Considering the amount of research anyone does on this topic-which does not take much- along with the observation of the media, it is evident that females rarely compete in the motorsport industry let alone in Formula One competitions. There are stereotypes that perceive men as better drivers than women. Women are labelled as inexperienced with no desire for speed, whereas men are viewed as adrenaline junkies as well as safer drivers than women, especially when it comes to operating any sort of vehicle.
Surely this stereotype should never have existed in the first place since Bertha Benz, a female, was the first person to ever drive a motor vehicle back in 1888. A controversial statement was made from Sir Stirling Moss, regarding females’ abilities’ in a male dominated industry. The icon made his statement on BBC radio interview on April 5th (2013): “I think they have the strength, but I don’t know if they’ve got the mental aptitude to race hard”.
A man of Stirling’s generation would be astonished to be racing against a female in the racing industry, but currently, the cars which are raced, are based on technological advancements rather than purely based on the individual’s skills to handle a car.
Two female drivers participated in Formula one since 1976. To date only five women have competed in the Formula One racing.
Danica Patrick became the first women to win an IndyCar race when she won the Indy Car race in Japan in 2008, she proves that women are competitive with their male counterparts; she is also a model and advertising spokeswomen. In 2009 she finished third while competing in India. Her win was not just a lucky strike as she has the record of the most consecutive race holder in points since she had completed 50 races to take the title. Danica started her racing career with go karting like so many other passionate drivers have. Even though she is currently racing Formula Ford, she has still not been offered a racing seat for any Formula One manufacturer. Tiff Daniels is another potential star to be weary of the 24 year old is highly motivated to pursue the racing Formula industry. Climbing the ranks to Formula One is a process considering that one would need to surpass five levels of categories.
Women who do feature in the Formula One scene are those behind the scenes. Sir Francis Williams- founder and principal of the F1 Williams team- daughter, Claire Williams, is currently the CEO of Williams Racing. No doubt that there are many people who are fervent about females entering the industry, but the question still remains; why are there no women on the racing track driving the Formula One car? It goes as far as Susie Wolff, who is now a development driver, for the Williams Formula One team, but she is not placed in the competition along with the big boys.
Women just need to be given a chance but no company or manufacture is willing to take the risk and possibly failing at the choice where they get classified as the team that hired a female and she folded by not finishing a race. It is easily viewed as wasting resources, especially money; but Rome wasn’t built in a day, and many male drivers do too fail; it is inevitable at first.
Of course one cannot overlook the typical gender inequality of physical strength. A Formula One driver has to sustain a well-trained and fit physical ability. Often women are often oppressed by this in the sense that they will never be able to endure what men have to endure. The gravitational force requires a certain peak of fitness and it is claimed that women would not be willing to endure the protocol for this lifestyle. Training in the gym extensive hours, weight lifting, eating healthily and staying away from their families for long durations is the workmanship “only the male species” can do. Also, the amount of pressure women would have to tolerate in a social capacity, just because they are not males, they have to work so much more harder to considered on the same par as a man.
Opinions of a few females feel that they enjoy watching races but to put themselves in the driving seat, speeding at 180km/h is already asking too much, let alone competing in a racing car that has no difficulty reaching 300km/h.
There are only a few women that race locally of all the thousands that do race: and only a few are selected to move up in the ranks, due to the ratio difference in men and women racing only a selected few of the females are chosen.
Maybe it is due to a female’s nature, maybe instinctively females are what they generally get stereotyped as; family orientated and concerned with the risk factors of death, hence not many are actually willing to put their lives at risk on the track as their vocation.
There are women that have the ability to race equally to men but they have not been marketed properly to obtain the correct exposure or given equal opportunities as men do. This is the way Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Fillepe Massa (just to name a few) got into the Formula One industry by being sponsored or accepted at racing academies. Yes they are skilled drivers, but they developed the skills at the academies and had been given many chances to prove their racing abilities. So if women were given the same opportunities as men would they not also prosper the way men do?
Image: http://www.allleftturns.com/tiff-daniels-pics Tiff Daniels, 24 year old engineer. Up and coming racing driver.
Sources:
http://formula1.about.com/od/drivers/a/Many-Women-Work-In-F1-Why-No-Women-Drivers.htm
http://www.bdlive.co.za/sport/othersport/2013/04/16/women-lack-mental-aptitude-for-formula-one-says-moss (Johannesburg paper?)-Stirling Moss: BBC radio interview broadcast that took place 15 April 2013]
http://formula1.about.com/od/drivers/a/Many-Women-Work-In-F1-Why-No-Women-Drivers.htm