f1fan

From what I have seen of the series, she's done quite well for herself, some good results. So I don't think she would be a failure in Formula 1.

oldcanuck

Its one thing to race mainly on ovals with cars that could be equated to a B1 bomber, quite another to compete on road courses were she has never competed (even during her British FF stint) driving something the equivalent of the latest jet fighter.

gordon

Do you all think that she will really try to make the move? I didn't know that she did a bit of time with British FF. I think she'll have to decide soon, either way.

speedydemon

I don't understand what the problem is with her. Everyone seems to be very harsh and judgmental about her skills and racing abilities. I would think it would be very hard for a female driver.

oldcanuck

I'm not questioning her skills, they are however better suited for oval racing than road courses and the similarities betwen an IRL and an F1 car ends pretty much at the fact they are both open wheel racers with rear engines. Danica does not have any experience in F1 or any of the circuits F1 competes. She was scheduled for a Honda F1 test at the end of 2008, this was canceled when Honda stepped out of F1.
However I reserve my biggest critisism towards Danica for her overblown ego that has led to a number of incidents in the pits with other drivers, notably Milka Dunno and Dan Wheldon. I'm not saying that she was necessarily wrong, just the way she handled the situations and lets face it, no other IRL drivers have been in open confrontation with other driver as often as she has.
Her constant exposure in swimsuit pictures don't help her image as a serious racer either.
While there is a number of male drivers with huge ego, most of them don't wear it on their sleeve and yes, there have been a few "physical" incidents (Paul Tracy, Sebastien Bourdais comes to mind) between male drivers over the years, but I don't recall any male driver almost always plastered somewhere wearing only a speedo (maybe I'm just not looking in the right or wrong place as the case might be).
To her credit, she seems to have toned down her notorious temper this year.
But thats all just my personal opinion.

gordon

I think you hit it right on the nose, oldcanuck. Her ego does seem to be the biggest problem about her racing and her swimsuit appearances make it harder to take her seriously.

speedy

I find nothing wrong with the swimsuit appearances, not just because I am a bloke, give her chance, she may surprise a lot of people.

speedydemon

I wonder if other sports have this same sort of strong, negative response when female athletes participate. It seems like a no win sort of situation to me.

oldcanuck

It has nothing to do with being female or male, its a question of skills and experience. I have nothing against Danica Patrick, but I stand by my opinion that she would be ill suited for F1, I also have expressed reservations about her driving in NASCAR, most drivers coming from other series have failed at NASCAR, Dario Franchiti (who is no slouch, when it comes to driving) being a prime example, just as Bourdais failed in F1, after dominating Champcar for years, Michael Andretti was out of F1 before his first season at McLaren was over.
I have a great deal of admiration for some female drivers, Katherine Legge being one and Sarah Fisher being another, they just aren't as flashy and temperamental as Danica and I'd take a Janet Guthrie (in her prime) over Danica any days.
Just for the record, I have competed in car rallies and races where there where female drivers and played with and against women in ice hockey, I have never judged a competitor for their gender, only by their skill.
When I first got involved with marshaling at races in Canada, female marshals were frowned upon, when I was Chief Course Marshall at Gimli Motorsport Park in the early seventies, I had a number of female marshals and it fact for a number of years my sister was the starter and she eventually did race herself.

RainbowWarrior

Actually, I think she's done great in IndyCar. She's middle of the pack, but that's better than 50% of the guys, so she deserves to race.