The Formula One Management is committed to encouraging the participation of more women in the sport as the number of females continues to be very low. This was also one of the reasons why the management decided to introduce the F1 Academy. However, F1 expert Ralf Schumacher believes that even top women talents such as Sophia Floersch are “not enough“.
Even though Florsch has previously produced some remarkable performances in the FIA World Endurance Championship, ADAC Formula 4, FIA F3, and Deutsche Tourwagen, she still has not managed to impress the former F1 driver. Speaking about this, Schumacher said as per GrandPrix.com, “She [ Sophia Floersch ] is certainly the best woman we currently have in German motorsport, but her talent is not enough for professional formula racing.”
Familiar faces in Abu Dhabi this past weekend. It was great to see some of our 2023 F1 Academy drivers take to the track in F4 UAE, to meet our newly announced 2024 driver Tina Hausmann, and catch up with this season’s Champion @martaracing. #F1Academy pic.twitter.com/vKKg8N5clI
— F1 Academy (@f1academy) November 28, 2023
Michael Schumacher had a contrasting viewpoint to his brother
Michael Schumacher, the elder brother of Ralf Schumacher, had a different stance when it came to women in motorsport. The seven-time world champion said back in 2012 that women can make it to F1.
Speaking about this, the former Ferrari star said as per Karting.net, “There is no reason why women should not be competitive in any of those fields that we have available in motorsport because physical limits – even in F1 – they’re not so high that women couldn’t do it.”
Bianca in the house for quali! #AbuDhabiGP pic.twitter.com/zu7Ucegtye
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) November 25, 2023
The Formula One Management recently does seem to be making more efforts to encourage the participation of more women in this sport. They not only introduced the F1 Academy but also made it mandatory for every Formula One team to identify talented female drivers in the sport and sign them as development drivers.
This effort helped F1 teams identify talents such as Tina Hausmann, Lia Block, and Bianca Bustamante. Among them, Bustamante, who competed in F2 for Prema Racing, made history after McLaren included her in their development program recently.
