F1′s Missing Heroines

It's easy to forget that Alice Powell won the Formula Renauly BARC Championship in 2010.

I'd probably single her out as the most likely female to make it in single seaters right now.

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Races: 163 - Wins: 23 - Pole Positions: 24 - Fastest Laps: 22
Season 9: Constructors' Champions

I would beg to differ, looking purely at where she is now.

Someone remind me - who was that female driver who got picked up by the Red Bull scheme?

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GPGSL -
GPGSL-3 - Pizza Party Racing manager and driver
Nations Cup - Team Scotland manager

Remember that Susie Wolff (ne Stoddart) has a role at Williams F1, & that her husband is in charge at Mercedes (not that that would influence anything )

Red Bull...I think Beitske Visser is the name you're looking for? [www.bbc.co.uk]

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A Scotsman in Indonesia. A fan of the Far East & all their drivers & an advocate of women in motorsport / GPGNC - S3: Team Philippines, S4/S5: Team Japan, S6: Team Indonesia (S6 runner-up)

Yep, Visser's the one I was thinking of

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GPGSL -
GPGSL-3 - Pizza Party Racing manager and driver
Nations Cup - Team Scotland manager

gav Wrote:
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> > 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 2009


If 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 Men


If 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 Women

We 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.

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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.

If Jenson Button looked on the verge of collapsing at the end of each race, then fair enough, but he's so stupidly fit that he could probably go for a run after driving 200 miles of Sepang.

I'd love to be able to know where Montoya (even the F1 Montoya) would fit into your stats.

Montoya was never criticised for being out of shape. Ron's critique was that he was overweight, and that was motivated by Adrian Newey's wish to use that weight differently in the car design. It is very possible to have some extra kilos and still be in great shape. Bodyfat is not a good fitness indicator. And Jenson certainly does not look like he is not fatigued after every race.

Silverstone testing September 2008:

Knackered Jenson

Malaysia 2010:

Knackered Jenson Malaysia 2010

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It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2013 06:10PM by Morbid.

gav écrivait:
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> The most challenging Mansell was in was the 1993
> Michigan 500. He had to be extricated from the car
> after the race. Of course, Mansell wasn't exactly
> the fittest to start with, as Ron Dennis would
> tell you.

I don't think he was in too bad a shape during his main F1 career. It was when he came back and raced again after his stint in Indy racing(and also when he drove for Macca) that his weight became obvious - IIRC he was over 2 stone heavier than he'd been in '92.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/11/2013 10:52PM by EC83.

Time to state a fact: Simona de Silvestro has just acheived her first podium finish in an IndyCar race

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GPGSL -
GPGSL-3 - Pizza Party Racing manager and driver
Nations Cup - Team Scotland manager

[www.crash.net]

Make of it what you will - one thing I ought to say is that I rate her far higher than S. Wolff

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GPGSL -
GPGSL-3 - Pizza Party Racing manager and driver
Nations Cup - Team Scotland manager

Thanks for reminding me of this piece.

Say what you like about Simona, but she is a solid racer, who deserves a crack.

Without those opportunities I'm afraid that F1 will remain locked out to women.

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Races: 163 - Wins: 23 - Pole Positions: 24 - Fastest Laps: 22
Season 9: Constructors' Champions

Michela Cerruti has just become the first female winner in the history of the AutoGP series

*so much revival of dead thread *

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GPGSL -
GPGSL-3 - Pizza Party Racing manager and driver
Nations Cup - Team Scotland manager

Something of an apt revival considering that Susie will running in the Williams on Friday morning and I'll be there for my first ever race as accredited media.

Going to be quite the occasion.

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Races: 163 - Wins: 23 - Pole Positions: 24 - Fastest Laps: 22
Season 9: Constructors' Champions

Congrats.