Formula 1 has been an exclusive men’s club ever since it’s inception with a handful of women drivers getting an opportunity to participate in the pinnacle of motorsports. However, Lewis Hamilton believes that with the various actions being taken now, it won’t be long before there’s a woman driver on the grid once more.
In an exclusive interview with ABC Sports, Hamilton was asked about his opinion on whether there will be a female F1 driver soon. Hamilton said, “I personally do think so. I think there’s a lot of work that needs to go on in the background to continue to allow access.”
Hamilton did admit that the majority of that work is already being done especially with the advent of the F1 Academy series. The Mercedes driver said, “It’s showing that there is an opportunity for you to be here so hopefully there’s going to be more young girls that are going to be asking their parents so they can go karting.”
One of the major reasons behind the lack of women driver in F1 is that there’s a very low repression of women in junior motorsports. F1 recently started F1 Academy with the idea of providing women with the opportunity to have their own junior series, from where they can make the step up to F1.
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Hamilton also emphasized on the fact that the aim is not just to have women F1 drivers but to also have more women representation in the various roles in an F1 teams. He explained that there are more than 40,000 jobs surrounding Formula 1 and women also need opportunities to work in those jobs.
Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen has similar views on women in F1
Lewis Hamilton has himself been involved in the process of providing opportunities to women in motorsports. As part of his charity project ‘Mission 44’ Hamilton had set up an event during the United States GP that provided paddock access to females and non binary people to raise awareness about the sport and it’s prospects.
#F1 | Lewis Hamilton on increasing Diversity: “When we were in Austin, you had the kids come, all the young women come. When we were in the UK, we had a real diverse group of kids come.”
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Max Verstappen also recently claimed that women do have a chance of stepping into F1 in the near future. He claimed that if there’s a woman who is competitive enough to race at the very top level, he does not see why she should have problems stepping into F1.
However, Verstappen also explained that the percentage of women involved in the sport is much lesser and therefore, there is a much lesser probability of a woman making it to the absolute top. The main aim at the moment should be to involve more and more women in the junior levels of motorsports.
