Women lack mental aptitude for Formula 1 - Moss

I love F1, Stirling is an old man with old fashioned views as is Bernie Ecclestone. - It'll take time for women to break into F1 but it will happen. I tihnk the main reason women didn't race for a long time is because they were too intelligent to drive around risking their lives in mobile bombs in the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's.

We follow touring cars. There is a young lady drives junior Ginettas as there has been in the past but apart from that noone else. They just dont seem to progress beyond the junior comps. Money may be a factor but at the end of the day money doesnt buy talent-ask Nick Hamilton !

What a stupid thing to say! I used to rally drive..I was the only woman generally at each event (around 100 entrants). I came second in my class in the National Championship!! There is a very good female driver in Nascar (and I would imagine the G force must be around the same). I just think most women are not interested and dont get involved at an early age which you would need to do to be good at any sport. Sad really, I would love to see a top female driver in F1!!

Oh JENSON, I already loved you and now I love you MORE.

I LOVE F1. Love it. I glue myself to the telly for practice, qually and race, whether it be at a normal time or 3 in the morning, like this weekend.

frosch I really don't think we have a genetically different attitude to risk. In that documentary about Susie Wolff, her mum was saying "it's harder watching a girl race, you're more scared for them." I'd say THAT'S why we have a different attitude to risk, because we're wrapped up in cotton wool. I'm only recently starting to realise how much I was coddled as a child, and even as an adult.

Also, it is socially acceptable for women to be scared...so we are scared. Take last holiday. My partner (now ex) and I were at a beach with a cliff. People were jumping off it. People were egging us on, I chickened out. My partner didn't. He said after that he was TERRIFIED, like he felt sick, but he felt he couldn't back out cos he knew people would laugh/question his "manliness". I knew that I could back out and that no-one would care. So women don't end up exposing themselves to the same risks and therefore don't learn that actually doing that stuff is fine, that it is possible.

I would love for all this stuff to be challenged.

Who cares why Susie Wolff is in F1? Cos of her husband? So WHAT? Why do you think Bruno Senna was? Nico Rosberg? Nelson Piquet jr? I'm not denying those guys' talent, but I think their names/backgrounds helped A LOT.

And the number of pay drivers is huge. Maldonado for one, he's not even SAFE to drive half the time.

People like Vettel, Raikkonen, Hakkinen...I've read so many interviews where they talk about how much their parents helped them. Raikkonen's family had an outside toilet and they didn't convert to an indoor one when they had the money, because they spent the money on karts for their sons instead, because they knew their careers were going somewhere.

Would they have done that for daughters? I dunno, I don't know the Raikkonens personally (although, Kimi, if you're a Mumsnetter, HEY BABY, I AM UP FOR IT ANY TIME ANY PLACE) but it seems less likely, doesn't it? When you know she'll probably never make it?

And like others have said, boys play with cars. Then they graduate to the real thing.

And like fuck are we not strong enough. Have you seen most racing drivers? Sorry but they aint huge muscly guys. They're skinny, they have to be. Interestingly Vettel weighs exactly the same as Zoe Smith, the Olympic weightlifter so tell me how that works if women can't be strong enough.

Eh, long post. My two fav topics, feminism and F1. I hope we get the first woman champion in my lifetime.

Media, PR and sponsorship management in F1 are headed up by some very clever, smart women. Today's recent and current F1 drivers are saying its possible for women to compete because they won't want to piss them off. IME, what they say and what they think are very different and more along Bernie and Sir Stirling's ideas.

Poisonous shit! Love it!

oh can I join the MN F1 team we will show Bernie and Stirling Moss the dinosaurs

Both male chauvinist pigs, its interesting that recent and current F1 drivers are saying its possible for women to compete

He really is a poisonous shit isn't he?

HullMum 'Fraid so. Maybe he had an actual phobia of breasts and didn't know how to express it nicely and I have uncharitably mistaken for blatant misogyny

DeepRedBetty if you want to start Team MN Racing in F1, then bear in mind Bernie's thoughts:

"You know I've got one of those wonderful ideas, (women drivers) should be dressed in white like all the other domestic appliances"

or

"She would have to be a woman who was blowing away the boys. What I would really like to see happen is to find the right girl, perhaps a black girl with super looks, preferably Jewish or Muslim, who speaks Spanish."

Right... who's up for starting Team MN Racing? We only need to find several hundred million pounds!

its got tits?

grimbletart Having heard a mech refusing to strap in a female driver, saying "I ain't touching that, it's got tits", the 'moods and boobs' quote doesn't surprise me!

Seems like he changed his mind according to the same interview. At one time he allegedly said they wouldn't do F1 because they were all "moods and boobs"

Now he is saying "that was a long time ago...."

So for that but for changing his mind (unless of course he was desperately trying to extricate himself from his real view...)

Quote from Jenson Button in GQ mag. interview asked about women in F1.

"JB: I don't think they ever get the chance, from an early age. Women don't get the same opportunities that men get in racing, so they don't get to learn race craft."

David Coulthard

David coulthard has commented on this is the past - found this quote 'He said: ‘There’s no reason at all why women should not race with men. There’s no physical or reaction reason. It just hasn’t happened because more boys get in to it and through that process, it ends up being more men.’

I read this recently after it was reported about his sister dying. He'd also commented elsewhere that his sister was a better driver than he was.

Fuck right off stirlin'

It didn't make any sense anyway. I think he lacks the mental skills to put together a coherent thought.

He said they have the strength but not the mental attitude. Actually we all agree they don't have the same strength (on average) as men. As for mental attitude, he seemed to be alluding to the fear factor. Has he ever given birth? Stupid arse.

As for unwillingness to take risk, it actually seems to be rather a low risk sport these days judging by the mortality rates. I'd wager horse riding in which women seem to participate at least as much as men (at least outside of the racing circuit) is more dangerous. And again, the biggest risk I've ever taken in my life (other than ordinary risks like crossing the road which we cannot avoid)? Giving birth.

LRD I don't know - when I was little I preferred playing with Matchbox cars and horses rather than dolls - was always just interested in cars and bought the fastest ones I could afford from my student days onwards. Once I got to take one on a track...then I learnt what a true adrenaline rush was.
I never went Karting as a child so I'll never make F1! However I'll hopefully win something, somewhere.....

Afraid IMHO the documentary last night about Susie Wolff didn't further the cause for women in F1, film was made by her brother and wasn't much better than watching someones boring holiday video ..... very little of real interest or depth discussed.

That's an hour of my life I wont get back sign . She has only got to where she is at Williams because of her husband.

' It's all about aptitude, support and exposure which has nothing to do with gender ' - This. What flatmum said.

In order to be good at F1 racing you generally have to have proved yourself at a young age; making a name through the karting championships and the lower Formulas. The vast majority of youngsters showing an interest in making a hobby out of kart-racing are male because cars are still seen as a boys' toy. Until all toys become gender non-specific, we're always going to have a male-dominated race-course (and the same can be said for SO many gender-biased professions - our culture/society is teaching our children that little boys become doctors, lawyers, police officers, pilots, racing drivers, knights, firemen etc and little girls become nurses, princesses, fairies, host tea parties...)

Monisha Kaltenborn has been around for years. Once saw her approached by a man who assumed that she was a hospitality worker, asked her where the toilet was and if she could fill his coffee whilst he was gone. The look on her face was priceless...

At least women have the mental aptitude to not step into an empty lift shaft ! Stupid man .

Interesting to see that within the last 6 months two women have been appointed to senior positions in F1 - Monisha Kaltenborn as principal of the Sauber team and Claire Williams as deputy principal of the Williams team.

OK, not drivers, but I think it is signs of a change in mindset.

Oooh! Me first!

So how did you get into it (if you don't mind me asking?). Were you into karting when you were little, or was it something that happened later? I am always a bit jealous of people with this talent as I'd love to have it but have absolutely no spatial awareness so would never be able to fling a car round corners with panache.

Haha - high speed passenger ride applications accepted!