F1 News: Danica Patrick Delivers F1 Academy Criticisms
Sky Sports F1 presenter Danica Patrick has delivered some criticism of the all-female racing series, the F1 Academy, which is working to give young women a platform and career path to get to the top of motor racing.
During an appearance on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, Patrick was asked about the prospect of developing female drivers.
The presenter didn't hold back with her response, explaining:
"You're assuming I want that, you're assuming that is important to me. It's not.
"It's always an interesting stance I have on it. What makes the sport really popular is great racing - you can have half the field out there, women, and have it be follow the leader. It's not going to be interesting to watch.
"Good racing, and that's what we have so much of these days in Formula 1, pretty much everything other than Max is a toss-up for who's going to be second, third, fourth, fifth that weekend, and so that's what makes it really appealing.
"As someone who was a girl, you've just got to come up like normal."
The F1 Academy will be completing the final round of the first year at the Austin Grand Prix. Patrick went on to confess she doesn't completely agree with the all-female racing series. She continued:
"I do have a bit of, not a criticism, but an opinion about female series. It's fine, it can give opportunity for some who might not get a chance otherwise to show what they can do, but at the end of the day, you're going to have to race against guys.
"When you watch golf, you watch that a lot of times, a golfer that's maybe not ranked as high, will rise to the occasion with whoever he's golfing with, and I think that tends to happen in all sports.
"That's why you see some of the best wanting to practice and be with the best, because then they get better. If you bench yourself off something that's not the best, then it's going to affect your effort level, your mental goal, what you envision yourself doing.
"So you really have to put yourself in the toughest situations and you might as well do it early because it's only going to get harder."
Patrick added:
"Giving proper tests, to be able to see if a female driver is fast enough, is a great way to know if there should be a next step forward.
"But beyond that, they should be racing with the guys, I think racing in the same series, and they've just got to get people around them that believe in them.
"I think the more times that you put yourself in a position to show what you can do, the better off you are, and it's better to be in the car than not.
"So I think just more cars, more track time and more opportunities to show what you can do is just always a good thing."
Although Patrick makes the point that women should just race with men, which is the end goal and the majority will agree with her, it is clearly not that simple. Initiatives like the F1 Academy provide young women with the path to get to the top of motorsport and also encourages them that there is a place for them to start. Unfortunately, the reality is that F1 as well as F2, F3 and so on, are still male-dominated. It is not a change that will come overnight.
Patrick has achieved incredible things as a woman in motorsport such as being the first woman to win an IndyCar series race and to secure a pole position in NASCAR. However, sometimes it seems her comments do not come across as she intends them.