Post here all non technical related topics about Formula One. This includes race results, discussions, testing analysis etc. TV coverage and other personal questions should be in Off topic chat.
I know that there have been female drivers in the past, but who where they? Can anyone list ALL female drivers with names, year, points in season (if any) and team?
Also, does anyone have total budget numbers for the 2004 teams?
Truth is that I’m a bit like Santa Claus, I do know ALL the women names, this way I can pick the good girls... Obviously I work 365 nights per year and I prefers not to enter thru the chimney... oh, and BTW I’m not that fat…
Now, back to the real world... google is a powerful instrument when you have a starting point, and Giovanna Amati performances on the track are difficult to forget...
ooo and maybe in some years Miranda van Middendorp the dutch driver: http://www.bdppromotions.nl She's good. I've karted with her (also in a 2 seat kart with her!) and how she was in the formula Ford... nice! But money...
I wrote an article about the lack of women drivers in F1 and made reference to the previous women drivers the other year. This was what I wrote back at the start of 07:
"After all this time and considering we’re now well in to the 21st century, when you look at Formula 1, why is it there is not at least one woman driver racing in the series? Why is it still so elusive and will we ever see a day when this may change? Its not like women couldn’t complete a Grand Prix distance and a full season, and there is no biological evidence to support that we’re incapable of doing it.
So far in the 21st century, Sara Fisher made history for McLaren when she stepped in to one of their cars back in 2002 at the time of the US GP, becoming the first woman in 10 years to have driven a Formula 1 car. At the time, Martin Whitmarsh remarked that at that point in time they had never had a female in one of their cars so guessed it was about time (how generous of him!). The only other time so far has been in November 2005, when Katherine Legge tested for Minardi at Vallelunga.
Looking back over the years, there have only ever been 5 female drivers in Formula 1.
Giovanna Amati in 1992 got three DNQs. Her only experience in F1 prior to that had been a test in a Benetton.
Divina Galica had a brief dalliance with Formula 1 in the 1970s, racing in 1976 and 1978, but like Amati got three DNQs.
Maria Teresa de Filippis started on the grid in May 1958, but scored no points even though she participated in 5 Grand Prixs across the 1958 and 1959 seasons for Maserati and then Porsche.
Desiré Wilson in 1980 only took part in the British Grand Prix, and then in the non-championship South African grand prix in 1981. However, on April 7th, 1980 only two months before her outing at the British GP, Wilson had become the only woman (so far) to win a Formula 1 race of any kind when she won in the Aurora F1 series.
Its not until you get to Lella Lombardi, that you find one woman who did score points. Racing from 1974 to 1976, Lella became the only woman to ever finish top 6 at a GP, subsequently finishing 21st in the WDC championship that year.
Looking further a field to other motor racing series, there are still not that many women drivers. And if I had to give the first names that come into my mind, it would be Danica Patrick, Sarah Fisher and Katherine Legge. Milka Duno has been signed and will join Patrick and Fisher in Indycar in 2007. Then there is Keiko Ihara racing in British F3, Susie Stoddart in DTM alongside Vanina Ickx, and until last year, Fiona Leggate in the BTCC. In other formulae’s there’s Tiffany Chittenden, Jodie Hemming and Pippa Mann in Formula Renault.
With that in mind, how do you then view Formula Woman? The racing championship introduced in Britain with the intention of teaching “novice female drivers how to become fully fledged racing drivers in a supportive, but competitive, environment”. The fact that over 10,000 women applied to be in the championship shows that there’s not a shortage or keen interest by women to be involved in motorsport at any level and be taken seriously.
So what’s stopping a woman from getting to be in Formula 1? When you consider the immature comments made by Jenson Button in 2005 as to why there isn’t a woman driver in F1, and then compare them to what Susie Stoddart said, she wasn’t half wrong. Its cultural/social attitudes that have still yet to change, not the physical ones. Isn’t it about time that a team in the F1 paddock and its sponsors put their money where their mouth is and gives a girl a break?"
Jenson Button's comment on female f1 drivers was an absolute classic and hilarious as hell.
anyways, the real problem is that there is yet to be a female driver that is fast enough to actually stay in F1. well at least thats what i think. it has nothing to do with the sex, they are just not quite fast enough
First of all congratulations to Danica Patrick. Not a small achievement by her and it cannot have come at a better time to IRL as open wheel racing struggles against NASCAR. IRL will get some welcome PR. One needs to look at some wider issues to appreciate the magnitude of her achievement though. I'd like to jot down some of my thoughts and hope that nobody will be offended by my little theory. if it is offensive to you let me apologise to start with and disregard it or tell me where I have erred.
Guy Kawasaki has once recommended never to turn to a man but to a woman for advise when you write up the business case for a start up. He thinks men have a killer gene which will not be helpfull in a situation where you want to grow something.
This points us to the well known fact that nature gave men and women different bodies to perform their biological tasks and evolution has destilled and emphasised those differences in its course. It is logical from the differences of physical makeup to conclude that psychological and mental process differences are also present. The male and the female brain do not work quite in the same way but subtle differences are evident. of course such statements are never applicable to individuals but to the average person of the two genders.
It is known that average females are less apt at recognising and gaging spatial relationships, imagining two and three dimensional vectors and their interaction and at taking risks with very little reflection than avergage males. It is an evolutionary consequence which impacts on the capabilities of average male and average female racing drivers.
but we are not talking about fictive average people here but about real persons. nevertheless the above inferences are usefull for explaining what we encounter in terms of winning drivers of the two genders in motor racing. at every level of competition a successful female driver has to be higher above the average level of her gender specific peer group than a male driver has to be above his gender peer group. the selection process progresses very rapidly as we go from early carting to national and world level carting and open wheel racing.
a significant mechanism in social science is called "positive amplification". it means a person is more successful and rewarded if he/she chooses activities in fields of higher competence and ability. if you do not follow that rule you need disproportional frustration tolerance and much higher motivation to achieve something.
if we accept the above theory we can explain why there are so few female top drivers in high level competiton. it also means that Danica's achievement in relative terms probably has to be compared to the likes of Fangio, Senna and Schumacher. She is a top dog in her class.
Formula One's fundamental ethos is about success coming to those with the most ingenious engineering and best ..............................organization, not to those with the biggest budget. (Dave Richards)
Slightly unfortunately for Patrick is she won an 'away' race - in Japan, which is amongst the least watched of the season. At least this'll get them some good PR.
Good on her I say, it's taken ages but is well deserved.
OT in that this list of women drivers are not in F1, actually mostly American and in US racing series, especially well represented in drag racing. The list is about halfway down the page.
thx for the URL Carlos!
further down you can listen to her TV interview, nice chat actually.
this gal reminds me a lot of Nico.
Formula One's fundamental ethos is about success coming to those with the most ingenious engineering and best ..............................organization, not to those with the biggest budget. (Dave Richards)
It's interesting that motorsport is one of the only sports that allows men and women to compete against one another without any separate classes. I don't think that has ever really been appreciated by the media/fans/public.
So whatever people say about male chauvinism in F1 should think twice. Aside from all the pitbabes and grid girls, it's an equal opportunity sport.
