September 11th, 2010

Katherine Legge who tested with Minardi in 2005

The New York Times recently published an article titled: Is Elite Racing for Men Only? While the story didn’t come up with an answer, it did provide some interesting commentary.

According to the article, Lotus driver Heikki Kovalainen said that women are not strong enough to drive F1. Katherine Legge, former Champ Car driver and the last woman to test for F1, disagrees. “The forces [G-force] thing and the strength thing is absolutely 110 percent, categorical rubbish.” Legge went on to say “We just need to be given the opportunity.”

The article also mentions women working in F1 such as Monisha Kaltenborn, the Chief Executive of the Sauber team. Kaltenborn said that one of the team directors thought that she was Peter Sauber’s interpreter because he wasn’t used to seeing a woman with all the directors.

Then there’s Lisa Lilley, Shell Oil Technology Manager for Ferrari F1. She talked about being mistaken for a hostess and having to wear men’s team outfit because the only clothes they had for women were for the female hostesses.

Tina Vajanszki, a tire technician at Bridgestone, probably summed it up best. “It really doesn’t matter in the end if you are a man or a woman, as long as you do your job well.”