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The 2022 Formula One Thread

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Yes, that is sad, but Spa needs to be made safer for the drivers (too many serious accidents in the past few years) and presumably the circuit designer has decided that is an area where they need more run off area (I thought that it was off to the right, and that may also be being taken care off).

One of the drivers that I worked with a couple of years ago, Callum Ilott, was a friend of Antoine Hubert's, said that it was very dangerous there and you are totally reliant on everyone else not making a mistake.
 
Just been thinking. Over the last few seasons, attention has been drawn to the subject of diversity in F1. Most recently this has centred on ethnic diversity, and quite rightly so. However, we still have this Boys Club image, with only one woman, Lella Lombardi, having scored (½ point) any points in F1 at the tragic 1975 Spanish Grand Prix at the Montjuïc circuit.

Quite astonishing really. We have female fighter pilots, female search and rescue helicopter pilots, female surgeons, female physicists etc etc, but still only one female driver to score points in the 72 seasons of F1. Does the Stirling Moss attitude to women in motorsport prevale?


 
Tony Lockhart said:
Just been thinking. Over the last few seasons, attention has been drawn to the subject of diversity in F1. Most recently this has centred on ethnic diversity, and quite rightly so. However, we still have this Boys Club image, with only one woman, Lella Lombardi, having scored (½ point) any points in F1 at the tragic 1975 Spanish Grand Prix at the Montjuïc circuit.

Quite astonishing really. We have female fighter pilots, female search and rescue helicopter pilots, female surgeons, female physicists etc etc, but still only one female driver to score points in the 72 seasons of F1. Does the Stirling Moss attitude to women in motorsport prevale?


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A good point Tony best asking someone from the inside in F1 (obviously your going to need some money and backing too in F1), outside of F1 there are plenty of woman racing and i feel the younger generation don't have the same ingrained stereotypes "this is what boys do, this is what girls do" we had when we were growing up, they just get on with it, i also feel if their parents race, they are possibly going to end up racing too.

I also think that main TV channels we're to slow to catch on to what was happening in sport in general and they always saw the more extreme sports as some kind of novelty compared to the mainstream of kicking a ball across a muddy field or hitting a ball with a stick, that's all changed now because of Youtube, Redbull and Social media in general, where young people see something and think that looks exciting i'll try that!

I think having strong role models is very important, i only starting watching F1 because of Lewis, in his earlier years he wore his heart on his sleeve (sometimes to his own detriment) but it made me interested because i saw someone who was relatable and not as corporate (and boring) as drivers that have come before.
I think it's only a matter of time before we have a woman racing in modern F1.

I think Sophia Floersch was fastest out of everyone in the test day in the LMP2 car.
https://www.fia.com/news/wec-sophia-floersch-reaching-new-heights
https://www.fiawec.com/en/news/wec-stars-of-the-future-shine-in-rookie-test/7210

Sophia Floersch on Motorsport:

“Well, I think it's important that at some time in many years, there's as many women in the sport as men and that it's not a male dominated sport anymore. Also, I think most important is to kind of prove that you don't have to change, you can still be a girl and woman with long blonde hair and still do what you love and race quick cars. In general, I think it's kind of changing and most important is that I think you always believe in yourself, enjoy what you do and do what you want to do. So that will be my actual message to keep believing in yourself and keep on fighting.”
 
Space is the Place said:
A good point Tony best asking someone from the inside in F1 (obviously your going to need some money and backing too in F1), outside of F1 there are plenty of woman racing and i feel the younger generation don't have the same ingrained stereotypes "this is what boys do, this is what girls do" we had when we were growing up, they just get on with it, i also feel if their parents race, they are possibly going to end up racing too.

I also think that main TV channels we're to slow to catch on to what was happening in sport in general and they always saw the more extreme sports as some kind of novelty compared to the mainstream of kicking a ball across a muddy field or hitting a ball with a stick, that's all changed now because of Youtube, Redbull and Social media in general, where young people see something and think that looks exciting i'll try that!

I think having strong role models is very important, i only starting watching F1 because of Lewis, in his earlier years he wore his heart on his sleeve (sometimes to his own detriment) but it made me interested because i saw someone who was relatable and not as corporate (and boring) as drivers that have come before.
I think it's only a matter of time before we have a woman racing in modern F1.

I think Sophia Floersch was fastest out of everyone in the test day in the LMP2 car.
https://www.fia.com/news/wec-sophia-floersch-reaching-new-heights
https://www.fiawec.com/en/news/wec-stars-of-the-future-shine-in-rookie-test/7210

Sophia Floersch on Motorsport:

“Well, I think it's important that at some time in many years, there's as many women in the sport as men and that it's not a male dominated sport anymore. Also, I think most important is to kind of prove that you don't have to change, you can still be a girl and woman with long blonde hair and still do what you love and race quick cars. In general, I think it's kind of changing and most important is that I think you always believe in yourself, enjoy what you do and do what you want to do. So that will be my actual message to keep believing in yourself and keep on fighting.”
Click to expand...

It’s a huge step to go from ELMS to F1, so I won’t be holding my breath!
 
That women are inherently capable of delivering the goods is undisputable. We were with our daughters last night for Christmas. The wee one flies seriously large aeroplanes on long-haul routes. During training, she routinely whopped the pants off all the boys.

I guess the only question is the physical demands of F1 - as I understand it, it requires not only tremendous concentration, but also athlete-grade physical fitness and stamina, and that tends to favour men. If, for example, they didn't have separate men's and women's tennis tournaments, just one all-comers' tournament, who do you think would do most of the winning?

I suspect that women having the necessary physical qualities to succeed in F1 are rarer than men. Then, there's the question of getting in and overcoming prejudice and financial burdens. Sadly, I think it will be a while before we see women as a regular feature in F1, as opposed to an occasional novelty.
 
I think the thing is F1 is an old sport, the coverage on TV was all male presenters in slacks they'd wear to the golf club, fortunately that's changed in recent years and while it's still seem corporate to me, relatable drivers and the way the sport is presented makes it slightly more appealing to a younger audience. The sport needs to change if it's to survive and have any relevance. Can someone explain to me why a woman couldn't be a great driver in F1?
I don't think tennis is a good analogy to driving a car, despite the forces and concentration involved.
 
Stamina… women compete in triathlons etc. they have stamina. Strength? Well, cockpits in F1 cars are mostly built to contain boys, not men (lol). It’s not as if F1 cars have to be manhandled by a barrel-chested gorilla.

I’d say talent/skill in a 5ft 5in woman would equal the same in a bloke.
 
It’s the culture.
It’s only five minutes since the “dolly birds” on the grid lane were abolished.
 
Tony Lockhart said:
Stamina… women compete in triathlons etc. they have stamina. Strength? Well, cockpits in F1 cars are mostly built to contain boys, not men (lol). It’s not as if F1 cars have to be manhandled by a barrel-chested gorilla.
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True, but at a lower level than men. Precisely why they have separate men's and women's competitions in most sports.

I’d say talent/skill in a 5ft 5in woman would equal the same in a bloke.
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Agreed 100%,as per the case of my rather shorter than 5' 5" younger daughter (she assures me that people do not jump off the plane, screaming, "Help! There's a child loose in the cockpit!")
 
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Tony Lockhart said:
Stamina… women compete in triathlons etc. they have stamina. Strength? Well, cockpits in F1 cars are mostly built to contain boys, not men (lol). It’s not as if F1 cars have to be manhandled by a barrel-chested gorilla.

I’d say talent/skill in a 5ft 5in woman would equal the same in a bloke.
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Exactly.

I remember seeing an article about ultra endurance sports, where women are often as good as men. After a quick search the best article that I could find is as follows:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-49284389

Current F1 cars (powered steering) are much easier to drive than the old F1 cars (extremely heavy steering) and so there should be no physical barrier (assuming that they have done enough physical training to get the required strength and stamina).

The big reason that I can see for women drivers (it is changing for engineers with many more women engineers now) is opportunity. It is really hard to get to drive an F1 car in the first place and that has been made more difficult for women by the way the sport has been (but is changing).

Susie Wolf did well to get to where she did, but it has to be said that she came second to every team mate in every team that she competed in. So maybe there was some positive discrimination there or there were good marketing reasons for doing so. And that has hopefully opened up doors for younger women drivers now to get into motorsport and hopefully on merit into F1 in a few years.
 
Let’s look elsewhere.
WRC? No successful women since Mouton.
BTCC? No successful women since forever.
Le Mans? Plenty of women, no overall winners.

Even the specially created championships for women are seen as third rate at best. And go to any race meeting, it’ll be almost all men, almost all white.
 
Tony Lockhart said:
Let’s look elsewhere.
WRC? No successful women since Mouton.
BTCC? No successful women since forever.
Le Mans? Plenty of women, no overall winners.

Even the specially created championships for women are seen as third rate at best. And go to any race meeting, it’ll be almost all men, almost all white.
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The best being non-white though :)

How do you explain the absence of women ? Don’t you think that the amounts of money involved would easily pave the way for any woman faster than HAM and VER ?
 
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