Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone says a woman driver won’t contest the pinnacle of motorsport because she “would not be taken seriously”.
Ecclestone made his claim to Canadian network TSN.
The last woman to start a F1 race was Italian driver Lella Lombardi at the 1976 Australian Grand Prix.
When asked if that might happen again, he told TSN: “I doubt it. If there was somebody that was capable they wouldn’t be taken seriously anyway, so they would never have a car that is capable of competing. There was a girl that was driving in GP3 for a whole season so it is not something that hasn’t happened.”
When quizzed if that could happen in F1, he replied: “No. I don’t think so.”
Young British driver Alice Powell, who became the first female winner of the Formula Renault series in 2010 and has competed in GP3, hit back, telling The Guardian: “Someone needs to prove Bernie wrong. It would be a shame if a team would turn down a female to race in F1 because they would not be taken seriously.
“That is one of the issues though, that people don’t take the chance as they think it will be a joke. We’re not a joke and it is just another factor which makes it harder for females to race at the highest level.”
British driver Susie Wolff was involved in practice for the Williams team at the 2014 British Grand Prix but stepped away from the sport believing her hopes of getting an F1 start were “unachievable”.
Spain’s Carmen Jorda was a development driver for Lotus last year while Simona de Silvestro tested for Sauber in 2014.
