Stupid question from someone not into this sport at all. Why is there a division between men and women in this sport if the thing “actually” competing is a genderless vehicle?
As the other person posted no rules against, it’s all opportunity and money. This is a rich persons sport. Drivers have to pretty much supply their own sponsors through all the lower racing series into F1. Like it or not, young girls are not often pushed into racing. These drivers start young, like 8-13. Folks definitely need to see they can do something to believe they can do something so the W series hopefully helped with that.
I believe that Hamilton Commission and Mission 44 are working towards addressing these issues of access for minority and disadvantaged folks. It’s a long road though due to money, sexism, and racism.
There’s nothing in the rules stopping women compete in F1 or the lower categories, it’s just that it’s such a male dominated sport. The idea behind W series was to put a spotlight on women in motorsport and hopefully generate interest and ultimately get more women / girls partaking in the more junior categories / karting.
The same reason why E-Sport and Chess have women’s only leagues. One reason is to just showcase to young girls that there are female athletes in the sport. Having role models is super important for attracting new girls into the sport. And it also makes it easier to connect with other women in the sport. If they are scattered over the multitude of lower Series, there might be 1 or 2 women in a competition. This makes it very hard to build a network of people who go through the same as you.
Having a female-only competition also creates a “safer” space. The amount of hate women get is well above what young boys face. Having some female-only tournaments gives girls and women a place to compete with less discrimination.
But there are/were also some technical reasons. Most cars are built around the average male physique. And the design makes it harder for smaller drivers. Especially steering wheel size is an issue. Support series often lack power steering, and then trying to control the car with a steering wheel that is too big makes it harder. The W series has steering wheels that accommodate female drivers better. Formula 2 listened to these complaints and made some changes to the 2024 season to accommodate smaller drivers more.
the thing “actually” competing is a genderless vehicle
I don’t think this is 100% true though. F1 drivers must be very fit to tolerate ~2 hours of high G forces. I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility that male drivers can tolerate that easier than female drivers.
Unfortunately your argument doesn’t hold out. There are something like 5-10% women air force pilots in the US, and I’m sure as hell they can tolerate the Gs if they pilot them, in an otherwise very male dominated industry. Yet F1 sits on a big fat 0 percent. So it’s pointless to argue biology when there’s a very clear sign that a bigger factor maybe something else at the moment.
firstly, not all Air Force pilots must pull heavy Gs for two hours straight. And it’s not just a matter of “tolerating” the Gs, but tolerating them while operating an F1 car as precisely as the other drivers. The more strength and endurance a driver has the easier that will be.
Secondly, there are like 20,000+ Air Force pilots, so there is way more opportunity there. Do you think if they hand picked the 30 best fighter pilots any would be women? Or alternatively, if we looked at the top 20,000 motorsport drivers, maybe there would be 5% women.
lastly, I’m not saying it’s ONLY biology, of course there are additional factors involved as well.
Motorsport is wildly socially conservative. Think billionaires in European castles. As recently as 2005 the person running Formula 1 at the time, said “You know I’ve got one of those wonderful ideas … women should be dressed in white like all the other domestic appliances.”
Roughly: it’s wildly regressive relative to social norms today. I thought formula W was a mistake, but they had good intentions.
Stupid question from someone not into this sport at all. Why is there a division between men and women in this sport if the thing “actually” competing is a genderless vehicle?
As the other person posted no rules against, it’s all opportunity and money. This is a rich persons sport. Drivers have to pretty much supply their own sponsors through all the lower racing series into F1. Like it or not, young girls are not often pushed into racing. These drivers start young, like 8-13. Folks definitely need to see they can do something to believe they can do something so the W series hopefully helped with that.
I believe that Hamilton Commission and Mission 44 are working towards addressing these issues of access for minority and disadvantaged folks. It’s a long road though due to money, sexism, and racism.
There’s nothing in the rules stopping women compete in F1 or the lower categories, it’s just that it’s such a male dominated sport. The idea behind W series was to put a spotlight on women in motorsport and hopefully generate interest and ultimately get more women / girls partaking in the more junior categories / karting.
The same reason why E-Sport and Chess have women’s only leagues. One reason is to just showcase to young girls that there are female athletes in the sport. Having role models is super important for attracting new girls into the sport. And it also makes it easier to connect with other women in the sport. If they are scattered over the multitude of lower Series, there might be 1 or 2 women in a competition. This makes it very hard to build a network of people who go through the same as you.
Having a female-only competition also creates a “safer” space. The amount of hate women get is well above what young boys face. Having some female-only tournaments gives girls and women a place to compete with less discrimination.
But there are/were also some technical reasons. Most cars are built around the average male physique. And the design makes it harder for smaller drivers. Especially steering wheel size is an issue. Support series often lack power steering, and then trying to control the car with a steering wheel that is too big makes it harder. The W series has steering wheels that accommodate female drivers better. Formula 2 listened to these complaints and made some changes to the 2024 season to accommodate smaller drivers more.
I don’t think this is 100% true though. F1 drivers must be very fit to tolerate ~2 hours of high G forces. I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility that male drivers can tolerate that easier than female drivers.
Unfortunately your argument doesn’t hold out. There are something like 5-10% women air force pilots in the US, and I’m sure as hell they can tolerate the Gs if they pilot them, in an otherwise very male dominated industry. Yet F1 sits on a big fat 0 percent. So it’s pointless to argue biology when there’s a very clear sign that a bigger factor maybe something else at the moment.
firstly, not all Air Force pilots must pull heavy Gs for two hours straight. And it’s not just a matter of “tolerating” the Gs, but tolerating them while operating an F1 car as precisely as the other drivers. The more strength and endurance a driver has the easier that will be.
Secondly, there are like 20,000+ Air Force pilots, so there is way more opportunity there. Do you think if they hand picked the 30 best fighter pilots any would be women? Or alternatively, if we looked at the top 20,000 motorsport drivers, maybe there would be 5% women.
lastly, I’m not saying it’s ONLY biology, of course there are additional factors involved as well.
Thank you for completely missing my point, have a nice day.
thank you for your eloquent explanation and honest engagement with my points. have a nice day.
Motorsport is wildly socially conservative. Think billionaires in European castles. As recently as 2005 the person running Formula 1 at the time, said “You know I’ve got one of those wonderful ideas … women should be dressed in white like all the other domestic appliances.”
Roughly: it’s wildly regressive relative to social norms today. I thought formula W was a mistake, but they had good intentions.