Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, is confident that female drivers’ will enter Formula 1 within a decade. With other forms of motor sport, most notably America’s IndyCar, fielding a strong female contingent it’s naturally only a matter of time before F1 sees its first female driver since Italy’s Giovanna Amati in 1992.
In America, the IndyCar and the now defunct ChampCar World Series Championship played host to many female drivers’. Ranging from previous race winner Danica Patrick to the likes of Milka Duno, female drivers’ have become the norm in American motor sport.
However, in Formula 1 female drivers’ have remained a rarity. Only five females have raced in F1, and only one of them scored any points in Lella Lombardi who finished 6th in the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix for March-Ford. With statistics such as this, it’s hard to imagine how successful female drivers’ have become in America in comparison to the worlds highest tier of motor sport.
With Danica Patrick now competing in the Nascar Nationwide Series, IndyCar still has two females set to race in the coming 2012 season in British driver Katherine Legge and Swiss driver Simona de Silvestro.
With up and coming female drivers’ in the UK such as Alice Powell, who became the Formula Renault BARC Champion last year, climbing their way up the motor sport ladder, Christian Horner is right in believing female drivers’ will soon be racing in Formula 1 once again.
For the first time ever, the GP3 Series will have a female driver contesting the season in 2012. Italian driver Vicky Piria is set to race for Trident Racing, and is one of many female drivers’ aiming for success European motor sport.
As Christian Horner rightfully said in an interview with MSN Sport, the sport cannot remain the preserve of men for much longer. Whether females will be as successful as the likes of Danica Patrick in IndyCar when they finally break into Formula 1, time will tell.