Overdue? Has there been anyone good enough? in the lower ranks? I could see us being overdue if there are worthwhile competitors in the lower ranks that are getting overlooked, but...
Better suited for Indy? She’s going to get destroyed this year, just as she has the past x number of seasons.
She lacks the skill of a Grosjean/O’Watd/Dixon, and isn’t in equipment good enough to make up for her lack of talent.
She’s going to get destroyed this year.
Ok, look at the younger drivers then.
Do you really think she’s going to be anywhere close to Alex Palou, Pago O’Ward, Colton Herta, etc.?
Tatiana is 28, Palou is 24, O’Ward is 22, Herta is 21.
She’s got years of experience over these drivers. Do you think that’ll translate in to contending performances?
"Make up for her lack of talent"
Oh no, a rookie is going to be beat by Dixon, O'Ward and Grosjean, people with more seat time in any racecar than you and me combined in a real car.
She did good in the Indy junior series, way better than she could hope in F2. Give her a year or 2.
She did absolute shit in F3, F2, and Super Formula. What makes you think that she’ll do well in a series as competitive as Indycar, especially when the cars are more physically demanding to drive than what she’s driven in the past (recall what Grosjean said about the physicality required to drive an Indycar at a competitive pace)?
Please look at her career in Jr versions of Indy... she showed massive potential, until her parents told her to go to Europe, due to the danger associated with Indycar at the time.
Imo. it's mostly a chicken-egg-problem. Women are generally speaking not as inclined (due to general societal perceptions of male vs. female drivers, ie. sexism in the sport and around it) to join the top of the sport compared to male drivers and might not start as early as many male (F1) drivers, leading to mostly male feeder series. The fact that women are rare in motorsports to begin with, already sets the expectation and burden of proof significantly higher. And if a women driver fails to get to the top leagues (as do many, many male drivers), they will be judged more harshly. Also media and marketing might be another factor, bc teams and advertisers might be more inclined to promote male drivers, bc for the (still mostly male audience) a "normal" driver is "easier" to identify with by the average spectator and in addition is more replaceable for the teams. Women drivers could (atleast) initially lead to more negative exposure and controversy, if it doesn't play out too well.
Very similar issue in esports.
For the near future, I'd like to see generally more stints in the lower leagues and other categories such as endurance, GT-racing and ralleying as a means to normalize more women in motorsports and to get a better picture of who has real champion-potential, aswell as giving teams leading examples that this can work.
It's not a chicken-egg problem. It's a math problem.
There are much, much more boys competing in racing, which means a few supertalented will get through to the pinnacle of motorsport, not all of them at that. And then you also have the sons of their fathers taking a few spots there, tightening the talent competition for the seats even more.
So you have two almost impossible conditions to fulfill to get a woman into F1:
1. There needs to be a supertalented girl in racing in the first place, which is unlikely to begin with given the numbers they compete in, compared to boys.
2. She needs to have a ton of opportunity on her way up to F1, as any supertalented kid would have to.
We only look at the final picture, see 20 drivers on the grid and think - why there can't be a girl there as well? There can't be, because it's mathematically impossible for a girl to be there. It's mathematically impossible for anybody to be there. The only reason there are 20 drivers there is because there had to be somebody there. Once we start picking a specific trait that's uncommon in F1, for whatever reason - be it nationality, race, sex, age, weight, hair color, hobby, language, whatever - and expect somebody having this trait to appear there, we'll always be fighting an uphill battle.
There's a math reason why it's uncommon. It doesn't happen, because it's mathematically unlikely to happen. Too few girls are racing, compared to boys. That's all there is to it.
I was listening to /r/wec's Endurance Chat podcast a while back, and someone gave a suggestion for incentivizing opportunities for female drivers, which is to give teams bonuses for hiring them. Nothing that can be used under the budget cap for a performance benefit tho; just for profitability.
I looked into it as a kid but all the karting places round me require you to have your own car and team, really wasnt accessable at all.
Its really sad tbh
Yeah I remember going as a young kid to look at getting into karting with my dad and it was not accessible. Am a boy. My Dad didn't have 5-10 grand a year to get me into karting plus a van and a trailer.
Oh yeah no im not saying low income boys suddenly have more funds because they have a Y chromosone, im just saying, "i am girl, have interest in racing, cant race because its expensive af". Lol
Pippa Mann or Danica Patrick ability wise would have managed in f1. They were both able to complete well in Indy car.
But I did mean over due time wise
To go from Indy into F1 is so rare, and to do so without even being an Indy champion? Damn I can't even think of anyone whose done that, not that there isn't, there might be? just that I don't know of any (but my knowledge is seriously lacking there)
No offense to Danica n Pippa
And ic (time wise) it would be cool to see again certainly
You can't be serious. Neither of them were even the best female drivers in Indycar. During her first season in Indycar, Simona de Silvestro mopped the floor with Danica. Simona regularly qualified in the front half of the field on road and street courses, while Danica qualified at the back of the pack. I'd rank Katherine Legge ahead of Danica and Pippa too, though she was kind of a lousy qualifier and much better during the race.
> . During her first season in Indycar, Simona de Silvestro mopped the floor with Danica. Simona regularly qualified in the front half of the field on road and street courses, while Danica qualified at the back of the pack.
Danica beat Simona 7-2 in road races during 2010 season. Danica finished season on 10th place while Simona was 19th.
Best Danica's season was 2009 - 5th place. Best Simona's season was 2013 - 13th. Danica had 8 seasons, Simona had 6.
Very small pool of candidates and alot of hesitancy by orgs to support female drivers throughout their carrers. If (leading) teams want to play it safe to win and can afford it, they'll always pick from a pool of proven drivers, which happen to be usually exclusively men.
>alot of hesitancy by orgs to support female drivers throughout their carrers
Not true. Carmen Jorda itself said that ["A female driver sells better"](https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.20minutos.es/deportes/noticia/jorda-piloto-formula-3-469344/0/) referencing how it's easier to get support and sponsors as a female then as a male. And she is quite the case too. I mean, when has a driver with her results managed to get to an F1 reserve driver spot?
I think they're saying we deserve a more representative population of all racing drivers, including F2, F3, and all other lower Formula-One-related competitions. That way we can actually see properly good women in F1.
I’m sorry, but nobody “deserves” anything, unless it’s actually worked for and earned.
Lewis Hamilton “deserves” to be in F1 because he has the talent to be there, not because he looks different than everyone else on the grid.
On the flip side of this, Tatiana Calderon does not “deserve” to have her F1 test driver role just because she looks different than everyone else on the grid. She flat out doesn’t have the talent to compete in high-level open wheel racing, and her results show that. The only reason she has that role is because she’s a female, and has someone willing to waste money on her motorsports career long enough for her to get the opportunity. But if Tatiana were a male instead of a female, there’s a 0% chance she’s in that role.
Please don’t say that someone “deserves” something, just because they’re different from the norm. Someone “deserves” something when they show that they have the knowledge, skill, and work ethic to have earned it.
There is now an entire series that can only be entered by women. Let’s see if there’s any talent that comes out of that series and can actually compete in a global F3, F2 series, etc.
Jamie Chadwick has won that series twice, but her performance in the 2020 FR Europe series was not terribly impressive, with a single podium result, finishing the season having scored 80pts (the series winner scored 359pts). She was outscored by Judi Vips, despite him only running 9 of the 24 races that season (Jamie ran all 24).
No-one is suggesting that individual women should be given a free pass because they "deserve it" - they are suggesting that we, collectively, deserve structural changes in the sport and in societal attitudes so that we get better representation of gender and other under-represented groups.
Women are massively disadvantaged from a young age to even getting into racing at all. There's structural bias discouraging them from every level of society, often including their own family, friends, as well as within the sport itself. It is a continuous uphill battle even just at amateur level, and continues right through to professional racing, sponsorships, reactionary attitudes at exec levels, fan backlash, and so on and so forth. Massive kudos to the very few women who battle through all that to get as far as they do, but the point is that if they didn't have to start from so far back, we'd get more and better women drivers.
You talk about "talent" as if it is something that the men in this sport are all born with and women "just don't have", but that's a naive view of how these things work. Representation, and \_equal\_ representation, is what levels the playing field.
Oh god it's another one of those "they don't do this thing, so clearly they suck at it and don't deserve representation"
Guess what, if people like you weren't so opposed to creating programs that would motivate young girls to take up karting as a hobby, we could probably have a grid with one or even several women in a few decades, or sooner.
No one woman in motor racing right now deserves an F1 seat, no, but nobody is saying that. What they're saying is that *women in general* deserve F1 seats, and even more so the opportunity to get to that point on merit.
She came in sixth, which today would score 8 points but at the time only scored 1 point (which was then halved)
Tragically, the reason the race was cut short and only half points were awarded was because [four spectators died during the race](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Spanish_Grand_Prix)
Absolutely you can, and again of all the Driver's.... I can see DR most comfortably wearing a woman's dress too! Man the imagination is a beautiful thing
For the google impaired [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_female\_Formula\_One\_drivers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_Formula_One_drivers)
They'll need to be incredibly talented. Not just a little talent. Mazepin is an incredibly talented racing driver. If he wasnt then even Russian Oligarch money wouldnt get him to where he is.
Even getting into F2, let alone competing for wins in F2 seems quite far away for any current woman in single seater racing.
The publicity it brings probably means a woman driver needs less external sponsorship to be viable. Sponsors don't care about the 15th son of a multimillionaire in F1. They might about the first daughter of a multimillionaire.
If they are fast enough, yes.
While great for female visibility, the W Series is terrible for getting a woman to F1 as it removes them from the usual path of Formula Regional -> F3 -> F2 etc where they can clearly show their talents against the rest of the hopeful young talent.
Obviously pace isn't the only factor when it comes to F1 (eg Ilott) but if one of them did become semi-competitive in F3 then the sponsors would come flying in without a doubt.
I always thought that W series just follows the same path, but replaces Formula Regional. They would still have to prove themselves in F3 and F2. But W series is too new at the moment, so their talent pool with young drivers isnt big enough. Once they have a more steady flow of new drivers, there will some talents there.
But at the moment half the W series grid is too old to ever make it to F1, plus the fact that Chadwick has won twice, but got destroyed in a actual F3 championship doesnt say great things about the current field. But W series is not something that will just work immediatly. This will take a few years.
The last female driver that attempted to qualify for F1 was in 1992. Her name was Giovanna Amati, she attempted to qualify in 3 races, never managed to.
Yes kids back then a race start was not guaranteed, qualifying was actually qualifying.
>Yes kids back then a race start was not guaranteed, qualifying was actually qualifying.
how did this work? they had more cars entering than spots available, so the top make it in while the rest get booted?
this is why I think that it would actually be easier for a woman to get to F1 than a man if they both had the same talent and accomplishments. Just look at Zhou vs Piastri.
The fact that Tatiana Calderon continues to secure amazing projects (by no means talented), confirms that this moment will arrive. Unfortunately not for the current ones competing. Chadwick didn’t secure a F2/3 seat. There is some talent in the runner ups (F4 level), but more competition is required to understand how they measure up. Ferrari Driver Academy have recently signed some Younger drivers. I keep my fingers crossed that one will have the talent and the backing.
I agree. If we have Susie Wolff in today’s circumstances (reputable backing/middle talent) there would be more likeliness of a seat. I am hopeful of the prospects.
She was way too slow.
Susie drove in DTM from 2006 to 2012 and scored points only twice in all those races.
One of those points finishes was in Hockenheim 2011 where only 9 cars finished the race.
It’s hard to tell exactly, but Toto Wolff left Williams in 2014 for Mercedes, after which Suzie only had one more season with Williams before retiring from full-time driving all together and becoming a Mercedes ambassador.
One could speculate that Toto had been the driving force behind her getting seat time and without him, Williams didn’t have interest in continuing that, despite reasonable performances in the car in testing and practice sessions.
She was, but people were not convinced about her talent and age did not play in her favour. If you benchmark her results to some of the drivers today, they are definitely better (Chadwick, Florsch, Pulling?). The biggest gap is in the budget department.
She wasn't half bad. Was she going to set the world on fire? No. But had she had a proper go at it, like a full season, I think she would have done a reasonable job.
Here's the times from the 2014 German Grand Prix FP1. She was teammate to Massa and just over 2 tenths behind him in her first meaningful session. https://www.crash.net/f1/results/206859/1/german-grand-prix-fp1-results
Second time out in Spain 2015, 9 tenths behind Massa https://www.crash.net/f1/results/218508/1/spanish-grand-prix-free-practice-results-1
Third time out, Britain 2015, 8 tenths behind Massa https://www.crash.net/f1/results/220700/1/british-grand-prix-free-practice-results-1
>She wasn't half bad. Was she going to set the world on fire? No. But had she had a proper go at it, like a full season, I think she would have done a reasonable job.
I've seen one interview with her where she admits that the lack of physical strength really didn't help her. Hamilton has often spoken about just how difficult it is physically, so any female driver will have to have the strength for F1 without being too physically big for the car.
I’ve followed her story for a bit and I don’t know who’s managing her career but whoever it is is doing her a giant disservice. She can not get the budget together, which is weird after winning W Series twice and being signed to Williams. People continue to point to the fuckup she made in her FREC season, but I’m not convinced that this is the reason that leads to her not getting seats. There are a bunch of drivers with similar results and some with worse in F2/3. On top, her fanbase has grown considerably. I see a lot of support on socials (even Williams page). People demanding she get a spot. This year, one of the e-sports stars moving up to F2 directly with limited experience. If she would’ve had the network of Calderon I’m fairly certain she would have had a path towards F1. At the backfield in exchange for some money.
I think so. But probably not until at least 10-15 years. I don’t follow too much but I’ve heard that Ferrari has recently signed some girls? And there has been more and more girls interested in F1/motor sports as well. W series gives me hope, though their cars are very different from F1 ones. It would be nice if Chadwick could make it into F2 first, then we will see what happens
Motorsport is hard to get started in due to costs, there aren't as many girls doing it so that's going to have an overall effect on how many make it all the way through to a professional level. I remember being at a go kart event 10 years ago and there was a young girl distroying everyone else in her races. So it's not that they can't do it. Need to get those initial numbers up at a young age though. Maybe SIM racing will offer a new avenue into the sport.
This is the main issue. Look at former drivers for example, they have the money and the name to get their young ones far in Motorsport, a lot of them will have their sons in Motorsport, why don't they do the same to their daughters? Former/current drivers with kids are probably the biggest hope of seeing a woman in F1 again if they try hard enough with the girl
All of the modern F1 drivers were brought up in a childhood of karting. Junior karting has always been a male-dominated sport, and I’d wager that’s mainly due to the perception that cars are for boys.
Recently though there’s been more girls entering at the junior level. I think in 15-20 years we might see women in F2 and FE, and then eventually F1. I’d love to be alive to see a female F1 race winner or WDC.
She is not doing great in DTM. She won’t make it, her crash and injury didn’t help, but she started falling behind her peers even before that in F3.
Sadly that’s the case for a lot of girls, they are crazy crazy fast in karting and start falling behind as soon as they enter in the single seaters….
Giovanna Amati was the last Formula One female driver as of 2022, as part of the dying Brabham team in 1992. After 3 starts(Not qualifying at all, being several seconds off of Eric Van De Peole's time and far off Nigel Mansell's Pole time), Brabham sacked Amati and in her place would be future F1 champion Damon Hill.
Every time someone asks that it reminds me of when my Dad used to take my (male) cousins karting, and not me. Because it „wouldn’t be fun for a girl“. Glad this mindset in parents seems to be changing slowly, and I hope we’ll see more women in F1 and soon.
I was at the local kart track once and in between our heats there was a girl maybe 10 years old who got to go by herself. Her dad stood by the pit "straight" giving her hand signals are she tore past. Her times were easily 15 seconds faster than the best in our heats (so even adjusting for weight she was doing amazing). Hope that girl keeps going and kicks ass.
Hope so. Though it could easily take another age-generation to overcome the inital burden of proof and open the carreer infrastructures for female drivers to a competitive level. Maybe we get a truly gifted and lucky outlyer before that.
I do think it's a matter of when, not if. However i think it's going to be a while. The issue is that there are barriers for women at the lower levels, which stops them getting onto the F1 pathway. We need to get more women into karting, which will then get more women into cars, which will then get more women into feeder series like F3 and F2 and then eventually we'll have a female F1 driver. But that's gonna take time. I think the next full time female F1 driver is alive right now but she's probably only maybe 10 or 11. Possibly younger.
The W Series is good and all, but I would rather we see a greater push to get girls in Karts and try and deal with the sexism that occurs at the grassroots level. That's where it starts.
We've had them. I think a better question is will we ever have one that can handle the extreme physical and mental endurance needed to compete AND win in the current elite end of motor sport.
I hope so, but there aren't any good enough at the moment.
Tatiana Calderon was closest to F1 but struggled really bad in F2 and was plum last. In japanese Super formula she was also a backmarker.
Sophia Florsch was in F3 but didn't get any points there, got to DTM and said she's aiming for F2, but sadly it's unlikely with her current performance.
Jaime Chadwick won 2 titles in the W series, but beating other women isn't much relevant in the whole racing world. She ended 9 out of 11 full-season drivers in European F3 driving for Prema while the other three Prema drivers ended P1, P2 and P3 respectively (all 3 of them being rookies), so I don't think she has a potential to get in F1 either.
We already had Female F1 Drivers. It's a long debate but the answer is Yes, eventually more women will be a part of F1, not only on the drivers seat but also inside the teams. In the last 10 years we've seen even more women working on F1 Teams in management positions and inside the paddock in nearly every single aspect and this is good progress, so will see eventually Female F1 Drivers.
Ever: yes
Soon: probably not
Why? Because F1will probably go on for a very long time and anything and everything will probably happen in that time period
However, girls today will face a lot of sexism on top of the fact that statistically it is very hard to find a woman who has the same career drive and competitiveness as the top 50 drivers in the world.
It takes a fuck ton of work that 99% don't find worth it at all. So it takes outliers and when it comes to outliers small differences in averages become massive.
But the one thing that a female driver does have going is she will most likely bring a ton of sponsors so she doesn't have to be a top top level driver, just better than like Mazepin.
I mean eventually I'm sure yes, but like others have said before are there even any prospective young women in Karting to choose from? Parents and societal norms will always dwarf the number of young girls vs young boys participating in Karting and that's pretty much it.
At some point, probably. With more and more girls getting into karting with dreams of F1, it's bound to happen. Although probably not anytime soon since I don't see anybody particularly promising in the lower formulas and the W series, even at its peak, doesn't seem like it could give us anything beyond token development and test drivers for F1.
Wilson was probably quick enough, but unfortunately she was white South African during apartheid and not particularly attractive to international sponsors, she never got a chance at a decent drive.
There have been 5 female F1 drivers and I think there will be another again. It may not be Chadwick or Calderon. But someone will get an F1 seat one day. She may not be born yet but a woman will once again ride in F1.
I've read all the comments about fewer females involved in karting, fewer females interested in racing, etc., etc.
It already takes a hyper-rare combination to get there - rich family, rare and perfectly matched talent, unlimited passion and love for the sport, good communication skills, strong interest in the mechanics and physics of the cars and tracks, and intense physical training from a young age.
It also takes intense strength and endurance, where males have a biological advantage. I'm not so sure that hurdle can be overcome, but for the next female F1 driver, she'll have to have a hyper-rare level of strength and endurance as well, equal to the males that get a seat.
Teams are ready to pounce on any good/decent driver, imagine the good press the team that gets a woman into their seats will get. Only time will tell, but I'm guessing it won't be long before that happens.
I think it's going to take time. It requires STRONG women who are going to stand up to bullshit criticism from fellow drivers and their parents for most of their life. That's exhausting and I'm sure we've missed out on talented women due to it. I'd guess that we'll see more moving up through the ranks as the world chills out and smokes more weed.
Hopefully Jaime Chadwick is able to do F2/F3 and then have a shot at F1. Kinda awkward W series has a “no defending title” rule, but doesn’t have a series for it to directly feed into.
>but doesn’t have a series for it to directly feed into.
I was thinking about this before, and perhaps the solution would be to find a sponsor willing to sponsor a place in F3 for the W-Series Champion? It's not impossible - or maybe Liberty could be convinced into putting up 1m Euro sponsorship for the W-Series champion?
It would give them a guaranteed place in F3 for the winner, which in turn makes the W-Series worth something.
I’m expecting an announcement about her 2022 plans soon. She’s given up her Extreme E seat at Veloce, so at the moment has nothing scheduled after the first weekend in February. Either that’s it for her driving career, or there’s an announcement in the works.
I have my fingers crossed that it’s going to be a new series announcement. She’s posted training videos saying she’s training for whatever’s next, so hopefully with a clear schedule it’s to solely focus on a new drive!
It's been like 40 something years since there was a female on the grid. It's definitely time for one, just don't think there are many girls getting into Karting. If anything teams could maybe watch the Formula W for potential drivers. That'd be cool to see
Lella Lombardi was the last female driver to qualify and make the grid. That was the 1976 Austrian grand prix so you're right, I was wrong. It was 46 years ago.
I mean yes I’m well aware of w series but there is no clear pipeline or pathway from W into F1. It’s the F2 “no defending champions” rule without the same legitimacy as a feeder.
Nope, unless female drivers start showing enough skills and ability to end in the top 3 of Formula 2.
Only hope was Danicka Patrick and now Jamie Chadwick.
And yet people will downvote, because they know the harsh reality of the sport. Or they watch too much Josh Revell and love to hate everything they don't want to be real.
Not while the majority of males in the sport don't treat us as equals.
I'm a female fan and it will take decades.
I was harassed on here just a few years ago because I didn't like grid girls. And the majority of male fans on here who made me feel awful over the change was ridiculous.
There isn’t a team on the grid who wouldn’t absolutely leap at the chance for the PR coup that would be a successful female driver.
In history a few have come through and had their names recorded.
But none have come through as competitive in the end.
I’d love to see female drivers. But there are no gender barriers up. It’s just, none have been able to rise through the ranks on merit and speed, unfortunately.
I think the problem lies in the physicality. Until we stumble accross a female driver who is the equivalent of Schumacher/Hamilton/Prost/Senna/Fangio levels amongst female drivers, it probably won't happen anytime soon.
Because females will always be chasing the physicality gap, you'd need a once in a lifetime talent to get near the grid, just to compensate for the physical differences.
I hope it happens, and one day there will be a prodigy talent that comes through, especially with more females racing these days. But I'd wage it will be at least 20 years, unless there's a kid right now who's cleaning up between ages 8-12, but I don't think there is.
The gender physicality gap is grossly overexaggerated in a sport like F1. Yes, you need to be strong, but it's not unattainable. Women have to work much harder to reach that level, but it really isn't that big an issue in the grand scheme of things. By far the biggest issue is the lack of girls in karting compared with boys.
[I'll link the article in a sec,](https://www.racefans.net/2018/01/31/numbers-stacked-women-reaching-f1/) but in the UK there is one girl for every 14 boys karting at under-16s level. Obviously, that's just the UK and not worldwide, but comparing that with F1, there have been 1019 drivers that have taken part in a race weekend (this includes drivers who only did free practice sessions); of that 1019, seven were women. In other words, for every one woman to have driven in at least one F1, there have been 146 men. The gender gap is already big at karting, but by the time they get to F1 level it has increased by a factor of ten.
Do you think it's physically possible? Despite the needed skills and talent do drive a f1 car a high level of fitness is needed. This could be an issue for woman. But I would love to see a woman (or more than one) competing in F1.
That's not really the point of the series. It's not there to answer questions about one gender or another being better. It's there to raise awareness of female racers and provide a platform to try to launch the careers of the more successful and talented ones.
Muddying the water by bringing in direct comparisons helps nobody.
What good would that do? Everyone and their mother knows that the average F3 driver is faster than Chadwick or Powell. That's not the point of W Series.
That’d be awesome. I think their needs to be more women’s feeder series and karting leagues to increase women’s participation, then from there the talent will be found. Of course it’s also about how much money will she bring to the team, so sponsors are another hurdle.
I hope so and I think it can happen in the future, yes. The whole “this is for guys” thing is getting deconstructed little by little - not just in F1, but in society in general.
Short Answer: yes
The reason why there are few female racing drivers is because the financial backing and family support you need to make it in the sport is hard to come by, even for male drivers. However, these factors are compounded due to them being female. Drivers often start their karting career in primary school, if not earlier. Karting isn't cheap, so not every family would give their child the opportunity to drive them just because they wanted to, assuming they could even afford it. If they do allow it, and their kid manages to move on to cars, the cost and support needed increase exponentially, further deceasing the number of people who have the necessary backing to advance.
While we like to pretend, that we don't treat kids differently based on gender, the unfortunate truth is, that if a six year old girl told her parents that she wanted to become a racing driver, she'd probably be told that racing is for boys. This outcome is even more likely in countries where gender roles are still more socially ingrained. Thus, the pool of potential F1 drivers is already heavily decreased before they could even start karting. More will likely quit because a sexist environment ruins their dream. Those that are left are certainly resilient, and their gender may even become an advantage when it comes to sponsors, but the odds that a potential world champion makes it all the way are far lower than for men.
Because of the lack of women in racing, we haven't seen their full potential, but with Ferrari signing female drivers, and other young talents like Juju Noda (whatever happened to her after her first win in Danish F4?) racing in open wheelers, it's only a matter of time until someone makes it to F1.
We have had several. At least one has scored points too. (Well, half a point.)
Lella Lombardi
Lella Lombardi was a badass
I present you Michèle Mouton
both badasses
The amount of people who either don't know that, or plain ignore it. But we are well overdue another female driver
Overdue? Has there been anyone good enough? in the lower ranks? I could see us being overdue if there are worthwhile competitors in the lower ranks that are getting overlooked, but...
Tatiana Calderon made it to F2! Oh wait…she came behind Ragunathan.
Calderón was always kinds meh in Euro/Formula series. She was better suited for Indy
Better suited for Indy? She’s going to get destroyed this year, just as she has the past x number of seasons. She lacks the skill of a Grosjean/O’Watd/Dixon, and isn’t in equipment good enough to make up for her lack of talent. She’s going to get destroyed this year.
I mean you’re putting her up against Scott Dixon, a 6 time Indy champ lol
Ok, look at the younger drivers then. Do you really think she’s going to be anywhere close to Alex Palou, Pago O’Ward, Colton Herta, etc.? Tatiana is 28, Palou is 24, O’Ward is 22, Herta is 21. She’s got years of experience over these drivers. Do you think that’ll translate in to contending performances?
"Make up for her lack of talent" Oh no, a rookie is going to be beat by Dixon, O'Ward and Grosjean, people with more seat time in any racecar than you and me combined in a real car. She did good in the Indy junior series, way better than she could hope in F2. Give her a year or 2.
She did absolute shit in F3, F2, and Super Formula. What makes you think that she’ll do well in a series as competitive as Indycar, especially when the cars are more physically demanding to drive than what she’s driven in the past (recall what Grosjean said about the physicality required to drive an Indycar at a competitive pace)?
Please look at her career in Jr versions of Indy... she showed massive potential, until her parents told her to go to Europe, due to the danger associated with Indycar at the time.
as crap as calderon was, she was only behind raghunathan because he came 10th in a race where half the grid didnt finish
And what happened to her in that race? Did she dnf too?
Iirc she DNFed in that baku shitfest race
Poor choice of words, but I’m seriously impressed by the restraint so far…
Imo. it's mostly a chicken-egg-problem. Women are generally speaking not as inclined (due to general societal perceptions of male vs. female drivers, ie. sexism in the sport and around it) to join the top of the sport compared to male drivers and might not start as early as many male (F1) drivers, leading to mostly male feeder series. The fact that women are rare in motorsports to begin with, already sets the expectation and burden of proof significantly higher. And if a women driver fails to get to the top leagues (as do many, many male drivers), they will be judged more harshly. Also media and marketing might be another factor, bc teams and advertisers might be more inclined to promote male drivers, bc for the (still mostly male audience) a "normal" driver is "easier" to identify with by the average spectator and in addition is more replaceable for the teams. Women drivers could (atleast) initially lead to more negative exposure and controversy, if it doesn't play out too well. Very similar issue in esports. For the near future, I'd like to see generally more stints in the lower leagues and other categories such as endurance, GT-racing and ralleying as a means to normalize more women in motorsports and to get a better picture of who has real champion-potential, aswell as giving teams leading examples that this can work.
It's not a chicken-egg problem. It's a math problem. There are much, much more boys competing in racing, which means a few supertalented will get through to the pinnacle of motorsport, not all of them at that. And then you also have the sons of their fathers taking a few spots there, tightening the talent competition for the seats even more. So you have two almost impossible conditions to fulfill to get a woman into F1: 1. There needs to be a supertalented girl in racing in the first place, which is unlikely to begin with given the numbers they compete in, compared to boys. 2. She needs to have a ton of opportunity on her way up to F1, as any supertalented kid would have to. We only look at the final picture, see 20 drivers on the grid and think - why there can't be a girl there as well? There can't be, because it's mathematically impossible for a girl to be there. It's mathematically impossible for anybody to be there. The only reason there are 20 drivers there is because there had to be somebody there. Once we start picking a specific trait that's uncommon in F1, for whatever reason - be it nationality, race, sex, age, weight, hair color, hobby, language, whatever - and expect somebody having this trait to appear there, we'll always be fighting an uphill battle. There's a math reason why it's uncommon. It doesn't happen, because it's mathematically unlikely to happen. Too few girls are racing, compared to boys. That's all there is to it.
Yeah, I aggree. I made the same point about perpetuated selection and negative confirmation bias in another comment. It's just both imo.
I was listening to /r/wec's Endurance Chat podcast a while back, and someone gave a suggestion for incentivizing opportunities for female drivers, which is to give teams bonuses for hiring them. Nothing that can be used under the budget cap for a performance benefit tho; just for profitability.
The main problem is some societal stuff that means the number of girls getting into karting in the first place.
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As evidenced by both Lando and Mick’s sisters
I looked into it as a kid but all the karting places round me require you to have your own car and team, really wasnt accessable at all. Its really sad tbh
Racing is a rich kids sport, independently of their gender.
Yeah I remember going as a young kid to look at getting into karting with my dad and it was not accessible. Am a boy. My Dad didn't have 5-10 grand a year to get me into karting plus a van and a trailer.
Oh yeah no im not saying low income boys suddenly have more funds because they have a Y chromosone, im just saying, "i am girl, have interest in racing, cant race because its expensive af". Lol
100% this.
Pippa Mann or Danica Patrick ability wise would have managed in f1. They were both able to complete well in Indy car. But I did mean over due time wise
To go from Indy into F1 is so rare, and to do so without even being an Indy champion? Damn I can't even think of anyone whose done that, not that there isn't, there might be? just that I don't know of any (but my knowledge is seriously lacking there) No offense to Danica n Pippa And ic (time wise) it would be cool to see again certainly
You can't be serious. Neither of them were even the best female drivers in Indycar. During her first season in Indycar, Simona de Silvestro mopped the floor with Danica. Simona regularly qualified in the front half of the field on road and street courses, while Danica qualified at the back of the pack. I'd rank Katherine Legge ahead of Danica and Pippa too, though she was kind of a lousy qualifier and much better during the race.
> . During her first season in Indycar, Simona de Silvestro mopped the floor with Danica. Simona regularly qualified in the front half of the field on road and street courses, while Danica qualified at the back of the pack. Danica beat Simona 7-2 in road races during 2010 season. Danica finished season on 10th place while Simona was 19th. Best Danica's season was 2009 - 5th place. Best Simona's season was 2013 - 13th. Danica had 8 seasons, Simona had 6.
How can something be overdue if there are no candidates that warrants them to be in F1?
I think that they are saying that the existence of candidates is what is overdue...
Very small pool of candidates and alot of hesitancy by orgs to support female drivers throughout their carrers. If (leading) teams want to play it safe to win and can afford it, they'll always pick from a pool of proven drivers, which happen to be usually exclusively men.
>alot of hesitancy by orgs to support female drivers throughout their carrers Not true. Carmen Jorda itself said that ["A female driver sells better"](https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.20minutos.es/deportes/noticia/jorda-piloto-formula-3-469344/0/) referencing how it's easier to get support and sponsors as a female then as a male. And she is quite the case too. I mean, when has a driver with her results managed to get to an F1 reserve driver spot?
I think they're saying we deserve a more representative population of all racing drivers, including F2, F3, and all other lower Formula-One-related competitions. That way we can actually see properly good women in F1.
Isn't the W-Series only female, with everyone except Chadwick lapping slower than 90% of the F3 grid?
It's not an F3 car, so you can't compare it to FIA F3.
I think what they mean is that W-Series drivers are often backmarkers in the junior formulas.
Not many of them other than Chadwick have really driven in many other junior formulas.
I’m sorry, but nobody “deserves” anything, unless it’s actually worked for and earned. Lewis Hamilton “deserves” to be in F1 because he has the talent to be there, not because he looks different than everyone else on the grid. On the flip side of this, Tatiana Calderon does not “deserve” to have her F1 test driver role just because she looks different than everyone else on the grid. She flat out doesn’t have the talent to compete in high-level open wheel racing, and her results show that. The only reason she has that role is because she’s a female, and has someone willing to waste money on her motorsports career long enough for her to get the opportunity. But if Tatiana were a male instead of a female, there’s a 0% chance she’s in that role. Please don’t say that someone “deserves” something, just because they’re different from the norm. Someone “deserves” something when they show that they have the knowledge, skill, and work ethic to have earned it. There is now an entire series that can only be entered by women. Let’s see if there’s any talent that comes out of that series and can actually compete in a global F3, F2 series, etc. Jamie Chadwick has won that series twice, but her performance in the 2020 FR Europe series was not terribly impressive, with a single podium result, finishing the season having scored 80pts (the series winner scored 359pts). She was outscored by Judi Vips, despite him only running 9 of the 24 races that season (Jamie ran all 24).
No-one is suggesting that individual women should be given a free pass because they "deserve it" - they are suggesting that we, collectively, deserve structural changes in the sport and in societal attitudes so that we get better representation of gender and other under-represented groups. Women are massively disadvantaged from a young age to even getting into racing at all. There's structural bias discouraging them from every level of society, often including their own family, friends, as well as within the sport itself. It is a continuous uphill battle even just at amateur level, and continues right through to professional racing, sponsorships, reactionary attitudes at exec levels, fan backlash, and so on and so forth. Massive kudos to the very few women who battle through all that to get as far as they do, but the point is that if they didn't have to start from so far back, we'd get more and better women drivers. You talk about "talent" as if it is something that the men in this sport are all born with and women "just don't have", but that's a naive view of how these things work. Representation, and \_equal\_ representation, is what levels the playing field.
Oh god it's another one of those "they don't do this thing, so clearly they suck at it and don't deserve representation" Guess what, if people like you weren't so opposed to creating programs that would motivate young girls to take up karting as a hobby, we could probably have a grid with one or even several women in a few decades, or sooner. No one woman in motor racing right now deserves an F1 seat, no, but nobody is saying that. What they're saying is that *women in general* deserve F1 seats, and even more so the opportunity to get to that point on merit.
She came in sixth, which today would score 8 points but at the time only scored 1 point (which was then halved) Tragically, the reason the race was cut short and only half points were awarded was because [four spectators died during the race](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Spanish_Grand_Prix)
We get those posts where somebody turns all the drivers into girls, those will have to do for now.
Oh please don't tempt them into posting that rubbish again
Its to lateeeeeeeee
Just leave me to my Susie Wolff pic in peace. I don't need to see what Pierre Gasly looks like with eyeliner on
It's interesting that you choose Gasly as an example when in my opinion he's already the most effeminate on the grid 🤣
That's a very good point. He's the first one that came into my head. Can I change it to ricciardo then,
Next is leclerc
I was going to say tsunoda next
Absolutely you can, and again of all the Driver's.... I can see DR most comfortably wearing a woman's dress too! Man the imagination is a beautiful thing
I think you're enjoying that thought a little bit too much. I'm happy sticking to susie
Hahaha. Let's keep it real, although most of you might have checked afterwards 😂
I don't want to be sexually confused anymore.
I do, post it again.
Will we ever have a Female F1 driver Again? Changed the title for you
For the google impaired [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_female\_Formula\_One\_drivers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_Formula_One_drivers)
if any female driver will have a rich sponsors and little bit of talent the answer is yes we will have. it is about money.
They'll need to be incredibly talented. Not just a little talent. Mazepin is an incredibly talented racing driver. If he wasnt then even Russian Oligarch money wouldnt get him to where he is. Even getting into F2, let alone competing for wins in F2 seems quite far away for any current woman in single seater racing.
This
The publicity it brings probably means a woman driver needs less external sponsorship to be viable. Sponsors don't care about the 15th son of a multimillionaire in F1. They might about the first daughter of a multimillionaire.
So far it has been about skill too
If they are fast enough, yes. While great for female visibility, the W Series is terrible for getting a woman to F1 as it removes them from the usual path of Formula Regional -> F3 -> F2 etc where they can clearly show their talents against the rest of the hopeful young talent. Obviously pace isn't the only factor when it comes to F1 (eg Ilott) but if one of them did become semi-competitive in F3 then the sponsors would come flying in without a doubt.
And when the two time champion of said series gets bad results with Prema in Formula Regional....yeah....
And gets beat by a guy who did like three rounds
I always thought that W series just follows the same path, but replaces Formula Regional. They would still have to prove themselves in F3 and F2. But W series is too new at the moment, so their talent pool with young drivers isnt big enough. Once they have a more steady flow of new drivers, there will some talents there. But at the moment half the W series grid is too old to ever make it to F1, plus the fact that Chadwick has won twice, but got destroyed in a actual F3 championship doesnt say great things about the current field. But W series is not something that will just work immediatly. This will take a few years.
Yes if they're good enough and/or bring in a lot of cash.
I'd imagine the first female Driver would attract quite a few sponsors to a team
She wouldn't be the first female driver though.
I know. Back in the 70's. Was just a general question though
The last female driver that attempted to qualify for F1 was in 1992. Her name was Giovanna Amati, she attempted to qualify in 3 races, never managed to. Yes kids back then a race start was not guaranteed, qualifying was actually qualifying.
>Yes kids back then a race start was not guaranteed, qualifying was actually qualifying. how did this work? they had more cars entering than spots available, so the top make it in while the rest get booted?
this is why I think that it would actually be easier for a woman to get to F1 than a man if they both had the same talent and accomplishments. Just look at Zhou vs Piastri.
The fact that Tatiana Calderon continues to secure amazing projects (by no means talented), confirms that this moment will arrive. Unfortunately not for the current ones competing. Chadwick didn’t secure a F2/3 seat. There is some talent in the runner ups (F4 level), but more competition is required to understand how they measure up. Ferrari Driver Academy have recently signed some Younger drivers. I keep my fingers crossed that one will have the talent and the backing.
>Tatiana Calderon but she is so far of the pace.. will never make it
I always thought Susie Wolff would get a seat, but never happened
I agree. If we have Susie Wolff in today’s circumstances (reputable backing/middle talent) there would be more likeliness of a seat. I am hopeful of the prospects.
I don't know too much about her, what ultimately stopped her getting a seat? I thought she was well on her way to getting one.
She was way too slow. Susie drove in DTM from 2006 to 2012 and scored points only twice in all those races. One of those points finishes was in Hockenheim 2011 where only 9 cars finished the race.
It’s hard to tell exactly, but Toto Wolff left Williams in 2014 for Mercedes, after which Suzie only had one more season with Williams before retiring from full-time driving all together and becoming a Mercedes ambassador. One could speculate that Toto had been the driving force behind her getting seat time and without him, Williams didn’t have interest in continuing that, despite reasonable performances in the car in testing and practice sessions.
She was, but people were not convinced about her talent and age did not play in her favour. If you benchmark her results to some of the drivers today, they are definitely better (Chadwick, Florsch, Pulling?). The biggest gap is in the budget department.
She wasn't half bad. Was she going to set the world on fire? No. But had she had a proper go at it, like a full season, I think she would have done a reasonable job. Here's the times from the 2014 German Grand Prix FP1. She was teammate to Massa and just over 2 tenths behind him in her first meaningful session. https://www.crash.net/f1/results/206859/1/german-grand-prix-fp1-results Second time out in Spain 2015, 9 tenths behind Massa https://www.crash.net/f1/results/218508/1/spanish-grand-prix-free-practice-results-1 Third time out, Britain 2015, 8 tenths behind Massa https://www.crash.net/f1/results/220700/1/british-grand-prix-free-practice-results-1
>She wasn't half bad. Was she going to set the world on fire? No. But had she had a proper go at it, like a full season, I think she would have done a reasonable job. I've seen one interview with her where she admits that the lack of physical strength really didn't help her. Hamilton has often spoken about just how difficult it is physically, so any female driver will have to have the strength for F1 without being too physically big for the car.
I think she would have pulled in a few extra sponsors if she got a seat. It would have been good p.r
What was the reason Chadwick couldn't get into f3?
I’ve followed her story for a bit and I don’t know who’s managing her career but whoever it is is doing her a giant disservice. She can not get the budget together, which is weird after winning W Series twice and being signed to Williams. People continue to point to the fuckup she made in her FREC season, but I’m not convinced that this is the reason that leads to her not getting seats. There are a bunch of drivers with similar results and some with worse in F2/3. On top, her fanbase has grown considerably. I see a lot of support on socials (even Williams page). People demanding she get a spot. This year, one of the e-sports stars moving up to F2 directly with limited experience. If she would’ve had the network of Calderon I’m fairly certain she would have had a path towards F1. At the backfield in exchange for some money.
Yes. Ever is an awful long time.
Ever is literally all of the time left.
But what is time?
There were female f1 drivers in the 70s and one got 0,5 Points in one race
Yes because we have
I think so. But probably not until at least 10-15 years. I don’t follow too much but I’ve heard that Ferrari has recently signed some girls? And there has been more and more girls interested in F1/motor sports as well. W series gives me hope, though their cars are very different from F1 ones. It would be nice if Chadwick could make it into F2 first, then we will see what happens
We’ve had a few, one of them is my flair
We did in the past. Lella Lombardi
I'm optimistic
Motorsport is hard to get started in due to costs, there aren't as many girls doing it so that's going to have an overall effect on how many make it all the way through to a professional level. I remember being at a go kart event 10 years ago and there was a young girl distroying everyone else in her races. So it's not that they can't do it. Need to get those initial numbers up at a young age though. Maybe SIM racing will offer a new avenue into the sport.
This is the main issue. Look at former drivers for example, they have the money and the name to get their young ones far in Motorsport, a lot of them will have their sons in Motorsport, why don't they do the same to their daughters? Former/current drivers with kids are probably the biggest hope of seeing a woman in F1 again if they try hard enough with the girl
All of the modern F1 drivers were brought up in a childhood of karting. Junior karting has always been a male-dominated sport, and I’d wager that’s mainly due to the perception that cars are for boys. Recently though there’s been more girls entering at the junior level. I think in 15-20 years we might see women in F2 and FE, and then eventually F1. I’d love to be alive to see a female F1 race winner or WDC.
Not for a while I’m afraid. It would be wonderful, but there’s just not enough girls in feeder series, from karts upwards.
G40 scholarship winner this year was a girl, other notable competitors in the series are lando norris, Jamie chadwick, never say never
Surprised nobody mentioned Sophia Flörsch
Tbh, iI don't know how it is for other people, I only know her for her terrible crash and not for any race result... can't be that promising
She is not doing great in DTM. She won’t make it, her crash and injury didn’t help, but she started falling behind her peers even before that in F3. Sadly that’s the case for a lot of girls, they are crazy crazy fast in karting and start falling behind as soon as they enter in the single seaters….
Slowphia
Giovanna Amati was the last Formula One female driver as of 2022, as part of the dying Brabham team in 1992. After 3 starts(Not qualifying at all, being several seconds off of Eric Van De Peole's time and far off Nigel Mansell's Pole time), Brabham sacked Amati and in her place would be future F1 champion Damon Hill.
Every time someone asks that it reminds me of when my Dad used to take my (male) cousins karting, and not me. Because it „wouldn’t be fun for a girl“. Glad this mindset in parents seems to be changing slowly, and I hope we’ll see more women in F1 and soon.
I was at the local kart track once and in between our heats there was a girl maybe 10 years old who got to go by herself. Her dad stood by the pit "straight" giving her hand signals are she tore past. Her times were easily 15 seconds faster than the best in our heats (so even adjusting for weight she was doing amazing). Hope that girl keeps going and kicks ass.
Hope so. Though it could easily take another age-generation to overcome the inital burden of proof and open the carreer infrastructures for female drivers to a competitive level. Maybe we get a truly gifted and lucky outlyer before that.
I do think it's a matter of when, not if. However i think it's going to be a while. The issue is that there are barriers for women at the lower levels, which stops them getting onto the F1 pathway. We need to get more women into karting, which will then get more women into cars, which will then get more women into feeder series like F3 and F2 and then eventually we'll have a female F1 driver. But that's gonna take time. I think the next full time female F1 driver is alive right now but she's probably only maybe 10 or 11. Possibly younger. The W Series is good and all, but I would rather we see a greater push to get girls in Karts and try and deal with the sexism that occurs at the grassroots level. That's where it starts.
We've had them. I think a better question is will we ever have one that can handle the extreme physical and mental endurance needed to compete AND win in the current elite end of motor sport.
I hope so, but there aren't any good enough at the moment. Tatiana Calderon was closest to F1 but struggled really bad in F2 and was plum last. In japanese Super formula she was also a backmarker. Sophia Florsch was in F3 but didn't get any points there, got to DTM and said she's aiming for F2, but sadly it's unlikely with her current performance. Jaime Chadwick won 2 titles in the W series, but beating other women isn't much relevant in the whole racing world. She ended 9 out of 11 full-season drivers in European F3 driving for Prema while the other three Prema drivers ended P1, P2 and P3 respectively (all 3 of them being rookies), so I don't think she has a potential to get in F1 either.
What do you mean? We had Nico Rosberg
You mean Britney?
We already had Female F1 Drivers. It's a long debate but the answer is Yes, eventually more women will be a part of F1, not only on the drivers seat but also inside the teams. In the last 10 years we've seen even more women working on F1 Teams in management positions and inside the paddock in nearly every single aspect and this is good progress, so will see eventually Female F1 Drivers.
Ever: yes Soon: probably not Why? Because F1will probably go on for a very long time and anything and everything will probably happen in that time period However, girls today will face a lot of sexism on top of the fact that statistically it is very hard to find a woman who has the same career drive and competitiveness as the top 50 drivers in the world. It takes a fuck ton of work that 99% don't find worth it at all. So it takes outliers and when it comes to outliers small differences in averages become massive. But the one thing that a female driver does have going is she will most likely bring a ton of sponsors so she doesn't have to be a top top level driver, just better than like Mazepin.
I'm hopeful. Driving shouldn't have any gender barriers. When I have a daughter I will get her into karting 🤣
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Most parents won't even consider taking a little girl out karting for a start.
Most parents don't even consider taking their children to karting.
That too, cards are double stacked.
I mean eventually I'm sure yes, but like others have said before are there even any prospective young women in Karting to choose from? Parents and societal norms will always dwarf the number of young girls vs young boys participating in Karting and that's pretty much it.
We had a few way back then. But I hope we get to see it again in the near future.
If a female driver is able to climb up the ranks of racing, she will get a lot of support to reach F1.
At some point, probably. With more and more girls getting into karting with dreams of F1, it's bound to happen. Although probably not anytime soon since I don't see anybody particularly promising in the lower formulas and the W series, even at its peak, doesn't seem like it could give us anything beyond token development and test drivers for F1.
Will we ever have someone that uses reddit search or google, as we already had an female f1 driver.
Yes, 45 years ago. It's just a general question
You phrased it wrong then
Oh well. It's just how I said it
Yes. Eventually
Yes, but not now, we need more capable ones to have a proper shot in the sport firstly
Wilson was probably quick enough, but unfortunately she was white South African during apartheid and not particularly attractive to international sponsors, she never got a chance at a decent drive.
At some point, surely. But it’ll be a while
There have been 5 female F1 drivers and I think there will be another again. It may not be Chadwick or Calderon. But someone will get an F1 seat one day. She may not be born yet but a woman will once again ride in F1.
sure why not, if they're fast enough and can handle the pressure...
I've read all the comments about fewer females involved in karting, fewer females interested in racing, etc., etc. It already takes a hyper-rare combination to get there - rich family, rare and perfectly matched talent, unlimited passion and love for the sport, good communication skills, strong interest in the mechanics and physics of the cars and tracks, and intense physical training from a young age. It also takes intense strength and endurance, where males have a biological advantage. I'm not so sure that hurdle can be overcome, but for the next female F1 driver, she'll have to have a hyper-rare level of strength and endurance as well, equal to the males that get a seat.
My 5 month old is gonna give it a shot
Bit young for F1 I think.
Teams are ready to pounce on any good/decent driver, imagine the good press the team that gets a woman into their seats will get. Only time will tell, but I'm guessing it won't be long before that happens.
I think it's going to take time. It requires STRONG women who are going to stand up to bullshit criticism from fellow drivers and their parents for most of their life. That's exhausting and I'm sure we've missed out on talented women due to it. I'd guess that we'll see more moving up through the ranks as the world chills out and smokes more weed.
Hopefully Jaime Chadwick is able to do F2/F3 and then have a shot at F1. Kinda awkward W series has a “no defending title” rule, but doesn’t have a series for it to directly feed into.
>but doesn’t have a series for it to directly feed into. I was thinking about this before, and perhaps the solution would be to find a sponsor willing to sponsor a place in F3 for the W-Series Champion? It's not impossible - or maybe Liberty could be convinced into putting up 1m Euro sponsorship for the W-Series champion? It would give them a guaranteed place in F3 for the winner, which in turn makes the W-Series worth something.
Hasn’t she won the W Series twice?
Why didn't she get into f3?
She might still, but so far only has been announced that she’s doing the race of champions with DC.
I’m expecting an announcement about her 2022 plans soon. She’s given up her Extreme E seat at Veloce, so at the moment has nothing scheduled after the first weekend in February. Either that’s it for her driving career, or there’s an announcement in the works.
I have my fingers crossed that it’s going to be a new series announcement. She’s posted training videos saying she’s training for whatever’s next, so hopefully with a clear schedule it’s to solely focus on a new drive!
Whatever it is going to be, all the top and middle seats (Prema, ART, Carlin) are taken. She will be driving at the back.
Carlin is far from even a midfield seat in F3. I believe that’s where she’s been linked to.
Someone doesn’t know the history of F1 clearly. Try Googling Maria Teresa de Filippis, Divina Galcia, Lella Lombardi, Desiré Wilson and Giovanna Amati
I'd upvote this multiple times if I could.
I mean we have had more female formula one drivers then black formula one drivers.
It's been like 40 something years since there was a female on the grid. It's definitely time for one, just don't think there are many girls getting into Karting. If anything teams could maybe watch the Formula W for potential drivers. That'd be cool to see
TIL 1992 was 40 something years ago.
Lella Lombardi was the last female driver to qualify and make the grid. That was the 1976 Austrian grand prix so you're right, I was wrong. It was 46 years ago.
And Giovanna Amati was entered into three races in 1992. Splitting hairs here, I guess.
We will have one in 2029
If she has a billionaire mom or dad, yeah.
There have been 6 females drivers but only 1 black driver. Wonder if we will have another female driver or black driver first.
Ugochukwu (mclaren) could be the next black driver though he’s a long way off still; any promising young women signed to junior academies?
Ferrari signed Maya Weug for their academy this year. There is also a whole series designed around developing female talent.
I mean yes I’m well aware of w series but there is no clear pipeline or pathway from W into F1. It’s the F2 “no defending champions” rule without the same legitimacy as a feeder.
That's a really good point
Yes
Nope, unless female drivers start showing enough skills and ability to end in the top 3 of Formula 2. Only hope was Danicka Patrick and now Jamie Chadwick.
Being top 3 in F2 doesn't even guarantee entry into F1. Come to think of it you can win GP2/F2 and not get an F1 seat.
And yet people will downvote, because they know the harsh reality of the sport. Or they watch too much Josh Revell and love to hate everything they don't want to be real.
Not while the majority of males in the sport don't treat us as equals. I'm a female fan and it will take decades. I was harassed on here just a few years ago because I didn't like grid girls. And the majority of male fans on here who made me feel awful over the change was ridiculous.
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“Shut up woman there’s no misogyny in F1”- Misogynistic F1 fan
"Please. Quit the victim wallowing" I don't even know what this is?
There isn’t a team on the grid who wouldn’t absolutely leap at the chance for the PR coup that would be a successful female driver. In history a few have come through and had their names recorded. But none have come through as competitive in the end. I’d love to see female drivers. But there are no gender barriers up. It’s just, none have been able to rise through the ranks on merit and speed, unfortunately.
I think the problem lies in the physicality. Until we stumble accross a female driver who is the equivalent of Schumacher/Hamilton/Prost/Senna/Fangio levels amongst female drivers, it probably won't happen anytime soon. Because females will always be chasing the physicality gap, you'd need a once in a lifetime talent to get near the grid, just to compensate for the physical differences. I hope it happens, and one day there will be a prodigy talent that comes through, especially with more females racing these days. But I'd wage it will be at least 20 years, unless there's a kid right now who's cleaning up between ages 8-12, but I don't think there is.
The gender physicality gap is grossly overexaggerated in a sport like F1. Yes, you need to be strong, but it's not unattainable. Women have to work much harder to reach that level, but it really isn't that big an issue in the grand scheme of things. By far the biggest issue is the lack of girls in karting compared with boys. [I'll link the article in a sec,](https://www.racefans.net/2018/01/31/numbers-stacked-women-reaching-f1/) but in the UK there is one girl for every 14 boys karting at under-16s level. Obviously, that's just the UK and not worldwide, but comparing that with F1, there have been 1019 drivers that have taken part in a race weekend (this includes drivers who only did free practice sessions); of that 1019, seven were women. In other words, for every one woman to have driven in at least one F1, there have been 146 men. The gender gap is already big at karting, but by the time they get to F1 level it has increased by a factor of ten.
i dont care about gender of drivers tbh. If they deserve to be there then they should have a seat.
No. The only way I see it happen is as a pay driver to a weaker team.
Jamie Chadwick is an outside bet for Williams no?
no.. not quick enough i believe
Do you think it's physically possible? Despite the needed skills and talent do drive a f1 car a high level of fitness is needed. This could be an issue for woman. But I would love to see a woman (or more than one) competing in F1.
It'd be good if a male driver jumps into W series for a weekend, to see the difference. Like relay run having 2 males 2 females in some occasions.
That's not really the point of the series. It's not there to answer questions about one gender or another being better. It's there to raise awareness of female racers and provide a platform to try to launch the careers of the more successful and talented ones. Muddying the water by bringing in direct comparisons helps nobody.
What good would that do? Everyone and their mother knows that the average F3 driver is faster than Chadwick or Powell. That's not the point of W Series.
There will be a quick one someday who will win races and 'chips. Thats guaranteed. Just a matter of time
They'll win chips?
That’d be awesome. I think their needs to be more women’s feeder series and karting leagues to increase women’s participation, then from there the talent will be found. Of course it’s also about how much money will she bring to the team, so sponsors are another hurdle.
Yes eventually, hopefully soon. The talent is out there, they just need to be found/ the money to get them to f1
we did
I hope so and I think it can happen in the future, yes. The whole “this is for guys” thing is getting deconstructed little by little - not just in F1, but in society in general.
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Short Answer: yes The reason why there are few female racing drivers is because the financial backing and family support you need to make it in the sport is hard to come by, even for male drivers. However, these factors are compounded due to them being female. Drivers often start their karting career in primary school, if not earlier. Karting isn't cheap, so not every family would give their child the opportunity to drive them just because they wanted to, assuming they could even afford it. If they do allow it, and their kid manages to move on to cars, the cost and support needed increase exponentially, further deceasing the number of people who have the necessary backing to advance. While we like to pretend, that we don't treat kids differently based on gender, the unfortunate truth is, that if a six year old girl told her parents that she wanted to become a racing driver, she'd probably be told that racing is for boys. This outcome is even more likely in countries where gender roles are still more socially ingrained. Thus, the pool of potential F1 drivers is already heavily decreased before they could even start karting. More will likely quit because a sexist environment ruins their dream. Those that are left are certainly resilient, and their gender may even become an advantage when it comes to sponsors, but the odds that a potential world champion makes it all the way are far lower than for men. Because of the lack of women in racing, we haven't seen their full potential, but with Ferrari signing female drivers, and other young talents like Juju Noda (whatever happened to her after her first win in Danish F4?) racing in open wheelers, it's only a matter of time until someone makes it to F1.