not compete with each other (physical limitations — Tour de France comes to mind). Obviously the Tour de France is more demanding than F1, but it seems as if F1 is fairly demanding as well — more so than other forms of auto racing? The g-forces seem insane. I’m not entirely sure of the physical requirements to drive an F1 car which is why I ask.
Caroline,
Yes.
Lovely lady but her record in Superleague says she is not ready for F1
Maria De Villota, Carmen Jorda, Alice Powell all have one thing in common. Sadly for them, they aren’t good enough, not by a long chalk, and have already got far further than an identical but male counterpart would have.
There are a couple out there worth watching though. Tatiana Calderon perhaps, who has recently switched from the States to F3 in Europe.
@ David Goss
Good point yes, yet F1 cars today do not need a clutch pedal, manual gear box, double de-clutch driving, no power steering and back then 1500bhp…
Massive egos have always been part of the F1 paddock, just look at the motorhomes.
This is what makes the sport so interesting. Nothing to do with what goes on, on the racetrack!
F1Fan1998, Alice Powell got knocked off 3 times this year In Formula Renault UK, whilst she was in a podium position and catching the leaders! She missed all pre season testing too due to money! She has averaged being 5th fastest in the races this year.
At Snetterton this year, when she was in 4th, she had electrical problems with her car, so the car kept cutting out, which is why others started to catch her. She has had similar problems in quali this year with the car.
People just assume, and do not get their facts right!!!
In 2009, she was not old enough to test the Formula Renault, so only did the 10 pre season test days in her first year, and qualified 15th beating many others who had done Formula Renault before!
She just needs the backing and I am sure she will be fine. Her team mates this year have been racing abroad in NEC Formula Renault, gaining again more test and race time. It must be hard when you do not have the money.
Alex Simmons,
That is enough about Alice Powell.
Hi Joe
Interesting article. I instantly feel allergic to this whole female debate but there are a number of factors that need to be observed in a driver if they are every going to ‘make it’.
I am involved in karting, and I’ve always believed you’ll only ever see a top-class female driver if they’ve ever proved they can compete with the world’s best karters on an even footing. The only lass to do that is Beitske Visser (she led the KZ1 world cup for a bit before her kart got damaged http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hCSWBIEpkw ). Racing with the world’s best karters…this is my opinion is a better barometer of talent than any national single-seater championship. Someone like Beitske isn’t good ‘for a girl’ she is good… full stop.
A driver should always be treated as such, a DRIVER. Gender shouldn’t even come into the equation
I don’t agree with those who view Danica as having much talent. To be sure, she has skills. But she was brought to the front ranks very quickly by Bobby Rahal with the intention of being an oval racer. This was before CART and the IRL reconciled. Her road course performances (post-unification) are usually abysmal, and she has often looked lost at sea in street/road circuits. In six years of racing at St. Pete, she has only one top 10 finish. Her best finish at Sonoma is fifth, and the last two years she languished at the bottom of the grid. Same story in Edmonton and Toronto. She earned fifth at Long Beach once. She would never have been a successful F1 driver; she has never been known for giving great engineering feedback, and on numerous occasions has lost her temper (usually when she’s at fault). Her body language and attitude towards road courses show her disinterest, and that’s kept her from being an all-around racer (and a champion).
To be honest, Simona de Silvestra has shown a lot more grit and courage than Danica has.
Bloomsm,
That is all well and good, but until Simona leads at Indy or wins a race you are going to be a lone voice.
Joe,
I understand your point. I just note that Danica’s been in the series for six years with good teams, and has one win, a handful of podiums, and laps led at Indy to her name. She’s been regularly beaten by teammates with equal machinery. Whereas Simona’s been at the top line for just two years, in an underfunded team with no teammate, with some injuries to battle. So, to me at least, progress is all relative.
@Tim (other Tim)
Denise McCluggage. Lots of rally success, won the GT class at the 12 Hours of Sebring, 1961, in her own car, with an amateur co-driver.
@AM
Just googled her very interesting lady. Thanks, had never heard of her before.