Ray wrote:Saribro wrote:mkw111 wrote:...she might not be strong enough to handle the car.
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It would be good for her to come and race for F1...
Aren't these statements mutually exclusive?
Well they both have power assisted steering. But an F1 car is what, 1300lbs? Plus it has massive ammounts of downforce. A NASCAR Sprint Cup car is 3400 lbs and has almost no downforce by comparison. I think it would be alot easier to drive an F1 car for a smaller person with a small amount of muscle mass. Turning a big heavy Cup car that doesn't like to go around corners would be a huge handful, and she's quite short. Her seat would be real close to the dash or the steering wheel would literally be in her lap, and she'd sit very high
in the car. They are hard enough to see out of for guys that don't have either of those stipulations. Getting out of a wrecked car after a crash would probably be pretty difficult as well.
The F1 car is much more physical to drive than just about any other series of racing purely owing to the fact that it involves the highest forces. You also realise that downforce effectively adds weight to the car. So although an f1 car is 600kg when standing still, its 'effective weight' can be knocking on for 2 - 3 tons making it 'heavier' than the stock car. Consequenty its that very downforce that makes it so physical to drive through corners.
I can see that you'd need more long term endurance but less overall fitness and strength to drive a stock car, as they are so difficult to drive. You have to be a hustler and keep that up for much longer distances than a grand prix.
It's also not that you need enormous muscle mass in the arms or legs to drive an F1 car (a woman can easily develop the strength needed. You
do however need to be incredibly fit and need neck muscles like nothing else. This is where a woman would have problems, their physique means it makes it much tougher to develop the neck muscles necessary. This is not to say it can't be done though.
