Female F1 drivers

[equiraptor]

I have noticed that those involved in racing do tend to be more conservative in general, although that may just be a slightly more vocal group. I wouldn't be surprised if that would bring with it some prejudice or "traditional values". I do have to say I haven't noticed anything glaring in my SCCA region, though it may be that I haven't seen it yet, or that this region is one of the lucky ones. We have a few women drivers but usually only 1 or 2 at an event. Still, they seemed to have respect in the paddock. It is California.

I'm out of Texas, so perhaps things are a bit different. I have to say, the coldest reception I've received from an SCCA group was autocrossing with the Louisiana guys. They either ignored me or called me the wrong name until after I'd driven (I was co-driving with the guy who used to own my car. They called me by his wife's name, even though we do not look alike). After I drove one run, setting the second best time in the class (only beat by my codriver), they suddenly started asking me for advice.

The, "You are girl, thus you will babysit" person was a PCA guy. Make of that what you will.

Was I the only one who acknowledged this post?

I +rep'd him for it, but didn't comment on it specifically. I don't really have much to add to it, as I wasn't paying attention to F1 politics at any of those points in time, so don't understand the situations around those drives.

 

[ALXBWSCREW]

And here's what Vicky and Tiff think of this:
(skip to 2:37 if you're only interested in that)

I think what Vicky and Tiff say make absolute sense, it's about as good a explanation as you can get.

 

[MadCat360]

I don't buy the physical aspects. Yeah racing a top tier formula car is hard, but it's not so hard that a man could do it and a woman could not. With a proper training regimen, a woman should be able to handle it just the same as a man.

I think Danica is slower on road courses just because she's not as good at them.

 

[equiraptor]

I don't buy the physical aspects. Yeah racing a top tier formula car is hard, but it's not so hard that a man could do it and a woman could not. With a proper training regimen, a woman should be able to handle it just the same as a man.

*nod* I wonder if Tiff's statements are an artifact of the past (higher performance cars used to require more strength than they do now) or if it's just creating conflict for the sake of a show.

 

[mpicco]

I'm not sure. When it comes to extreme, top, world class athletic skill, men are always better at them than women; however how much of a top world class athletic activity driving the fastest cars in the world can be debated. I think a talented woman could make it in F1, even if men still have a little edge in physicality; there are female fighter pilots and I've read somewhere women are better at handling G-forces. Might have been a load of bollocks though so don't quote me on it.

 

[Pininfarina_]

I'm not sure. When it comes to extreme, top, world class athletic skill, men are always better at them than women; however how much of a top world class athletic activity driving the fastest cars in the world can be debated. I think a talented woman could make it in F1, even if men still have a little edge in physicality; there are female fighter pilots and I've read somewhere women are better at handling G-forces. Might have been a load of bollocks though so don't quote me on it.

Men are generally better at things that rely heavily on raw physical power, but I think women can easily be as good, if not better at things that require more finesse, reflexes and endurance. Like you said, there are plenty of super talented fighter pilots.

 

[ninjacoco]

At track and autocross events, I frequently get asked who I'm with, or whether I'm [dude]'s daughter/girlfriend/etc. I think it's assumed that girls just don't participate in motorsports, which is a darn shame because it's such great lulz.

Of course, that's my cue to tease the various female hangers-on why they're not driving, sooooo...

 

[rafa31181]

When it comes to man and women discussions such as this, there's an aspect that should always be considered due to it's importance in the way we as a species have evolved. This aspect boils down to the genes. Studies have shown that man and women show (from a very early age) quite different interests. A specific experimet I've once read about, put female and male babies in front of two monitors showing two completely different things: one monitor showed the babies images of human faces and the other showed them mechanical objects in general, such as cars. The female subjects tended to keep looking at the human faces whereas the male subjects would keep looking at the monitor shoing mechanical objects moving. Tiff asked in the video who would win if a male and a female pro boxers with basically the same physical attributes (and i would add the same boxing abilities) were to fight against each other. I don't have an answer to that, neither did Vicky.
On the other hand there's the odds situation Vicky arose. Women and men are raised very differently, hence the very low percentage of women interested in motorsports, which is a very dangerous sport and extremely expensive if compared to most other sports.

Taking all this into account, what are the odds of a single woman making it into F1 and being as competitive as most men in it?

 

[mpicco]

Taking all this into account, what are the odds of a single woman making it into F1 and being as competitive as most men in it?

The same odds as finding men excelling in fields that are stereotypically connected to females have a lot of interest in, like fashion, hairdressing, cooking, design...

 

[Peter3hg]

The same odds as finding men excelling in fields that are stereotypically connected to females have a lot of interest in, like fashion, hairdressing, cooking, design...

Almost all the famous hairdressers, chefs and fashion designers are men.

 

[mpicco]

Almost all the famous hairdressers, chefs and fashion designers are men.

Well yes, that was my point...
I was trying to prove activities that are stereotyped to one of the sexes don't often verify the stereotypes.

 

[Peter3hg]

Well yes, that was my point...
I was trying to prove activities that are stereotyped to one of the sexes don't often verify the stereotypes.

Or it shows that the top exponents of almost every field are men. It can be taken both ways really.

 

[-Cpt. J.-]

Or it shows that the top exponents of almost every field are men. It can be taken both ways really.

That may be because women like to multi task. Men like to focus on one thing and excell in it. /stereotypes

 

[rafa31181]

That may be because women like to multi task. Men like to focus on one thing and excell in it. /stereotypes

+1 here. I'd go for your theory, tho it really isn't necessarily a cientifically proven theory, or is it? I'll google it.

 

[rafa31181]

Women are better at multi-tasking

Women are better at multi-tasking

Ok, googled it and found just what we needed. This comes straight from "The Telegraph":

"Scientists prove that women are better at multitasking than men:

Psychologists have proven that men really are worse at multitasking than women, although it does depend on the task.


By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent10:23PM BST 17 Jul 2010Comment

It is an age old complaint - that men are incapable of doing more than one thing at once.
Researchers decided to test the truth of the commonly held belief after discovering that no scientific research had ever been done into it.
They found that when women and men work on a number of simple tasks - such as searching for a key or doing easy maths problems - at the same time, the women significantly outperformed the men.
Scientists believe that the results show that females are better able to reflect upon a problem, while continuing to juggle their other commitments, than men.
Professor Keith Laws, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire, who led the research, said: "We have all heard stories that either men can't multitask or that women are exceptionally good at multitasking.

"But there didn't appear to be any empirical evidence for this. It was all based upon folklore and hearsay when I looked through the scientific literature."
Prof. Laws gave 50 male and 50 female students eight minutes to perform three tasks at the same time: carrying out simple maths problems, finding restaurants on a map and sketching a strategy for how they would search for a lost key in an imaginary field.
As they performed the tasks, the volunteers also received a phone call that they could either chose to answer or not. If they did answer, they were given an additional general knowledge test while they continued to carry out their other activities.
While women were able to preform well in all four activities at once, men performed, on average, worse when it came to planning to search for the key.
Professor Laws said: "Men are supposed to have better spatial awareness than women, so they should have outperformed the women on the map task and the key task.
"But of all the tasks we gave, the key searching task also requires planning and some kind of strategy.
"Men tended to start their search in a less logical place such as the centre of the field and they would not cover the whole area when they were outlining their search. women tended to enter in one corner and search in concentric circles or lines.
"It shows that women are better at being able to stand back and reflect for a moment while they are juggling other things."

 

[rafa31181]

I've just found another very interesting article on the differences beteween the brains of men and women, this is just a small sample:

"(...)That men and women are different, everyone knows that.

But, aside from external anatomical and primary and secondary sexual differences, scientists know also that there are many other subtle differences in the way the brains from men and women process language, information, emotion, cognition, etc.

One of the most interesting differences appear in the way men and women estimate time, judge speed of things, carry out mental mathematical calculations, orient in space and visualize objects in three dimensions, etc. In all these tasks, women and men are strikingly different, as they are too in the way their brains process language. This may account, scientists say, for the fact that there are many more male mathematicians, airplane pilots, bush guides, mechanical engineers, architects and race car drivers than female ones.(...)"

And for the James May inside us, this is the address for the full article:

http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n11/mente/eisntein/cerebro-homens.html

This other article puts women in a slight advantage when it comes to multitasking:

http://clearinghouse.missouriwestern.edu/manuscripts/815.php

 

[mooglebunny]

Part of it could be human culture as well. A lot of cultures have expectations of both genders as well as expectations based on class (by that I mean wealth mainly). If I had a choice when I was younger I would've tried karting, but I was never given such opportunities. I would really like to try car racing or events of some sort, even if it's not "professionally" at some point in the future because it is interesting to me and it would seem like fun. I'd also like to learn more hands-on stuff about cars with my Dad if he and I ever get a good opportunity to do so. [I know most of the basic things like checking oil, tire pressure, and so forth], but I'd like to know more as car owners should.)

I've unfortunately never had much of an opportunity basically because of finances and lack of opportunity. I have karted a teeny tiny little bit (once or twice sadly), but not really competitively. I went one time with my dad who was great at it of course. He did have more opportunities in terms of racing and dirt bikes when he was younger. He's also much older than I am and he is an excellent driver, whereas I am still learning some of the skills that he has. (1.5 years versus 34 years.)

I mean sure, I do multitasking often times when I am bored. When it is something that I really enjoy such as driving and playing video games, I do not multitask.

Anyway.

I think if there were to be a female F1 driver that actually showed talent and skill and deserved to be on the grid that would be great. As long as the driver/team doesn't try to uber push the fact of the driver being female. (Basically, equality. That's tough considering how most media is.) I dunno about the whole Danika Patrick thing though... I have heard a lot about how she has no interest in learning about the car she drives and other things, which may be true, but again I don't really know personally. It doesn't make sense to me to be a race car driver and have little knowledge of how your vehicle works.

 

[nicjasno]

It's simple evolution. We lived as hunters and gatherers up untill about 5k years ago. And there the roles of the sexes were clearly defined. Men went hunting and built things, women stayed in the camp and took care of family, the fire, food... So men developed their spatial awareness, orientation skills, physical strength... more and women developed language skills, social skills... more.

We cannot undo tens of thousands of years of evolution in just a few thousand years of civilisation.

 

[-Cpt. J.-]

It's simple evolution. We lived as hunters and gatherers up untill about 5k years ago. And there the roles of the sexes were clearly defined. Men went hunting and built things, women stayed in the camp and took care of family, the fire, food... So men developed their spatial awareness, orientation skills, physical strength... more and women developed language skills, social skills... more.

We cannot undo tens of thousands of years of evolution in just a few thousand years of civilisation.

Wow. Nice, simple, makes sense.
Ofcourse saying something like this in our modern world is sexist bullshit... don't mean it ain't true.
I specially love and agree with the last statement.

 

[nicjasno]

It's fact. It has nothing to do with sexism at all. But we should acknowledge that evolutionary fact, not talk around it and try to explain it with "culture". Evolution doesn't work as fast as we'd like. Society changed much faster than our brains could adapt. Neither gender really has the upper hand in the modern society, strictly biologically/evolutionary speaking. Let's leave the chauvinists/feminists aside, who want to interpret something into this that ain't there.