A METEORITE would need to hit earth for there to be a woman in F1 in the next five years, says the sport’s boss Stefano Domenicali.
While saying that motorsport has taken several steps to include more women, he admits they have a long way to go.
Many have been calling for female British driver Jamie Chadwick to receive a seat in at least Formula Two or Formula Three.
The 24-year-old races in the all-women single-seater championship, the W Series, and has already won the championship twice since her debut in 2019.
The challenge for women like Chadwick to join the currently all-male series lies in sponsorship and funding for the seat, along with the current male dominance.
Domenicali claims that motorsport fans will soon start seeing more opportunities for female drivers in Formula Two and Formula Three.
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But he also admitted that it is highly unlikely that any woman will make it to Formula One in the next five years.
The F1 CEO said: “We believe that it is crucial in this moment to try to give the maximum possibility to women to come to Formula One.
“We believe that for girls to be the same level of competition with the guys they need to be at the same, or more or less the same, age when they can start to fight on the track at the level of Formula Two or Formula Three.
“So we are working on that to see what we can do to improve the system.
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“And you will see soon some action.
“Realistically speaking, I don’t see a girl in Formula One in the next five years unless something like a sort of meteorite comes into the Earth.
“That is very unlikely.
“But we want to build up the right parameters with the right approach, step by step, for them to start to race against the guys at the right age and in the right car.
“That’s what we’re working on.”
So far, there has only ever been two women that raced in F1: Maria Teresa de Filippis in 1958 and Lella Lombardi in 1975 and 1976.
In 2022, Alpine launched a programme called Rac(H)er in the aim of helping more women make it into F1.
The programme is spread over a span of eight years and amongst the drivers participating is Jamie Chadwick herself – who also forms part of the Williams drivers academy.
Alpine want to increase their female workforce to 30 per cent over the next five years from the current 12 per cent.
They also revealed how only 10 per cent of the F1 British-based teams’ workforce is female.
Jamie Chadwick told Sky Sports her views on why women are struggling to make it into the sport.
Among the reasons are the physical demands of Formula One and how naturally some women struggle with that.
She said: “The ultimate goal is to be in those Championships, ideally Formula Two and then Formula One.
“I don’t know what is actually possible.
“To get into Formula One you have to go through the feeder series – Formula Three and Formula Two – and it is extremely physical.
“Formula One is extremely physical, and we don’t know exactly what women are capable of in the sport.
“If you are aged 15 or 16, and go into car racing, without power steering and driving big heavy cars, a lot of women do struggle, even though they have been successful in go-karting.
“We like to think that women can make it – and I am happy to be the guinea pig and will do my best to push and explore the options to Formula One – but we don’t know.
“There hasn’t been a woman in the recent era that has done it.
“I am trying to understand whether that is to do with the physical side.
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“If it is physically possible, and women can compete against men, how do we make that happen?
“However, if it is physically too hard, but the sport wants women to compete, than we have got to bring it back and understand why.”
Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
