London - Bernie Ecclestone needs a strong reality check. The year is 2016.
Published: Wed 20 Apr 2016, 2:39 PM
Last updated: Wed 20 Apr 2016, 5:05 PM
The most powerful man in the motor racing world, 85-year-old Bernie Ecclestone has just made the most explosive statement when it comes to women racers. According to the F1 Supremo, "women will never be taken seriously as drivers because they aren't strong enough."
Formula One has not had a woman driver start a grand prix since 1976 and Ecclestone has garnered attention before for comments on women in racing. The then 74-year-old told Autosport racing magazine in February 2000 that women would never excel in Formula One. He added that if a woman did make it, "she would have to be a woman who was blowing away the boys. ... 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."
The F1 boss made his controversial comments at an advertising conference in London this week. In addition to his statement on women he also added that Russian president Vladimir Putin "should be running Europe" and expressed support for US presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Bernie Ecclestone needs a strong reality check. The year is 2016 and there have been plenty of women who have been successful in motor racing. Across the Atlantic in the US, women have had great success in motor racing. We're sure he's heard about Danica Patrick to whom he had to apologise for an earlier disparaging remark on women in motor racing.
Like the Daily Beast points out "Ecclestone, who is 5-foot-2, has never been a professional athlete or driven competitively, even though he is the same height as Danica Patrick, the first woman to win an Indy series race."
British driver Pippa Mann, who has competed four times in the Indianapolis 500 and is a race winner in the US Indy Lights series, also fired back immediately on Twitter.
At a time when Carmen Jorda, development driver for Renault and Suzy Wolff, former test driver for Williams have made great strides as women drivers in F1, it calls to question on whether maybe Bernie Ecclestone needs to be more open minded on the inclusion of women in the elite sport.
Scottish driver Suzy Wolff spent three years involved in test and development work for the Williams team and was the first woman to take part in a grand prix weekend for more than 20 years, when she drove in four practice sessions over the 2014 and 2015 seasons.
In 2012, she said rubbished the claim that women can't be good racers because of their lack of strength. "We have 30% less muscle so we have to work hard, but there's no reason why females can't get strong enough to race an F1 car," she said.
However this is not the first time Ecclestone has made such comments. One of Ecclestone's more infamous quotes came when Danica Patrick first rose to prominence in the US following a fourth place finish in the 2005 Indianapolis 500, where Ecclestone said, "You know, I've got one of these wonderful ideas that women should all be dressed in white like all the other domestic appliances."
Female drivers in F1
Maria Teresa de Filippis: 5 races (1958-69), 3 starts - 0 points
Lella Lombardi: 17 races (1974-76), 12 starts - 0.5 points
Divina Galica: 3 races (1976 & 78), 0 starts (did not qualify)
Desire Wilson: 1 race (1980), 0 starts (did not qualify)
Giovanna Amati: 3 races (1992), 0 starts (did not qualify)
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