{"id":2241585,"date":"2024-05-10T07:41:02","date_gmt":"2024-05-10T11:41:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/why-f1s-pipeline-for-female-drivers-is-a-fraud\/"},"modified":"2024-05-10T07:48:14","modified_gmt":"2024-05-10T11:48:14","slug":"why-f1s-pipeline-for-female-drivers-is-a-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/why-f1s-pipeline-for-female-drivers-is-a-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"The F1 Female Driver Pipeline: A Deceptive Scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhy-f1s-pipeline-for-female-drivers-is-a-fraud%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2241585&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The text discusses the\u200b failure of the &#8220;W Series&#8221;\u200b for female racers, leading to its replacement by the \u2063&#8221;F1\u200c Academy&#8221; program. Despite attempts at inclusivity, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/study-medicaid-data-casts-significant-doubt-on-abortion-as-essential-for-birth-spacing\/\" title=\"Study: Medicaid Data Casts Significant Doubt On Abortion As \u2018Essential\u2019 For Birth Spacing\">financial barriers<\/a> in motorsport remain \u2063a significant hurdle. Gender,\u200c physical demands, and high \u200dcosts \u2064limit the participation of women in Formula \u2064One, highlighting the sport&#8217;s deeper \u2064issues beyond mere token gestures. The\u2062 article delves into the collapse of the &#8220;W Series&#8221; for female drivers, which was succeeded by the &#8220;F1 Academy&#8221;\u200d initiative. Despite efforts towards diversity, economic obstacles in motorsport pose a major challenge. Gender disparities, physical requirements, and financial constraints hinder women&#8217;s involvement \u2064in Formula One, indicating systemic issues within the sport \u200cthat go beyond superficial gestures.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cStop trying to make \u2018fetch\u2019 happen. \u2026 It\u2019s not going to happen.\u201d That\u2019s what Regina George, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/girls\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>meanest girl<\/a> in 2004\u2019s <em>Mean Girls<\/em>, tells a hanger-on who is hoping to gain favor by coining a synonym for \u201ccool.\u201d While \u201cfetch\u201d never happened, the admonishing phrase certainly did, escaping the movie and becoming a meme for all the hoped-for but eventually hopeless things \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/google\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Google+<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/android\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Android<\/a> tablets \u2014 that the general public simply doesn\u2019t want. <\/p>\n<p>In October of 2022, the \u201cW Series,\u201d a free-to-enter, female-only open-wheel racing league using Formula 3 cars two levels below the F1 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/cars\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>cars<\/a> you see on <em>Drive to Survive<\/em>, canceled the rest of its season and declared bankruptcy. The raison d\u2019etre<em> <\/em>of the W Series had been somewhere between logically dubious and downright stupid. Its logic had been, in essence, this: <em>The only way to ensure women can compete against men at the highest levels of motorsport is to make sure they don\u2019t have to compete against men on the way there<\/em>. Much of the racing world looked at its failure and said something along the lines of \u201cStop trying to make women\u2019s-only pro racing happen. It\u2019s not going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>Tereza Bsbickova looks on prior to the W Series race qualification at the Miami International Autodrome in Miami Gardens, Florida on May 7, 2022. (David J. Griffin\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>That, however, didn\u2019t stop Formula One from immediately reenacting the W Series as something called \u201cF1 Academy.\u201d F1 Academy works like so: The relatively poky F3 cars of W Series have been replaced by even slower \u201cF4\u201d cars. They are the opening act for Formula 2, which in turn is the opening act for Formula One at several events. Each F1 team must \u201chire\u201d a female driver to drive in the series and put its livery on that driver\u2019s car. <\/p>\n<p>This is bizarre for a few reasons. There are already multiple F4 and Formula Regional leagues around the world. None of them prohibits female drivers, and most already have at least one woman participating on a regular basis. The gap from \u201cF1 Academy\u201d to F1 is roughly equivalent to the gap between middle school football and the NFL. The F4 cars themselves, although they look professional, are slower than many amateur race cars, including the \u201cRadical\u201d series driven by 12-year-old boys, your 52-year-old author, and many competitors who have long been collecting Social Security. On a full Formula One track, the cars are small and slow enough to look like they are merely pace-lapping. It\u2019s not compelling spectator material.<\/p>\n<p>Not that it really matters. F1 is no stranger to what may be fairly called performative wokeness. When they aren\u2019t busy printing money through lucrative deals with autocratic and conflict-ridden venues like Qatar, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/saudi-arabia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Saudi Arabia<\/a>, and Azerbaijan, the sport\u2019s directors adore<em> <\/em>cringe-worthy stunts like the mandatory \u201c#EndRacism\u201d driver T-shirts of 2020, or hiring a \u201csustainability director\u201d for a schedule that reportedly creates 256,551 tons of CO2 emissions per year. It\u2019s hard to imagine that F1\u2019s senior people see the Academy as anything but additional window dressing to distract from some unpleasant truths regarding their product.<\/p>\n<p>Chief among those truths is the fact that money, not gender, is the real barrier to entry in racing. It often costs well over a million dollars, starting around the age of five, to train a child to the point where he or she might be eligible for sponsorship besides the Bank of Mom and Dad. A season in F4, the destination for most 15-year-old prospects, costs a minimum of $150,000 but can soar to three times that. About half of the current F1 grid comes from wealth; the other half typically secured a long-term sponsor early on. Lando Norris, winner of the Miami Grand Prix, has a father who retired at 36 with a nine-figure net worth. Sergio Perez has a personal relationship with billionaire Carlos Slim via family connections. <\/p>\n<p>Another problem is the physical nature of Formula One itself. Jamie Chadwick, who won the W Series championship three times, has publicly questioned whether it\u2019s possible for women to drive the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dodge-ending-production-of-iconic-muscle-cars-to-push-forward-with-electric-vehicles\/\" title=\"Dodge Ending Production Of Iconic Muscle Cars To Push Forward With Electric Vehicles\">current cars<\/a> at their limit for an entire race, a sentiment echoed by a female former F1 test driver, Carmen Jorda. A study of female athletes showed that their average VO2 max, a measure of aerobic capacity and potential strength, was about half that of an F1 driver. Even the fittest men struggle at times. When F2 standout Oliver Bearman was unexpectedly drafted into an F1 race for Ferrari, he was unable to hold his head straight for 90 minutes of 5g cornering, and ended up denting the car\u2019s headrest surround with his uncontrolled helmet. This doesn\u2019t mean that there are no women capable of driving the car, of course, merely that fewer of them, by percentage, will have what it takes.<\/p>\n<p>Last but not least, there is the fact that although women make up 13% of competitive youth kart racers, only about half of them do any racing past karts. And the rate of attrition among female racers over time is higher than that of their male counterparts. Walk through any karting paddock and you\u2019ll quickly observe an open secret that somehow never makes it into the sports media: there are a lot of girls whose fathers all but force them to race karts, and those girls quit the moment they can make their own choices. This, too, reduces the pool of available Formula One prospects. <\/p>\n<p>Against these realities, you have the magical thinking of F1\u2019s polling, which tells them that more than 80% of their fans believe there will be female drivers in the sport within 10 years. Anything short of this outcome will be seen, however unreasonably, as discriminatory. Which explains much of F1 Academy, from the novice-friendly cars to the forced team affiliations that allow these lightly trained and credentialed drivers to dress, act, and post on social media like they are proper Formula One participants.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s obvious, therefore, that the real purpose of F1 Academy is to keep a multibillion-dollar business rolling along without interruption, rather than to actually create top-level opportunities for female drivers. The irony is that F1 Academy standouts may find themselves being compared, likely unfavorably, to women like Sophia Fl\u00f6rsch, who has scored points against men in the F3 series competing against men, and who called the W Series \u201ca step back on a sporting level\u201d upon its introduction.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Miss Fl\u00f6rsch is not alone. Your author is married to a female racer with multiple wins and series championships, all earned against men. She never misses an F1 race, but has zero interest in the Academy. \u201cWhat\u2019s the point of it? Racing against each other instead of the men they\u2019d see in Formula One? They should\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2026stop trying to make it happen?\u201d I suggested.<\/p>\n<p><em>Jack Baruth was born in Brooklyn, New York, and lives in Ohio. He is a pro-am <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/macho-fails-to-move\/\" title=\"\u2018Macho\u2019 Fails To Move\">race car driver<\/a> and a former columnist for <\/em>Road and Track <em>and <\/em>Hagerty <em>magazines who writes the <\/em>Avoidable Contact Forever <em>newsletter<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In &#8220;Mean Girls,&#8221; Regina George dismisses the attempt to popularize &#8220;fetch&#8221; as a synonym for &#8220;cool.&#8221; Despite its failure, her words became a viral meme, transcending the movie&#8217;s fame<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3131,"featured_media":2241586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/LA.sports-1024x591.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2241585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/LA.sports-1024x591.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2241585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2241585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2241585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2241586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2241585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2241585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2241585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}