Introducing F1 Academy A new all-female driver category which aims to develop and prepare young female drivers. The car: Tatuus T421 chassis, Autotecnica engine with 165hp, Pirelli On budget: Formula 1 will subsidise each car with a budget of €150,000 (€2.25m in total) and will require the drivers to cover the same amount. The teams will provide the rest of the budget. The series is run by Bruno Michel, who also runs F2 and F3. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Formula W rebranded, with less prize money. What FW failed in was there was no comparisson against their male peers. All well and good that Jamie Chadwick dominated, but how would she do in F3? F2? FIA would've done far better fielding say 4 F4 all female teams, 2 F3 all female teams and 1 F2 all female team, female champion of each (except F2 for obvious reasons as that would still depend on F1) gets an automatic bump up to the faster series.
I've only seen a handful of female drivers in my motorsport life. Fielding a whole line of world class drivers seems like a good idea in theory. However we saw the domination Chadwick put on. If you really want some fairness toss her into f2 or f3. Would love to see her in that field and would really enjoy seeing her win, get podiums, or even put a run in with points for the season.
Here's a concept- Fastest succeeds- who cares what's under the driving suit... To others point- If "Chadwick" is good enough to compete in F3- F2 and eventually F1 then great- regardless whether the first name is Jamie, Barbara, Bob or James.
When a woman is faster than any driver in the F1 field, she will be in the car. It's safe to assume she'll attract plenty of sponsors.
There is ZERO reason a woman can't be as fast as a man in a race car. Motocycles (particularly dirt bikes), different story as there are physical limitations. Male race drivers out number woman probably 1000:1, so it's more likely a great driver will be male. This woman league affirmative action nonsense is a form of sexism that should be called out for what it is. Giving opportunities and race seats for undeserving drivers. If a woman wants to be in F1, they can either earn it like most do, or have a billionaire daddy like Mazepin or Latifi and have a team willing to put them in the seat.
This whole women only category is total rubbish. There is absolutely ZERO barrier a woman faces to participating in motorsports compared to a man.
If you must have 'something' this is a MUCH smarter and better way to do things. Create a ladder system where the best move up. In this way if there is truly a special female talent out there there is an elimination of the financial hurdles and natural talent can shine. Also the 150,000 Euro budget may be cheap in racing terms but it is still WELL beyond the means of even well established middle class families to afford.
I was always told that the g forces is what limited the female drivers in F1, due to neck strength etc, and they could be prone to black out. I know there are female fighter pilots, and astronauts, however F1 g forces can often exceed those disciplines. Is physiology a consideration?
Ummm, female fighter pilots experience 8g's. Females would not have a problem experiencing F1 g-forces.
Only in crash situations does an F1 car develop higher G-forces than a modern fighter plane. Modern fighter planes develop 9 Gs (on command of pilot) while an F1 car (while on track) develop no more than 5 and a tad Gs. Fighter planes are capable of higher G-loading, pilots are not--even in G-suits.
Why does it have to be just woman ?. I know there are a lot of male drivers, like say in the American Karting race series , who have the talent and not the money. Otherwise, its just window dressing, just like with that danica patrick, she sucked dick and was in the sport for years, all she did was complain and lose, she was the ultimate in window dressing. She was allowed to race all those years while Im sure other people who were far better were overlooked . Let this program be open to all drivers who have talent, but do not have the checkbook . Billy Musgrave comes to mind . Big G
She also didn't have any problems getting sponsorship deals. She was pretty lousy as a driver, but still better than most other women at the time. So the idea that women can't attract sponsors and get money to go race in nonsense. They just need to be half decent and in the right series. A talentless individual driver without a billionaire family to fund their way into F1 is virtually impossible. Even the trust fund babies in F1 have to have at least some skill. Mazepin, Latifi, and Stroll all had won in their junior leagues. Jamie Chadwick's biggest success outside the W series has come as being a co-driver. She hasn't won anything individually.
This gave me a good chuckle. The guys pulling 9Gs in F35s have NOTHING on the chaps pootling through Eau Rouge haha
I said nothing about whether I think that’s true, or that one discipline is higher than the other. What I said is that I was always told that it was a limiting factor, and asked was phisiology considered. Look up the G loading Roman Grossean experiences in his accident. Was he putting through the guard rail. You’d probably crap yourself going through Eau Rouge.
I think the money would be better spent in carting- much as Lewis has done in funding racers of color. Talent would then be spotted early and girls with potential helped up the ladder. The reason we don't see women racers in F1, as has been pointed out before, is that the ratio of male to female skews so heavily toward the boys. All the top drivers in F1 had notable success in carting. So why not sponsor girl teams at that level first?
High level karting is MUCH more expensive than this level of car racing (Formula W) and there are lots of superb karters that never do well in cars. While karts can give an inclination to talent it is not until a driver proves themselves in cars (consistently over time) that you get a feeling if they can do well in F1. Also karts have next to zero marketability as the general public see it as playing with toys. Once in cars most average people think an F4 car is an F1 car anyways. Even people who supposedly pretend to know about racing think Jamie Chadwick is just knocking on the door of F1 and just needs to be given a shot. Reality is that she is well down the ladder and miles away from being ready given her experience.
My point is that the exclusion starts very early. If girls don’t see karting as available to them then they won’t pursue it. If the goal is to get more women in the highest level of the sport support needs to start early.
But the interest for women to join in motorsports is much lower than it is for guys, the vast majority of which don't get to do much more than the occasional session on a rental kart, let alone drive a proper 2 stroke kart. I honestly don't know how to get women really interested in motorsport. Whilst the idea behind Formula W is nice and all, the women in the sport aren't stupid. They know they're not being measured with the same stick. And they know they're not being taken seriously, when even their most dominant driver by a very long way struggles to get any kind of drive. She's been tossed a title job of ''development driver'' at Williams, the most driving she did in an F1 car was driving it up the hill at Goodwood... No progression, no credibility, no career. That's what Formula W essentially promises.
...so, just to be clear, you're saying that F1 drivers are regularly preparing and training for 67G impacts...and that men can handle that, but women can't? Damn straight I'd colour my trousers in taking Eau Rouge flat, doesn't make your point any more sensible? Come on Mr. Wine, if women are allowed to get behind the stick of a ~$90m F35 and can pass the G training requirements (which are MUCH more stringent than anything F1 drivers ever have to do before getting behind the wheel), then they aren't G-limited when it comes to driving a Formula 1 car. This isn't a hill worth dying on my friend
Interestingly if you spend any time at the kart track you will find that there are more girls participating than in any other form of motorsports. In fact girls make up enough of the field to not really stand out from the boys. This goes back to even 30 years ago when I first started karting. There were always girls around and even back then they were always treated equal to the boys. I've recently been around the kart tracks as I sponsor a young karter and sure enough the girls are out in respectable numbers. The big drop off seems to be in the move to cars which I suspect is one of the things this FIA initiative is looking at addressing. Again I'm not sure how as high level karting is more expensive than F4.
