Formula One CEO Calls Women Participation In F1 Races 'Unlikely' And Unrealistic

Stefano Domenicali, the CEO of F1 does not see women participating in F1 races in near future. He said that he does not expect the change to happen soon as it would take time for them to prepare women racers for full fledged competition against men.

Though there are many women racers in the world, not many of them have been seen competing actively in F1 races and against men. Important efforts have been made in order to increase participation and discover talented racers to train them for F1 races but still there have been little to no progress in the field. Talking about the lack of women participation in the sport, the CEO of F1, Stefano Domenicali, said that he believes that there is still a lot of work to be done in that area. He further adds that it is important that women are trained carefully and given better opportunities in order to come up and compete in F1 races around the world.

Formula One CEO On Women Participation In F1

Domenicali talked about the aspect of the possibility and reportedly said, "Realistically speaking, I don’t see - unless something that will be like a sort of meteorite coming into the earth - a girl in Formula 1 in the next five years. That is very unlikely, I need to be realistic". He added that they are dedicated to provide proper opportunities to women racers to transit to F1 but it requires right approach, gradual advancement, the right age and the right car to make that happen.

F1 has only seen two women car racers compete in F1 World Racing Championship Grand Prix. The first one was Maria Teresa de Filippis, a 32-year-old racer from Naples, Italy who qualified for three races of Grand Prix in late 1950's but could not score any championship points. The other one was Lella Lombardi who is the only women in racing history to score points in Grand Prix. She grabbed 12th position in the Austrian Grand Prix of 1976 and scored half a point in Spanish Grand Prix in 1975. Since then, the only women to race in F1 was Susie Wolff in 2014 and 2015 F1 racing season as a test driver for Williams.

Domenicali said that though F1 promotes professional car racing for women through their W series, they have a long way to go before competing in F1 and that they are working to make that happen.

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