gav Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> > I just wanted to express that I have
> difficulties to understand the claim that women
> aren't physically able to do F1 races, when they
> can race IndyCars and LMP1 cars, which are almost
> as fast as F1.
>
>
> I'm sure women are fully capable of driving a
> grand prix distance in a modern F1 car without
> issue. Whether they have the attributes to be as
> fast as a guy is very much up for debate (indeed
> the evidence suggests it's unlikely, even given
> the lack of women in motorsport—I don't recall
> any woman winning in a decent category, the
> closest I can think of on these shores being Sarah
> Moore in the Ginetta Juniors), but I'm confident
> they'd be able to drive an F1 car for 200 miles at
> a time perfectly fine.
>
> I don't have the medical expertise, like Lasse,
> but I'm fully confident that their physical
> attributes aren't the restriction.
If you look at Jenson Button's 2009 personal best in the London triathlon, it was a stunning 2 hours and 7 minutes. And he was actually holding a bit in reserve.
Jenson Button London Triathlon 2009If you compare that to the London Olympic 2012 Triathlon for men, then it is not overly impressive. He would have trailed 12,5 minutes after the slowest of the 54 man strong grid that completed the event. He would have been a whopping 20,5 minutes slower than the winner.
London Olympics 2012 Triathlon MenIf you compare that to the London Olympic 2012 Triathlon for women, then it is a completely different story. Jenson Button would have beat 11 of the 52 female strong grid that completed the event. Seriously, he would be in better shape than 20% of the grid! He would have trailed the lead woman by just a bit more than 7 minutes.
London Olympic 2012 Triathlon WomenWe all know how important physical condition is for a racing driver to perform at his peak. If you are knackered, you are slipping and making mistakes. If you, as a woman, have to go out there and go toe to toe with a guy like Jenson, then to break even, you have to be an Olympic athlete! And I am not even sure that he is the driver on the grid that is in the best shape. Then we have not even counted all the other things you need to do, on top of that, like strength training, reaction training, learning race craft and car control, mechanical engineering and set-up knowledge, and so on and so forth...
To compound matters, anyone who has been serious about getting into shape through weight lifting and running knows, that it is much harder to build up both at the same time, than it is to do just one of them!
Yet this would be necessary for a woman to compete with a guy like Jenson on equal terms... You might find one or two, but to say that women have what it takes in general? It's completely ridiculous.
EDIT: Just so you know I didn't cherry pick, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, and Beijing 2008 Triathlon for Women tells the same story. Sydney and Athens had slower winning times. Beijing was slightly faster, but had a much larger percentage of the grid beaten by Jenson's time.
It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.
Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2013 10:12AM by Morbid.