Bernie [Ecclestone] and Women in Formula One:
In the American Indy Car series, there have been notable women competitors like Janet Guthrie in the late 1970's and Lyn St. James in the 1990's and in the Year 2000, sprint car ace Sarah Fisher, all of 19 years old, will become a full-time driver in the Indy Racing League.
Formula One has not been as hospitable to women: the only woman to finish in the points was Lella Lombardi in 1975 who scored 1/2 of a point in a rain-shortened Spanish Grand Prix race full of accidents; more recently, a few women have been given chances to qualify a Formula One car but have been snake-bitten by having only lesser equipment available to them. While there are many women on the various Formula One teams in various support capacities, to date no women drivers. In recent memory, the most striking involvement of a woman in Formula One is the recent appearance of Supermodel Naomi Campbell on the arm of Supertec's Flavio Briatore at many Grands Prix! What does Bernie, father of two teen-age girls himself, think of the prospects for a woman driver in Formula One?
Bernie's views at first blush were disappointedly provincial and traditional but characteristically direct: "in all likelihood they will never get the opportunity because no one will ever take them seriously [or sponsor them financially] . . . therefore they're never ever going to get into a competitive race car." And besides, says Bernie, "where will they come from" since there is no existing pool of woman drivers to choose from?
When asked hypothetically, what if Oprah Winfrey, one of the world's wealthiest woman, ponied up the money to back a woman driver so that sponsorship was not the issue, what then? Still no dice: "Whoever she's got, it wouldn't make any difference . . . who is going to take a chance? Ferrari can't take a chance."
But then Bernie got to thinking about it and began warming to the theme, theorizing about the road a woman driver would have to travel to make it in Formula One, probably coming up through the ranks of Formula 3000. "She would have to be a woman who was blowing away the boys," he says, and, as he thought about it he finally settled on his perfect woman Formula One driver, obviously conjuring up in his mind a woman who looked like Naomi Campbell and drove like Michael Schumacher:
(**) "What I would really like to see happen is to find the right girl, perhaps a black girl with super looks, preferably Jewish or Muslim, who speaks Spanish."
But, unfortunately, he is not expecting that welcomed multicultural sight to emerge on the grid at Monaco anytime soon. Time will tell of course but on this point, I somehow suspect Bernie will be proved wrong and that the legacy of former Formula One drivers Maria Theresa de Filippis and Lella Lombardi will be taken up sooner than he expects by some teenage girl like a Sarah Fisher who is now somewhere in Europe, America or Brazil, learning how to drive a go-kart under her father's tutelage.
The entire interview with B E:
atlasf1.com
btw... this is a guy 70 years of age with a 42 year old wife that....
forbes.com
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(**)[wooooo I would like to meet her too -g-] |
