Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsOpinion

Female F1 driver 'wouldn't be taken seriously' - Ecclestone

Bernie Ecclestone believes a female F1 driver "wouldn't be taken seriously anyway" if they ever reached a race seat.

Susie Wolff recently retired from racing having driven for Williams in Friday practice sessions over the past two seasons, admitting she didn't believe there would be a female driver racing in Formula One any time soon. The last female to attempt to race in F1 was Giovanna Amati who failed to qualify for three races for Brabham at the start of the 1992 season.

Asked during an interview with TSN if he expects a female drive to make it on to the F1 grid, Ecclestone replied: "I doubt it.

"If there was somebody that was capable they wouldn't be taken seriously anyway, so they would never have a car that is capable of competing. There was a girl that was driving in GP3 for a whole season so it is not something that hasn't happened."

When asked if it was not going to happen in F1, Ecclestone, replied: "No. I don't think so."

Wolff recently launched an initiative aimed at getting more women in to motorsport, but insists the main focus is not on helping find a female driver to race in F1.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.