To win any race, you need to beat your teammate. If you can't beat your teammate, then you can't win the race.
Of course F1 drivers are fit. A lot of that is because of weight. Being stronger does not make you a faster driver Having the best fast twitch muscle fibers does not make you a faster driver Having the best muscle endurance does not make you a faster driver Having the best cardio does not make you a faster driver The physical abilities between all the drivers are very very different. The fitness requirements to be a race car driver are very very low in comparison to traditional sports. The driver that focuses heavily on getting his body stronger and faster and has the best endurance will gain no advantage over his rivals. Yes an F1 driver needs endurance in his neck muscles, but the strongest neck or the one with best neck endurance isn't going to be the best driver because of it. Driving is by far more impacted by the brain. This is why I believe women could race in F1. Their physical abilities are well within the requirements to drive an F1 car. The only thing keeping a woman out of F1 is skill.
I don't think that lack of skill is the raison. What keep women out of F1 are their low number in motorsport in general. That maybe because of familial, social, or cultural reasons; probably the same why girls aren't oriented towards science or engineering. Worldwide, the number is racing licence holders for men is perhaps 100 times superior to women, and probably more. That means the pool of talents among men is far superior among men than women; consequently more men reach the top echelons than women. Along the way to get there, most men attract sponsorship, and women do less well, etc ... It's the same with Nobel Prizes; small countries have hardly any recipients compared to big nations. Their pool of academic talents is very shallow. How can Slovenia, Paraguay or Bhutan compete against the US, China or large nations ?
I think this is exactly true. As a reverse example, look to equestrian sports - probably the only sport where men and women compete against each other on absolutely equal footing. There’s enough physicality involved to assume men would have an advantage. But there is (or at least there has been) a strong selection bias in favor of women. It’s a sport where, at a young age, participation is historically heavily skewed toward girls.
I wholeheartedly agree. I didn't mean women don't have enough skill because they are women. Out of all the drivers in the world, only a fraction are women. It's simple math that it's far more likely that the better driver in the junior ranks is going to be a man.
Well, boys start karting at age 5. Girls at age 5 want to play with Barbie Houses and mommy's lipstick. When a girl joins the junior ranks at age 13, she is already behind the curve vs the boys and it is very difficult for the women to catch up to the boys hence why there is hardly no women in F1.
Bravo !!! You have just explained social engineering. If society has different expectation for girls than boys, it's no surprise if they don't reach the same goal. Parents raising their boy to be a hunter-gatherer and their daughter as a pretty home-maker; few families break that mould.
hard to compare the two since contracts are not like today. Fangio wasn't tied to a brand like drivers are now.
It's no different with race. Hamilton's diversity push and the narrative about inequality is very misleading. Certain cultures tend to seek certain career paths or sports to play, and there is nothing wrong with that.
His race performance are always strong so far vs qualy. Working harder though early in race. Cannot compare eras of cars. Unlimited testing would severely aid adaptation to new platforms and team.
