MOTORSPORT: Ecclestone's women GP plan snubbed

Formula One ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone has proposed races exclusively for women at grand prix weekends, but the prime candidate for such a series has given him the thumbs down.

Susie Wolff (pictured) says Ecclestone's idea is "most definitely not" the way to advance the cause of women getting to the top level of motor racing.

"First of all, I don't know where you'd find a full grid of female drivers who are good enough," said Wolff, the test driver for the Williams F1 team and wife of reigning world champion team Mercedes F1 principal Toto Wolff.

"Secondly, I have raced my whole career in motorsport as a normal competitor.

"Why would I ever look for a race where I was only competing against women?

"I can hand-on-heart say it would not interest me at all to win such a race.

"I would rather not be in the race because what am I winning? A race where they've just looked for any girl to make a grid up.

"It's most definitely not the right way forward."

Ecclestone made the suggestion to British media at the weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix, where it seemed F1 was in urgent need of a new spark until Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel's shock triumph over the Mercedes cars of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

The 32-year-old Wolff's response to 84-year-old F1 commercial chief Ecclestone came in London's Daily Mirror newspaper.

Ecclestone said he had suggested at a meeting of F1 team principals on Sunday morning that "we have a separate championship [for women]", with the races perhaps taking place before the main event on Sunday afternoons.

"I thought it would be a good idea to give them a showcase," Ecclestone said.

"For some reason women are not coming through – and not because we don't want them.

"Of course we do, because they would attract a lot of attention and publicity and probably a lot of sponsors.

"We have to start somewhere, so I suggested to the teams that we have a separate championship and maybe that way we will be able to bring someone through to F1.

"They could race before the main event, or perhaps on the Saturday qualifying day so that they had their own interest.

"It is only a thought at the moment, but I think it would be super for F1 and the whole grand prix weekend."

The last woman to race in F1 was Italian Lella Lombardi in the mid-1970s.

She participated at 17 GPs and finished sixth in the 1975 Spanish race but was awarded only half a world championship point because the event was cut short after a fatal accident.

Lombardi died of cancer in 1992. 

Another Italian, Giovanna Amati, tried to break into F1 in the early 1990s but failed to qualify for a race.

While Wolff is the woman now closest to gaining an F1 race seat, the Williams team – in which her husband is still a small shareholder – made it clear last week that she was not its preference had its young Finnish star Valtteri Bottas been unable to drive in Malaysia after a back injury put him out of the season-opening Australian GP in Melbourne on March 15.

Williams said German Adrian Sutil rather than Wolff was its reserve driver.

Wolff drove a Williams in practice at the British and German GPs last year and is scheduled for Friday practice outings at this year's Spanish and British GPs.

Other women prominent in international open-wheeler motor racing are American Danica Patrick and Switzerland's Simona de Silvestro.

Patrick is racing full-time in NASCAR's Sprint Cup after having won a race in the IndyCar series – and almost an Indianapolis 500.

She is strongest on oval tracks but poor on road and street circuits – on which F1 races.

De Silvestro has returned to Indy racing this year after failing to secure a seat at Swiss F1 team Sauber. She has had one IndyCar podium finish in 70 starts.

The Lotus F1 team recently named Spanish TV personality Carmen Jorda as its development driver, but she has little racing form and the move was seen as being purely a marketing ploy.

Picture courtesy of Randstad Canada/Wikimedia Commons