Danica in F1

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Not to knock Danica, but I don't know if she has the talent for F-1. I would hope that Kyle Busch is a candidate too along with Scott Speed. Both are young, and can drive the wheels off anything they get in.
 
The thing you have to remember about F1 is that as you are trying to drive one of the most challenging/demanding cars on the planet, it is trying to tear your body apart with vibration and G-forces ... for about 2 hours.

I don't think a petite woman could handle the stresses. She'd have to be built like a brick $#1TTer to handle the car ... a real steroid-testing candidate.

I love Danica, and wish her the best wherever she goes ... but c'mon, let's keep it real.
 
...."I don't know if it's something she wants to do. We'd certainly love to test her and go from there."

IMO this is just another cheap way of generating publicity for the new team and Danica. They're probably still trying to round-up financing and an American female driver (with the target-market sponsorship that follows her) is probably hard to overlook.
As for her realistic chances of ever getting through the first turn of an F-1 race, she should look at others who have "jumped" into the seat of an F-1 car (i.e. M.Andretti - great Champ Car driver, but just wasn't used to the level of competition in F-1.) Also, for those of us who remember "The Pass," ask Brian Herta just how aggressive former F1 drivers can be in a Champ car. These are by far the most talented and aggressive drivers in the world. Despite the PR releases, they probably don't hang-out together (unlike Nascar where they all seem to share the same set of grandparents (!)) since they usually don't even speak the same language. Check out Montoya - arrogant?, reclusive? maybe acts like God's gift to the world? Probably so, but it's that attitude and his driving skills that got him to the top of the heap (& I don't mean the Nascar semi-retirement program he's currently on.)
Anyway, here's to another great F1 season!
 
Originally Posted By: Nyquist
Scott Speed. Both are young, and can drive the wheels off anything they get in.


Um, he got his [censored] handed to him in Formula One! He's already been a Formula One driver.

I have a feeling he's going to be a chump in Nascar as well like Juan Pablo Montoya. Half the tire, half the downforce, and more then twice the weight with the same power of an F-1 car means it really does take quite a bit of skill to drive a heavy pig brick Nascar Nextel Cup car. Especially with all the rubbing and bumping.
 
Originally Posted By: Steve S
She is nicer to look at than any of the guy racers At least to me.


...and they know that. $$$
 
"[Scott Speed] got his [censored] handed to him in Formula One! He's already been a Formula One driver."

Drew, I think that's a bit harsh. When he got dumped, the broadcast team at Speed Channel put together an analysis that showed he had generally out-raced and out-qualified his teammate, Vitantonio Liuzzi. Not by a wide margin ... but some. So why was he dropped first? F1 politics. It always comes down to a sponsor's preference, the driver's country of origin or some such.

Sorry to see Scott Speed where he is. He should be in ALMS, Champ Car or the Rolex series.

Back to the OT, I agree that the Danica talk is just talk .... trying to generate buzz for the new US F1 team ... which is gonna need all the help they can get.

Driving an F1 car well is a tremendously difficult task .... something few can do ... even ordinarily talented drivers. See Top Gear host Richard Hammond try to drive the Renault F1 car from a few years ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGUZJVY-sHo

The video is nearly 10 minutes long ... but it is one of the best segments I have seen on Top Gear ... which is really saying something.
 
Originally Posted By: Bror Jace
The thing you have to remember about F1 is that as you are trying to drive one of the most challenging/demanding cars on the planet, it is trying to tear your body apart with vibration and G-forces ... for about 2 hours.

I don't think a petite woman could handle the stresses. She'd have to be built like a brick $#1TTer to handle the car ... a real steroid-testing candidate.

I love Danica, and wish her the best wherever she goes ... but c'mon, let's keep it real.


Don't forget that most of the men driving in F1 are petite men, about 120 to 130 pounders, usually about 5'-5" or 5'-6". She could, with physical training, handle the physical stresses. On the other hand, she has not lately exhibited any ability to be really competitive in the IRL. Her main asset to any American F1 team would be her ability to secure sponsors.
 
Speed ain't the driver Rowdy is but he's better than a bunch of them. Danica would be having to many 'discussions' with fellow F1 drivers if she were there.
 
1999nick, I am not sure you can compare a 130 pound man to a 130 pound woman in terms of strength and endurance. Yes, women could weight-train, etc ... but I still have to think the current F1 drivers, who are physically fit equivalent to Olympic athletes, are incredibly strong for these size .... not unlike Bruce Lee who was very light throughout much of his acting/martial arts career and a flyweight at the time of his early death.

I guess I'd like some stats about body weight, muscle mass, comparative endurance rates, typical strength thresholds, etc ... but i don't know who have have such data ... or who would make it public even if they did.

Who was the last woman in F1 ... Desiree Wilson? The South African? She had about a season's worth of races and best finish was 13th (I think) although there was an unoffical 6th place at her home track in a non-points race.

I found this article on the subject from 2005 so it is probably 100% relevant to the discussion here:

http://emagazine.credit-suisse.com/article/index.cfm?fuseaction=OpenArticle&aoid=83811&lang=EN

If you look at the most successful women in motorsport (Lynn St. James, Shirley Muldowney, Sarah Fisher, Michelle Mouton, Jutta Kleinschmidt, Desiree Wilson) they have been interesting but they haven't been terribly impressive. If Danica was dominant in CART/IRL racing, then I'd say she has a chance in F1. Right now, her stats aren't impressive and she won't do as well in F1 ... it's just too competitive.
 
Does anybody remember the "tradin paint" show done on the speed chanel probably 7 years ago? The premise of the show was that Jeff Gordon swapped rides with a F1 driver but for the life of me I can't remember who. At any rate, Jeff Gordon drove the F1 car to only a few tenths shy of qualifying for the grid at that track. Whereas, the F1 driver couldn't even get close in the cup car. My point is Rowdy Bush is probably the best candidate I have heard mentioned for the job. Thats saying alot since I don't particularly like Kyle Bush or Jeff Gordon for that matter.
 
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