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Does anyone know if the prize money has to be put towards a single-seater drive for the following season?

Because if not, I can envisage a scenario where one of the sportscar girls nicks it and then puts the money into a better sportscar drive instead. Or maybe Decker buys herself a few races in Trucks.

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Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

Decker is rubbish. Had a Venturi ARCA driver and only got a pole on a superspeedway.

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Follow me on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/135625678@N06/

We're looking at this too much from the angle of actual fans who know how motorsports work, and who know that women have their place in the current series and are welcome and respected amongst men when they show performance and ability.

But put yourselves in the public opinion's perspective for a moment. Normal people don't compare laptimes and car performance. Normal people only see the current male/female ratio, and they all still have the (false!!!) long-lasting preconceived idea that it's a macho "man's sport". Of course, the more motivated, more driven women just go past those mental blocks and race anyway, but you can see how that may intimidate young girls who may grow a slight interest in the sport (and their families), putting them off of even thinking it's a career they could pursue. They'd have a whole field of idols racing every year, rather than having to wait for that one Danica every 10 years.

I think that if this series happens, it will make headlines and raise interest in motorsports among that demographic and their families, with the results of mechanically and statistically drawing more talented women racers in the sport. And even if it doesn't help, I don't believe it will do any harm at all. Professional team owners of established series already know what they're doing.

All I can think of is that they’re trying to create inclusion by starting with segregation. That contradiction doesn’t make sense to me.

Good luck to them.

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BTCC Pick Em's Champion 2010
Formula Fun Cup Champion 2013
http://www.the-fastlane.co.uk

Starting a program similar to that of Red Bull Juniors or The Racing Steps Foundation, otherwise what this series will unfortunately do is turn itself into a sideshow at the racing events it will participate at.

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BTCC Pick Em's Champion 2010
Formula Fun Cup Champion 2013
http://www.the-fastlane.co.uk

Yes @Scotty, it will make it more difficult for other women to progress. You see the winner of this will be gifted a drive and will probably fail (let's face it, there are more talented women NOT on the list than there is), that will look bad. Then on the flip side, you've got the women who didn't enter this trying to make it alone will be treated as second class drivers and the attitude will be, why didn't you get picked for Formula W, were you not good enough?

As @

kals says, it's demanding inclusion by creating segregation, and if you think 'segregating women off into their own series' is remotely compatible with the Femanist philosophy then you're seriously misled. Again, as kals says, start a racing steps type foundation and push women up the ranks that way, separating them off won't do them or others trying to make it on their own any favours at all.

As for alternatives, there isn't any because they shouldn't exist, men don't get special treatment whilst progressing through the ranks, could you imagine if M-Series came along under the same conditions? People would loose their shit big time and you'd probably be complaining it wasn't inclusive enough, I'm all for inclusion of women, but on a level playing field, not one that ultimately, will make it more difficult for them long term (even if the short term bullshit promotion may appear to make things easier).

Those are sports with physiological factors that make it unrealistic to have men and women compete on a level playing field. Motorsports is far less dependent on brute strength (and Ian I know your wife vouches for the fact boobies get in the way but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that's not a major factor for professional female drivers) and there's no real physiological reason women can't compete with men on the race track.

A better comparison to draw would be horse racing, and Michelle Payne sure didn't have much difficulty competing against the men there.

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Yeah I guess it does depend on the size of them and well, some guys have bigger boobies than some female racers (yes, looking at you Seb).

But at the end of the day I don't have boobies, and the two people I know well enough to have an adult conversation with about it, both said they were in agony after a few laps in a single seater as a result of them being so squashed up so I'll respectfully take first hand experience over going out on a limb.

Side discussion about boobies (my inner 12yo is giggling, but I'm serious about this one): I saw in a documentary that in road cars, the chest strap could be made larger to dissipate more on a larger area, but wasn't because it needs to adapt to more morphologies and in particular to women chests. Maybe now for single seaters they could think about 6-point harnesses in "X" shape or whatever, that could be more women friendly (if it's even possible)?

To draw a parallel with the world of mountain bikes, which I know a bit more about, back in the time all manufacturers used to just sell women the same bike geometry as men, just in smaller sizes. But as the women public started growing, and the industry learned more about the importance of a precise geometry adapted to the rider, they started studying more the actual differences between men and women average morphology, limb size, etc..., and developed actual women bikes with dedicated frames and geometries.
I like this approach because rather than just blindly ignoring the differences between men and women in favor of equality, it's a better step forward IMO to acknowledge them respectfully, with the aim of ultimately becoming more inclusive. Maybe this series can spark a similar move forward towards women-oriented seats and straps (or not - maybe this was already attempted and there's no solution to it, motorsports is way older than MTB after all).

maybe chassis developers could look for solutions found in parachutes or something like that

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Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

Talent will rise to the top one way or another. I'm not sure that women who don't compete is this series will have a harder time finding quality drives than the ones who so. If they really are good, they'll find their place.

As for boobies... Well... Boobies. I love boobies. The "X" belt I'm not so sure of. I think it might concentrate the impact load where the "X" is instead of spreading it out which would be bad. However, I'm not sure.

Hitech have been named to run the full programme, including engineers and pit crews.

More info about the qualifiers: They'll be later this month at the Wachauring (which is some sort of hybrid test/race track in Austria), overseen by Alex Wurz and some new names have been called up:

Alessandra Brena, 23, Italy - last seen in the Seat Leon cup

Francesca Linossi, 26, Italy - Lamborghini Super Trofeo

Lyubov Andreyeva, 22, Kazakhstan - couldn't find much on her, raced in Formula Masters Russia

Gosia Rdest, 25, Poland - GT4 Europe, class winner in the Dubai 24h

Inès Taittinger, 28, France - VdeV series, raced at the 2016 24h of Le Mans

Alexandra Whitley, 25, Australia - New Zealand V8 Utes race winner

We are down from 55 to 28!

https://www.autosport.com/other/news/14 ... -selection

Carmen Jorda didn't make the cut (TBK in ruins!).

Full list:

Sarah Bovy (Belgium)
Jamie Chadwick (UK)
Sabre Cook (US)
Natalie Decker (US)
Marta Garcia (Spain)
Megan Gilkes (Canada)
Grace Gui (China)
Esmee Hawkey (UK)
Jessica Hawkins (UK)
Shea Holbrook (US)
Francesca Linossi (Italy)
Vivien Keszthelyi (Hungary)
Emma Kimilainen (Finland)
Natalia Kowalska (Poland)
Stephane Kox (Netherlands)
Miki Koyama (Japan)
Milou Mets (Netherlands)
Sarah Moore (UK)
Tasmin Pepper (South Africa)
Vicky Piria (Italy)
Alice Powell (UK)
Gosia Rdest (Poland)
Naomi Schiff (Belgium)
Shirley Van Der Lof (Netherlands)
Beitske Visser (Netherlands)
Alexandra Whitley (Australia)
Fabienne Wohlwend (Liechtenstein)
Caitlin Wood (Australian)

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07.04.1968 - Flower of Scotland when will we see your like again?
01.05.1994 - We'll never forget...

BUT SHE WAS AN F1 DRIVER

Grace Gui is fooken cute. I will be rooting for her.

Apparently she decided to not show up.

Next test is in March in Almeria.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtM-3nUgWwk/

Some rather interesting selection processes, if this is accurate.

(tl;dr - one of the unsuccessful drivers claims that they were 5th out of 54 in one of the driving challenges but was still unsuccessful in being chosen)

Another interesting point I have seen elsewhere - the organisers don't seem to have considered the damage that they could do to the careers of the unsuccessful applicants if they aren't making it clear to those applicants why they failed (as in the example above).

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Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

And somehow she still be in

It's Marla hooch from A League Of Their Own all over again

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