Female champ thinks F1 may be too physical for women
Aug.12 - The dominant driver in the all-female open wheeler support category for Formula 1 says she isn't sure women are ready to take on the men at the pinnacle of motor racing.
Much is said, written and promoted about gender equity and inclusivity in Formula 1, but Jamie Chadwick - the two-time W Series champion and dominant 2022 series leader - is doubtful she could keep up.
"I have set myself a goal of competing in Formula 1 but I don't know what is actually possible," the 24-year-old British driver said.
"To get into Formula 1 you have to go through the feeder series - Formula 3 and Formula 2 - and it is extremely physical. Formula 1 is extremely physical and we don't know exactly what women are capable of in the sport.
"If you are aged 15 or 16 and go into car racing without power steering and driving big heavy cars, a lot of women do struggle even though they have been successful in go-karting," Chadwick added.
"We like to think that women can make it - and I am happy to be the guinea pig and will do my best to push and explore the options to Formula 1 – but we don't know," she admitted.
"There hasn't been a woman in the recent era that has done it. I am trying to understand whether that is to do with the physical side of it.
"If it is physically too hard but the sport wants women to compete, then we have got to bring it back and understand why."
Chadwick is already part of Williams' driver development program, but she thinks actual changes to the cars may be the only way women can compete against stronger and bigger men.
For instance, she says details like steering wheel thickness should be explored.
"How can we make them thinner because women's hands are not necessarily that big?" said Chadwick. "How can we make sure there are no restrictions on how close the pedals are so you can get the right leverage?
"And some of the newer tubs in the cockpit are really narrow. Women with bigger hips can't fit into them comfortably. A lot of these things have been overlooked for obvious reasons but now we need to see whether that does make a difference to performance."
✅ Check out more posts with related topics:
I have never laughed so much
Correct. Complete load of crap. Women are fully capable of meeting the physical challenges. Sounds like a bet hedge to me.
They modify driving positions and specks for comfort and maximum driver input all the time
There's no need to keep the layer of sexisim in this day and age by not considering that any driver could be a female could be a woman and fit the car to her driving requirements
Get with it world
Women exist in it too
Leaving it at that rather than moving on to others who are 2nd class citizens
IMO, if Jamie chadwick is prepared to give f1 a go & as she's already involved with Williams I think everything possible should be done by the FIA & the team principles to make it happen if she is herself prepared,, why not.?
Heh Nige had the tash, she has the eyebrows, what is it with Williams and facial hair?
Garbage article....if women can fly carrier based fighters I'd say driving a F1 car achievable, the hardest part part of the journey would be securing a seat or F1 allow an all women F1 team.
Pedal position - Check. Wider tub - check. Thinner wheel - Check. There are solutions to all of the issues stated. Ms. Chadwick is managing expectations - which is a smart thing to do. As in all things it is beneficial to "under promise and over deliver".
Being the first to shift a paradigm takes enormous courage. I for one strongly encourage her to go for it. She may surprise the hell out of us all.
Interesting observations
I view steering wheel thickness as somewhat trivial.
Guess you don't actually race a car and understand that not all hands are the sames sizes and that with the G forces that drivers face the physical strain on a human body is tremendous
You are utterly dehydrated when you're done driving and that builds up gently over the race period till the ultimate anguish and physical strain
You ever went on a long distance drive 4 hours plus imagine that
It's worse on a race car driver
Good luck with your future judgements
Maybe watch a race some time on TV or in person watch the drivers post race and let me know how they're doing
People who have no sympathy for race car drivers have no understand of high school math and or physics
They are some of the toughest athletes in the world
The data from many high performance athletic testing institutions who test athletes from a broad spectrum of sports show race car drivers in the top percentile of participants
Both in Europe and North America
Is this GR from MB? Trying to get his M Bs point across about porpoising to gain yet another advantage by trying to blind 🤔 us with supposed science
Mmmmmmmm
it is trivial your right Jere George is being a bit of a complete smart arse with his post, to quote g forces and dehydration , i think we know that George geez, we watch f1 and remember MS not a bead of sweat after a race, even now a lot of drivers don't sweat , oh but hang on , we know that because we are FANS George..
Race car events mmmm not all are the same , DTM there races are only bout 40mins, be more precise George
Data Data who cares about data, we wanna see racing
So not directly responding to Smart Arse George but good luck being Pedantic with all future posts
No sweat?
Maybe if you were assigned post race laundry duty
Forget the data?
Our favorite sport is driven by said data
Pedantic?
Not an insult but very accurate observation
For someone who was so capable of deducing so much from what you read
Your casual remarks were surprising
Variety of race car events and their worthiness?
I wouldn't demean DTM or any other race series as such having witnessed many feeder series and all prior descriptions apply
Best and keep enjoying racing as you said
Smart arse?
Probably not an insult either
Seems to be just a bit of harmless humor to me
Even if one comes along who's a freak of nature with far more testosterone than even castrated Lumberjack, she still won't become champion in a sport like this. Same reasons(which has nothing to do with vehicle dimensions) there won't be one in WRC or MotoGP unless these vehicles become significantly slower.
Jax, clearly the beating I gave you rattled your troubled ganglia. You are a prime candidate for yet another beating, this time by Ms. Chadwick, for your unlettered comments about her future prospects in cars that are 'too fast'. Those crass, sexist remark belong in your mud-brick hut in a dusty little wadi. You may not know it, but you just won a Darwin Award. FFS.
Jax is the sorta individual you want at a dinner party..
Sorry, had to stop , laughing to much , when i said at a dinner party , i meant as the taxi driver, not as a guest
In other words, you don't have the means to properly satisfy women, given some missing parts, so might aswell try to score point otherwise. 😂.
Biology trumps sentimentality. Mind over matter has its limits. And those limits will be proven when a female driver makes her debut. But by all means delude yourselves to sound politically correct. I have sports biological facts on my side.
You beat me?! Lol. Get a balls implant then you may fair better. 😆
Actually, Jax, I am drawing from a life-time of experience, and not some shallow, vapid need to virtue signal. I have witnessed women do work of equal or better value than their male counterparts in a number of demanding professions: geology, soldier, helicopter pilot.
I must admit your version of the word smack turned into "smeck, smeck" had me in stitches.
Why does your basis and standard have to be men?
Why is adopting a more inclusive standard not relevant?
Is your way the only way and everyone has to be comfortable with it?
Is no one else entitled to opportunities or the freedom to chase their goals?
Absolutely!
Correct on all counts.
Lots of questions, however, you provide no answers.
Ask Teddy Yip!
So we have women who are Jet fighter pilots who can take massive G forces ,also women who have passed selection into special forces !
So getting super fit to drive F1 cars is not a problem !
In fact it's shown that women can tolerate higher G forces then men in Jet fighters .
Hey Johnnie, how many women have become Top Gun pilots? And I don't mean the movie. Lol. As in actually graduated Top Gun.
Do reply expeditiously.
Among military fighter pilots, 7.7% of them are women compared to 92.3% which are men .
Lol. I never said overall. I specified the Top Gun training program for a reason. Only the best Pilots in there respective squadron gets called to this program that teaches aerial dog fighting skills. As in the elite! Any fighter pilot can drop ordinance, but air to air combat is a whole different ball game.
So to answer my own question because you didn't, ONE. Only one woman has graduated Top Gun. So she either achieved this via tokenism or she genuinely performed well. If it's the latter, then it proves my point about being a freak of nature...a one off....a unique case....an extra special talent.
So back to F1. I repeat, a woman may enter the championship, but she...will...never...win a title unless the cars get properly slow!
There's a reason women don't compete with men in most sports. Basic common sense! Smh
I am bemused by this whole discussion. Promoting a "W Series" is essentially an admission by the FIA that women are unable to graduate to F1 the same way as men are required to graduate to F1.
I see no merit in redesigning the whole concept of F1 cars in order to suit individual drivers. You compete on a level playing field with the equipment available to you. I mean, in football, tennis, basketball and volleyball to name but a few, women compete with the same gear as men. Why should motor racing be different?
Why create a "W Series" exclusively for women to compete? If women want to make it into the big time why should they not come through Formula Renault, F3 and F2, the same as the young men must do? FIA must create an equal opportunity without bias because of sex discrimination either way.
Don't misunderstand me, I am not against women competing. What I am saying is that I am supportive of women undertaking what have historically been men only roles in the context that women are given the opportunity with the same tools and equipment as men use ~ whatever the sport.
Well , i suppose the fact is they can come through the other series as the men do, i can see what the fia was trying to do , like address the cost of bringing sponsorship, in W, Bringing money isn't an issue, plus initially all the cars were the same , again keeping costs down, once they start running W as junior f1 teams, everything rises
Whatever f1 did , they were never going to please everyone, the superlicence points is a thorny issue, i cant understand why its not equal to other series using the same car?
Coverage wise, a positive thing that its run on f1 weekends, less so that Sky are doing the coverage JC is making a good living out of it, if she wins this yr and she will it'll have made her a Millionaire, so cant blame the ladies for wanting that, what do we hear from dads like Ralf and Jean , f3/f2 is too expensive , you have to bring 500K to get a top seat.
My wife says why are you watching that, I reply under my breath (in as little a non sexist sounding voice as I can ) the same reason I enjoy the beach volleyball my dear, but heh who can resist a pretty lady in a fast car.and before the comments start, no one slates the ladies who watch the men's live boxing events from a ringside seat
As a final note I detest sky and have refused to pay them to watch f1, however not being super tech savvy, i didn't know this was possible, using IPTV which operates over broadband and an Amazonfirestick, you can get sky--the full package for about £60 a yr....!!, and apparently all legal...!!, so i think ill be taking them up on that .
Agree with your embargo on Sky, Shroppy. In my part of the world Fox has a monopoly on F1, F2 and F3. You can get the subscription to Fox for 420 quid per year, with all the other rubbish they show. However, I found that KayoSports is 174 quid per year for all sports, without all the rubbish that Fox subjects you to. Ironically, KayoSports is a subsidiary of Fox! Works for me, although I like your 60 per year package and wish we had access to it!
I agree with you about Sky coverage overpriced and completely biased and one-sided opinions by half-wit presenters with the exception of Martin Brundle.
I would include Brundle
Hi is a biased Lulu lover and would be celebrity
He has been snubbed more times than I can count
Old story about MB he's paid by sky and sky f1 uk has the biggest country fan base so he's keeping the fans happy , whatever his personal beliefs are same goes for all uk sky f1 scroats Salary talks and let's face it, its definitely not the most challenging job on sky or life but easy money for them
Gumpy and his top gun analogy are there are no ends to his stupidity, graduated top gun... yeah that's right the Dames best m8
Yeah, Shrop', I was kinda' hoping these macho-mopes would steer the conversation in the direction of womens' intelligence, emotional stability and a balanced mentality, but let's us guys hang on to the hunter/gatherer scenario. Let's get out there and start a few more wars, or push someone off into the rhubarb to win a friggin' motor race. LOL
(Our Canadian poster is exempt. He continues to astound.)
The Dames even copying Mr Cruise , i feel the need for whinging/moaning/sulkin/feigning a bad back/lying to wind the fia up/getting his Dad to play up, oh and never regaining his No 1 spot while being remembered as a money grabbing whiney ex wdc. good evening all
You and said Canadian can follow in Bruce....oops, now Caitlyn Jenner's footsteps Old fella. I mean the Lumberjack is already half way there after all! 😂.
Let him be thou guide. Lol smh.
it's refreshing to hear someone in the public eye acknowledge there are differences between men and women
the differences in brains and how they're wired shouldn't be overlooked
maybe it takes balls to push a car to the absolute limit?
i see the talking complete Bollx taxi blokes still posting, if he backtracks as much driving his taxi as he does on here, im getting a scooter like Ham
Danica Patrick, Simona de Silvestro, Pippa Mann, Katherine Legge... all 4 women are counter-points for Jamie here. They all competed (competently) in IndyCar, with 0 power steering. They weren't regularly (sans Danica) competitive in the Top 10, but didn't have the best equipment and did a solid job with what they had. K-Mag and Hulkenberg attested to the physicality of those cars(just less G-Forces, which you can train your neck for).
Outside of this being "excuse making," I don't understand her arguments, given the examples above.
There is no reason why a female shouldn’t be as good as Stroppy’s idol Lewis or Lucky Max but most females find motor racing utterly boring and to find the exceptional talent in any field you need an extremely broad base to the pyramid. Same applies to black men in motor sport. Just not interested in sufficient numbers. Speed is irrelevant.
I would imagine female tennis players would do well in f1. They require high levels of fitness, lightning reactions, super fast thought processing and extreme competitiveness and they do all this whilst running around like lunatics not lying on their backs.
Faced with watching Emma or Max ,sod Fi i’ll Watch the tennis! Press like if you agree.
Damn you got me, Emma R every time over Max... but if Lucy took up tennis, id get a poster of him in my bedroom replacing the decades old one I have of Fiona Walker, Come onnnnnn who hasn't had that poster on there wall, a new star is born .
"As we crossed into the new millennium, the average American male (controlled for age and other relevant factors) had a total testosterone reading of 605 nanograms per deciliter. A scant 20 years later, and the average level has plummeted by 27 percent to just 450 nanograms per deciliter. That means the average 22-year-old man today has an average testosterone level roughly equal to that of a 67-year-old man in 2000.
The article refers to data from studies in 2007 and 2021, both of which looked at the testosterone levels of men in the United States.
In the 2007 study, testosterone decreased by about 22% when comparing 1985-1987 levels to those from 2002-2004. In the 2021 study, researchers found a roughly 25% decrease between 1999 and 2016."
Given the comments by some 'males' on this topic, I think we have anecdotal evidence to match the science here folks. Lol smh.
Canadian Lumberjack is probably closer to zero! 😂
I blame the Russians(and McDonalds).
Apparently it's down to the lack of sponsorship that prevents women from participating in f1, so, if we want women in f1 then we have to put up the monies.
I am refraining from doing the obvious wife joke...
The old boy network would have to bring back Michael Masi if a woman racked up a few grand prix wins.
LOL ~ I read this headline and saw Female chimp thinks F1 may be ..........
A trained monkey can do it!
The only monkey in this post is you
✅ Checkout the latest 50 F1 Fans comments.