“But in racing, we’re not dealing with peak strength,” When Danica Patrick tore down the claims that women aren’t strong enough for F1

Danica Patrick has a long history in racing as the first female driver to win an Indy car race and the first female to take the pole in a NASCAR Cup race. She also has the most female Top 10 finishes in the IndyCar and Cup Series history. Danica Patrick has unquestionably established herself as the best female racer in the sport’s history. She has accomplished milestones that many female racers before and after her are still working hard to achieve.

When Carmen Jorda, who was appointed to Former F1 development racer and FIA’s Women in Motorsport Commission 2017, made a controversial statement a year into her tenure where she claimed that there is a physical barrier that is holding female drivers from succeeding in F1 and F1, saying, “In Formula One and Formula Two, there is a barrier that is a physical issue. I think there is a big issue for women, and that’s why there aren’t any in those championships,”.

She was intently faced with strong criticism from around the motor racing scene as such a comment from a well-known women racer in a time when the Male dominated Motor Racing scene is trying to be more inclusive negatively affected all those efforts. Danica Patrick was among the most prominent drivers to call out the former racer and saw strong backing to her words from the public back then.

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Find out what Danica Patrick said

Danica Patrick pointed out that the natural structure of men and women is probably deceiving as men naturally, stature wise, strength, muscle mass wise, is much stronger than women.  She pointed out that when the strength between men and women is compared they are different.

“I think that the natural stature of a man versus a woman is probably what’s deceiving because men are naturally – stature wise, strength, muscle mass – they are stronger. When you take the peak strength of a man or a woman in the world, they’re going to be different,” Danica Patrick said.

Danica Patrick went on to point out that racing it’s not about peak strength it’s about endurance so the comparison of strength is less valid here. She added that the level of strength need to race is achievable all across the board and to succeed in racing the important thing is to remain relaxed behind the wheel which will make things much easier for racers to control the car.

“But in racing, we’re not dealing with peak strength. We’re dealing with endurance. We’re dealing with strength but mostly endurance of that, so that’s not necessary. The level of strength that you need is achievable across the board, so obviously, that’s just not true. And much of (success), too, comes from being relaxed behind the wheel and getting the car to handle for you, and then things also get a lot easier,” Danica Patrick added.

Do you think there is still truth in Danica Patrick’s arguments?

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