Quote Originally Posted by AndyL View Post
It would be, but it's never going to happen as long as the numbers at the entry level of motorsport are so low.

As an example I just looked through a programme from a BTCC meeting this year. The number of young women in the entry level formulae (Ginetta Junior, F4 and Clio Cup) is 2 out of 56. How many of those 56 are going to make it into higher formulae like BTCC itself, or British/Euro F3? 5-10%? It's improbable that one of the 2 women will be in that top 10%, which is why the number of women in those 3 higher championships I mentioned goes down to 1 in 75. Then maybe the top 5% at the national level might have a chance of pushing on to lower international level, and 5% of those might make it to the highest international level. The probability that one of those few women at the entry level is still left in the 5% of the 5% of the 5% becomes vanishingly small.

You won't see a female driver doing well in F1 until a decade after there are a good 20% female drivers at the basic entry level. If you're expecting a female champion to inspire grass-roots participation, then you're putting the cart before the horse. The grass-roots participation needs to be inspired before the champion will be found.
I agree actually. I hope it improves in the future with the exposure that Suzie Woolf has given female in F1 in recent times. I don't think anyone is asking for the standard to be dropped to allow women to race in F1. My argument is F1 should wait for the right level of women to arrive into F1 in due course by leaving the door wide open. A female only series would certainly shut that door as who in their right mind would place a female only champion in an F1 seat where she would be battling with ferocious hardened male racers. It would take time, so the door should patiently be left ajar for when they arrive.