David Coulthard refuted the notion that women don’t have the physicality to compete in F1, saying it’s ‘utter bulls***’ and ‘without a doubt’ we will see women in F1.
The debate over whether we will see women consistently in Formula 1 has been prominent over the years. With it growing immensely as the sport sees a rise in not only female fans but the female-only category of F1 Academy.
F1 Academy was not the first attempt that Formula 1 made to accommodate female drivers. In 2019, they created the W-series which ran until 2022.
However, W-Series acted as a separate entity to Formula 1, which made it more difficult for women to then join the feeder series ladder to F1.
It also lacked the publicity and advertisement, which meant that the viewership and sponsorship were a fraction of Formula 1 and the feeder series.
F1 Academy hoped to rectify this, running on Formula 1 weekends to garner more popularity and sponsorship for the girls racing. It also gifts the series winner each year a fully funded GB3 seat, which is game changing for the girls competing. But most importantly, it puts them on the ladder into the feeder series.
Despite these steps towards seeing women in F1, many people argue that women just don’t have the physical strength to make it to F1 and compete against men.
Coulthard’s thoughts
David Coulthard has uniquely situated himself as being part of the solution. Co-founding More than Equal, an initiative specifically designed to find the first female Formula 1 world champion. It runs on data-based research on fixing the imbalances within motorsport and the disadvantages women face.
It also currently has a cohort of young female drivers, of which all undergo psychological, physical and driving-based training to help them prepare.
Coulthard admits that it isn’t a physicality problem at all, and often the problem is in the training regime.
He said in a Daily Mail interview, “It’s utter bulls*** that women don’t have the strength to do it.”
“Anyone who doesn’t train doesn’t have what it takes to perform in motor racing — whether you’re a man or a woman. An untrained person doesn’t have the strength to do anything.”
For Coulthard, that was the biggest problem within W-Series. He said, “One of the things I saw with the W series was that we took the best women available to try and qualify to become part of the championship — and some of them just weren’t fit enough. I looked at them, going: ‘What’s your excuse for not training? You have to present yourself as being serious as a pro and that means training like an athlete.”
“We know what it takes to be physically strong enough to be a racing driver and all of the data shows that women comfortably fit within that category of physical performance.”
Talent is talent
Coulthard maintains the belief that when a woman is fast enough she will make it to Formula 1, touting the theory of ‘it’s the stopwatch that dictates things’. He believes that not opinion matters, instead the times should determine who makes it.
“You can either do a fast lap time or you can’t, and, if that is the case, as I say to my son, you can join a long line of people with good excuses as to why they didn’t do a specific lap time — why this, why that. Sport is about delivery.”
Coulthard’s programme was inspired by his younger sister who passed away in 2013. Growing up, Lynsay had been a successful kart racer but the Coulthards couldn’t afford to keep both children in racing. Seeing how capable his sister was while racing, showed him that there is no reason why women wouldn’t have the talent to be professional drivers.
“My sister raced karts. She was fast, talented, won races, but she was six years younger than me and started racing at eight. When I moved on to cars, I got signed to Paul Stewart racing, and was then tested for Williams at 18, 19 years old.”
“We were then off on this magic carpet ride of European racing and, a few years later, I was an F1 driver. So she just never got the support. She eventually stopped racing.”
Though Coulthard says his sister never held onto resentment over having to stop racing, he did say he felt as though there was an injustice in the system.
“I just feel that she wasn’t given the same crack at it.”
The biggest setback
Coulthard and More Than Equal found in research that one of the biggest limiters to women progressing through the ranks is the number of female racers.
With just 13 percent of karters being female, it means the talent pool is smaller and it’s much harder to find that great talent that will make it to F1.
Coulthard maintains that, “Of course it will happen. Without question.” But the first step is increasing the amount of women participating at the lowest level and improving the sponsorship opportunities for them.
Feature Image Credit: Mark Thompson | Red Bull Content Pool
