Suzie Woolf Quits F1

[AndyL]

But Andy, all the motorsport series you have listed are all mainly european dominated series. Most team bosses in these series are european, hence the female racers have to force their way through several layers of resistance to their place in any level of motorsport within the european domain.

And the point I am making is that the problem is not in any of those series. I don't believe that the barriers you're talking about exist. If there were women winning in GP2, GP3 or FR3.5, they would be in F1 like a shot. The sponsors would love it. And if there were women winning in national F3 or FF, they would get into the international series without a problem. But they simply aren't there.

Realistically only the top handful in a lower formula are lilkely to be good enough to progress through a higher formula. And when I look at the 2015 British kart championship standings, there are no girls near the top of the standings in any of the categories. So you cannot say there is a barrier in European racing at any level above that.

Why aren't the girls you're seeing at Buckmore Park going on to win the national kart championships? I'm not too familiar with kart racing so I can't answer that, perhaps you will have a better insight than I. But even at the national kart racing level, many of the winning drivers are privateers, not backed by professional teams. That's why I don't believe you can blame the institutions of motorsport, or teams or team bosses, for the fact that girls are not winning those championships, and therefore progressing through higher formulae.

My guess is the true explanation is twofold. First, even at the lowest level, the girls are still vastly outnumbered by the boys. So statistically, the most talented 0.1% are probably almost all boys. Not because they are any better on average, but because there are so many more of them entering. Secondly, I suspect that the families of the girl racers perhaps push them less hard than the families of some of the boys, because of lesser or different expectations.

I'm not suggesting that the problem "runs deep into the grassroots of european motor racing." I don't believe the problem is within motor racing at all. The great thing about racing is that it is very meritocratic. The problem is a more basic one within society as a whole.