Women in F1, GTP's views.

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Lee

Lee

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Hey peeps :)

Since Danica Patrick and Katehrine Legg have both impressed over in america (With the result of a test with minardi for Katherine) I beg the question:

Can women make it into modern F1?

Show us your views and predictions on who would be the best bet for a drive in F1? (Please refrain from using any sexist comments)

Obviously Jenson Button thinks not:

JB
Button has come in for heavy criticism because of his comments in the magazine interview that while IRL racer Danica Patrick was a fast driver, he thought she might struggle in F1 because she was a woman.


"She finished fourth in the Indy 500, which is the biggest race in America," said Button.


"But in F1 cars I can't see it happening because of the G-force in high-speed corners. And one week out of the month you wouldn't want to be on the circuit with them, would you?"
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I think there is a possibility of a female in F1 in the near future, you just one team to give them a chance however.
 
LMAO @ JB for the "one week out of the month" comment. That was gold.

Hey, if Legge can win the championship and make for some damn good racing on Menstrual fury, then i'd be glad to watch her drive.
 
I read a few posts a while ago about the female IRL driver. Some of the other drivers were complaining she was only fast because she was lighter than them. In F1, the driver is included in the minimum weight limit, so there won't be a competitive advantage there. On a level playing field we'll see how she copes.

The calibre of driver is higher in F1 than in IRL and the cars are very different. F1 cars are going to be a LOT quicker than IRL cars round the F1 tracks. There are also no ovals in F1 racing, so techniques are somewhat different.

Anyway, we'll see how she compares to the other drivers in her test.

I'm not biased for or against her. If she happens to be quick then good for her :)
 
As long as they're a good driver, then I don't care. If one of these women drivers like Danica Patrick or Katherine Legge (which I don't know about, don't watch IRL or whatever else they might be in, Champ Car?) if they're faster in an F1 car then the other "potential" drivers like Anthony Davidson, Alex Wurz, etc., then kudos to them and they should get a drive sometime.
 
Omnis
LMAO @ JB for the "one week out of the month" comment. That was gold.

Hey, if Legge can win the championship and make for some damn good racing on Menstrual fury, then i'd be glad to watch her drive.
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Hmmmmmmm no doubt people will be complainin that they don't have Menstrual Fury.
 
i dont care what gender or race, i feel that if you're
able to take a car to it's limits and put out results,
you should deserve to get a race seat.
 
Yup. If they can drive, it shouldn't matter what gender they are. Sides, racer chicks are way hot.. no matter what they look like. :)
 
crimson_menace
racer chicks are way hot.. no matter what they look like. :)
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Hahaha amen to that but I don't think looks alone can get you into F1...
 
Button is right plus Danica is overrated.
 
I have nothing against women drivers, but I think the world of Formula One would be a really tough cookie for a female to crack.

Good luck to her, but she hasn’t really done anything. She’s won 3 Atlantic races… They should be giving Bourdais a seat instead of ***** (small cat) footing around with someone who didn’t even win a championship.

I have nothing against women, or women in racing, but until one of them does something I’ll give them as much credit as the next person who’s won an Atlantic race (read: none).

Blake
 
Blake
...giving Bourdais a seat instead of ***** (small cat)
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Kittens!?:dunce:



Sorry! Couldn't resist.

The key for a woman to get a drive in F1 is to be determined, plus a little bit lucky. I would believe the same goes for us guys. If one particular driver gets noteworthy results, he/she should be evaluated for a seat in the top class.

I for once wouldn't care if the driver is male of female. If the racing is exciting, I'll watch. If not, I won't.
 
well they dont give bordais a seat because hes at best a webber if not a sato.

now i think its sad that people car about a persons gender. it doesnt make a difference when someone is in the car.

i do however think f1 would be very though on a woman out side of the car.
 
He’s dominated Champ Cars for two years in a row, and next year he will probably be the first person to ever win 3 Champ Car titles in succession. I’d call him a decent driver.

How can you compare him to Sato anyway? He’s fast, he’s smooth, he rarely retires. Anyway, he would have had a drive if Arrows didn’t collapse.

Blake
 
Remember Montoya?, he was badass @ champ cars also, Bordais is probably just as badass.
 
Small_Fryz
Remember Montoya?, he was badass @ champ cars also, Bordais is probably just as badass.
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Remember Zanardi?

First he was average in F1, great in Cart and then below average in F1.

Edit: Forgot to comment on the actual topic =)

I think F1 will have a female driver after Bernie and Mosley retire and some newage guy takes over for them.

Personally I wouldn't want to see females in F1, but I don't know why.
 
I think Danica can make it, but F1 (and motor racing in general) is kind of sexist and drivers who come straight from American open-wheel series don't usually do well in F1.
Montoya and Villeneuve did very well in F1, but they raced in Europe before they raced in America. Drivers like Zanardi, da Matta, and Michael Andretti did terribly. Danica might end up just like them: going to Europe and coming back to America.
 
Its silly for anybody to say women would physically have a tough time. The smaller you are, the less impact G-forces have on you. Danica is barely 100 lbs, which means she is going to weigh less than 2/3rds of most of the other guys at any G-force. She will require less muscle to keep her melon in the right direction anyways. Women have proven formidable Fighter pilots and I think they have all the physical capability, with the same conditioning level as the men, to drive an F1 car. Now talent, experience, and getting Bernie to quit being a dick are going to be the real criteria.
 
I'd like to see how Milka Duno would perform in an F1 car. She's done pretty well in the Rolex Sports Car Series and ALMS, so she knows her way around road courses at the very least.
 
Ok, so Danica finished 4th in the Indy 500. I'd want the winner, and wouldn't expect them to do too much in F1, at least not for a year....

It would be a bad thing for women racers if the next female F1 driver comes to F1 too soon in their career and, as a result of being thrown in at the deep end, gets nowhere... The, erm, knockers and haters would say she didn't do well because she was a woman.

On a side note, if they find a particularly well endowed female driver, do you think she'd have to have a special bra to cope with the g-forces? 💡
 
It would be tough to drive a Grand Prix car while putting makeup on.

Seriously though, if a woman is a good enough driver to compete, there's no reason she couldn't be in F1. And if it happens to be that special week of the month, it could make for some very interesting drivers' meetings.

"Boys, Aunt Flo has come to town, so stay the **** out of my way!"
 
Anybody who thinks Bernie is blocking women coming into F1 is an idiot. Just look at the publicity Danica Patrick has gathered for IRL! Of course Bernie would want that for F1 if at all possible.

Now the fact that the big teams have never hired a female driver isn't all that interesting. The likes of Williams, McLaren, Ferrari and Renault all follow trends where it comes to driver selection, they do not create trends. The trend setters are the back-row boys like Minardi, Jordan etc, who will hire drivers because they're cheap, or (even better) because they bring sponsorship.

Therefore, if someone like Danica Patrick could generate enough sponsorship she could get into one of the lesser teams, and from there could go on to bigger and better things, were she able to prove herself as a racer.

The fact of the matter is that no woman has ever displayed the sort of dominance and flair in the lower formulae that has been shown by the likes of Kimi Raikkonen or the GP2 pair Kovalainen and Rosberg. To get into F1 you have to stay in Europe and destroy the competition - no team boss is going to hire someone who's done reasonably well in a US feeder category, and then grabbed a couple of podiums in a predominantly oval-racing series. A lot of the points that have been raised earlier are entirely valid. The fact that Bourdais and Tracy and Dixon etc have not been pulled over to F1 is because the F1 team bosses don't rate the series that they're running in at the moment. Given that the British male driver, and IRL Champion/Indy 500 Winner Dan Wheldon is struggling to get a test seat in F1 should give you some idea. Why would a team that hires on talent alone hire a non-winner?

I believe that a woman can and will get hired by an F1 team in the future. It's just that no-one good enough has come along yet. And that includes Danica Patrick and Katherine Legge.
 
Wow that was one hell of a conversation ender right there! :lol:
 
GilesGuthrie
Anybody who thinks Bernie is blocking women coming into F1 is an idiot. Just look at the publicity Danica Patrick has gathered for IRL! Of course Bernie would want that for F1 if at all possible.

Now the fact that the big teams have never hired a female driver isn't all that interesting. The likes of Williams, McLaren, Ferrari and Renault all follow trends where it comes to driver selection, they do not create trends. The trend setters are the back-row boys like Minardi, Jordan etc, who will hire drivers because they're cheap, or (even better) because they bring sponsorship.

Therefore, if someone like Danica Patrick could generate enough sponsorship she could get into one of the lesser teams, and from there could go on to bigger and better things, were she able to prove herself as a racer.

The fact of the matter is that no woman has ever displayed the sort of dominance and flair in the lower formulae that has been shown by the likes of Kimi Raikkonen or the GP2 pair Kovalainen and Rosberg. To get into F1 you have to stay in Europe and destroy the competition - no team boss is going to hire someone who's done reasonably well in a US feeder category, and then grabbed a couple of podiums in a predominantly oval-racing series. A lot of the points that have been raised earlier are entirely valid. The fact that Bourdais and Tracy and Dixon etc have not been pulled over to F1 is because the F1 team bosses don't rate the series that they're running in at the moment. Given that the British male driver, and IRL Champion/Indy 500 Winner Dan Wheldon is struggling to get a test seat in F1 should give you some idea. Why would a team that hires on talent alone hire a non-winner?

I believe that a woman can and will get hired by an F1 team in the future. It's just that no-one good enough has come along yet. And that includes Danica Patrick and Katherine Legge.
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I agree 100%. European boses don't give a flying fig about any American formula/open wheel series. Chump car is where drivers go that can't cut it in F1 and the IRL isn't much better, seems like only Sir Frank follows the IRL. The other lesser series mean little to anyone in the USA and nothing to anyone in Europe.

Danica has one thing on her side though, a HUGE thing, beyond being an attractive female that is talented driving a race car. She is American. That is HUGE given the interest that would generate for F1 if she was to drive in it. If GM decides to try F1 (right, I read that last week somewhere) you can bet the Danica will be on the top of their list as far as drivers. There isn't another American or Canadian that would generate any kind of buzz for them (Scott Speed is a red bull guy)....

As far as a McLaren, Ferrari, Renault or Toyota giving her a shot, it is slim to none. BMW, Honda and Red Bull maybe.....

Though the chances of Danica driving in F1 are slim....even more slim for Legge...
 
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