“I don’t see a girl in F1 in the next 5 years,” Stefano Domenicali makes an eyebrow-raising but realistic statement about women’s participation in the sport
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F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali
Only 5 women have ever driven in a Grand Prix, two of them have ever started one, Maria Teresa de Filippis and Lella Lombardi, and only one of them, Lombardi, has ever scored points. There have been women in development or test driver roles, and very recently as well, with Susie Wolff, Tatiana Calderon, and Jaime Chadwick being perhaps the most notable ones.
There has been some progress towards increasing the presence of women in Formula 1 and related events, especially with the inception of the W series, but the racing series is fairly new, having only been started back in 2019. Obviously, it will take some time to get women consistently into Formula 1.
A few weeks ago, Lewis Hamilton had visited the W series paddock. He had said that there is no progression from the W series and asked for a clear pathway into F2 and Formula 1. He concluded by saying: “We can definitely do a lot more to support those girls.” But, Stefano Domenicali, CEO of Formula 1 group, thinks that it is unlikely that there will be a female F1 driver in the sport for at least five years.
Stefano Domenicali: There is a need to improve the system
As quoted by the UK newspaper Metro, Stefano Domenicali thinks that while they are committed to giving women better opportunities and get them into Formula 1, there is still some work to do on that front. The problem seems to lie at the grassroots levels, in karting, where there are just not enough girls. On this, Domenicali said: “We believe that it is crucial in this moment to try to give the maximum possibility to women to come to Formula One.”
He believes it is important to give opportunities for girls to start competing at the same age as the boys: “We believe that for girls to be at 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.”
He further added: “So we are working on that to see what we can do to improve the system. And you will see soon some action.” but talking frankly, he said: “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.”
Domenicali concluded by saying that the aim that the organizers are working on is for them to ‘build up the right parameters with the right approach’ and for women to gradually start to race against men at (relatively) the right age, and in the right cars. While it is likely that we will see women in Formula 1 in the future, it may not be any of the many women racing drivers we currently know of.
Also Read: “There will be no more races in Russia,” Stefano Domenicali seals the fate of the Russian GP in F1
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