excluded based on gender...... W series

[233]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/motorsport/45802348

now maybe I'm wrong here but this seems entirely the wrong way to go about promoting women in Motorsport. whilst I appreciate that women are underrepresented there must be a reason to do with physical or mental differences between the sexes. I don't believe for one minute that if a top F1 team could find a female driver that was better than what they already had they wouldn't have them in a car in a heartbeat.

Michele Mouton, a world rally winner in the 1980s and president of the Women in Motorsport Commission for governing body the FIA, said: "One of the objectives of the commission is to help ensure females have equal opportunities to compete at the highest level of the sport.

hardly seems an equal opportunity when it excludes everyone but women. rather than spending tens of millions funding a one make championship get kids of both sexes into grass roots motorsports at an early age run taster days and find and support talent of both sexes from a young age. the money spent on this would fund 20 full kids championships in karting which would be much fairer and open to all

We've had women in F1, and up to date they haven't been very good.i'm sure Suzie Wolff was afforded every opportunity to shine especially given her high level connections in the sport but couldn't cut the mustard.


away from motorsport it does seem that equality only goes one way. Its fine to disadvantage men to promote women but god forbid you would ever do things the other way. in a commercial environment be it motorsport or any other business good talent will always succeed because its financially beneficial for an organisation to push and promote them.

 

[MissChief]

I kind of see where they're coming from, girls and women get much less of a chance when they're starting out and any non family sponsorship is very hard to come by. If it means the best of the girls then move on and become successful then great!

 

[Raymond Lin]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/motorsport/45802348

now maybe I'm wrong here but this seems entirely the wrong way to go about promoting women in Motorsport. whilst I appreciate that women are underrepresented there must be a reason to do with physical or mental differences between the sexes. I don't believe for one minute that if a top F1 team could find a female driver that was better than what they already had they wouldn't have them in a car in a heartbeat.



hardly seems an equal opportunity when it excludes everyone but women. rather than spending tens of millions funding a one make championship get kids of both sexes into grass roots motorsports at an early age run taster days and find and support talent of both sexes from a young age. the money spent on this would fund 20 full kids championships in karting which would be much fairer and open to all

We've had women in F1, and up to date they haven't been very good.i'm sure Suzie Wolff was afforded every opportunity to shine especially given her high level connections in the sport but couldn't cut the mustard.


away from motorsport, it does seem that equality only goes one way. Its fine to disadvantage men to promote women but god forbid you would ever do things the other way. in a commercial environment be it motorsport or any other business good talent will always succeed because it's financially beneficial for an organisation to push and promote them.

Look at the bigger picture.

So you have all these other races and tournaments where like it or not, official or not, is full of men, so the balance of the gender is like 100:0 or 99:1 in the favour of men. That's how the statistics stacks, so they created 1 race and series where it is just for female so now the statistics on the sport across the board, not just this series, as in ACROSS the sport, balances out that fraction even more.

That's the aim.

The men still can enter all these others series like they have ever before.

I am fine with that.

 

[Orionaut]

It is easy to forget that motorsport is actually a very physical sport.

You need a lot of strength and physical endurance.

It is generally accepted (Gender politics nonsense aside) that sports where physical strength is a major factor are separated into Men's and Women's classes.

I do not see any fundamental reason why Motorsports should not be treated the same way. Indeed, I am surprised perhaps that this hasn't been the case for a long time.

 

[Diddums]

Women shouldn't be allowed in cars. Period.

 

[peterwalkley]

We'd only really know long term, but it smacks of an experiment worth trying. Does it attract an audience, sponsorship and become a commercial success as well as finding new top level drivers.

I'm certainly not going to argue against the experience and inside knowledge of people like David Coulthard and Adrian Newey !

 

[Jokester]

We'd only really know long term, but it smacks of an experiment worth trying. Does it attract an audience, sponsorship and become a commercial success as well as finding new top level drivers.

I'm certainly not going to argue against the experience and inside knowledge of people like David Coulthard and Adrian Newey !

This is along my line of opinion as well, may find that there’s a pool of untapped driving talent that’s being overlooked due to sexism.

Or it might not.

 

[dowie]

I suspect we’ll probably find that the reality is something along the lines of the male distribution having greater variance and as we require a top few drivers from the far right of the distribution then we end up with rather a lot of males. I.e. perhaps not too far off the google memo that cost one engineer his job.

Perhaps gender roles etc.. have played a part in the past and this initiative can help a bit with countering that and providing some opertunity but I suspect, that at the highest levels of motorsport, we probably still won’t see many women.

 

[200sols]

If they can drive cars they can play 5 sets of tennis.

 

[Jokester]

You’re probably right Dowie, driving at the pinnacle of racing is more than just driving fast, it’s a highly technical role as well with car development involved etc, so very much into STEM territory.

 

[dowie]

Yeah that and perhaps spacial awareness, aggression, desire to take risks etc...

 

[Mason-]

How did Michelle Mouton ever manage it back in the Group B days without being given affirmative action.

Oh yeah, she was a **** hot driver and the quattro was incredible. Do we really need this?

 

[Nasher]

Women only F1 won't work. F1 is already in decline and it just won't pull in the viewers or sponsors.

They get the same chance as the men really. But the teams only pick the best, they don't care where your from or what you look like, they just want the cream of the crop. If they took the winners of this special womens league and stuck them in real F1, they probably wouldn't stand a chance otherwise they would already be there.

 

[plasmahal]

What's missing here is absolute proof that the sports dominated by men are actively barring and discriminating against women.

I don't think they are and women have the same equal opportunities to enter the sport and progress to the top.

I can drive a car, it's not fair that i'm not a highly paid F1 driver.......

 

[aardvark]

no different to other women only sections of sports i guess (tennis, athletics etc).

If it gets the ratings then good luck to them - i'm sure we will all be accused of sexism if it fails to get viewer ship though

 

[Kenai]

Women only F1 won't work. F1 is already in decline and it just won't pull in the viewers or sponsors.

They get the same chance as the men really. But the teams only pick the best, they don't care where your from or what you look like, they just want the cream of the crop. If they took the winners of this special womens league and stuck them in real F1, they probably wouldn't stand a chance otherwise they would already be there.

They don't pick the best though, outside of the top few teams. Most of the grid pick whoever turns up with the most sponsorship money to contribute to running the team. There are probably a great many deserving drivers who are at the back of the queue despite being talented as they simply don't have the sponsors behind them.

Whether this will help grow the profile of women in motorsports enough to attract bigger and better sponsors will be interesting to see.

 

[Delvis]

There are some women in F1, or there have been.

Reasonably recently I thought there was a female F1 driver for a period of time?

 

[cheesyboy]

What's missing here is absolute proof that the sports dominated by men are actively barring and discriminating against women.

I don't think they are and women have the same equal opportunities to enter the sport and progress to the top.

I can drive a car, it's not fair that i'm not a highly paid F1 driver.......

It's more like this:

A sport recognises that it's current market is ageing and desperately needs to attract new people.

Women are a relatively untapped market so a high-ish profile women's division could yield positive results.

As a bonus, young people are somewhat more 'woke' about social issues around things like gender, and are a little put off by sports that don't seem to cater for women. a women's division might help there too.

And what would really help is if the talent pool for women was widened enough that a top-class female driver could be found/developed who could compete in one of the blue riband series.

 

[Nasher]

They don't pick the best though, outside of the top few teams. Most of the grid pick whoever turns up with the most sponsorship money to contribute to running the team. There are probably a great many deserving drivers who are at the back of the queue despite being talented as they simply don't have the sponsors behind them.

Whether this will help grow the profile of women in motorsports enough to attract bigger and better sponsors will be interesting to see.

Ok....apart from Maldonado, they pick the best.

All the F1 drivers have a history of winning in lower leagues. You can't just turn up with some cash, a pair of **** and no history and get in.

There are some women in F1, or there have been.

Reasonably recently I thought there was a female F1 driver for a period of time?

I think she got a trial, but wasn't competitive enough.

 

[Kenai]

Ok....apart from Maldonado, they pick the best.

All the F1 drivers have a history of winning in lower leagues. You can't just turn up with some cash, a pair of **** and no history and get in.

No obviously not but good luck staying in the sport long enough to win those lower formulas without either being loaded or having that sponsorship money.

Motorsports is a rich person's game at virtually all levels.