Danica Patrick says F1 should be more welcoming for female drivers

Former Nascar and Indycar driver Danica Patrick believes that the F1 ecosystem is not welcoming enough for female drivers. She says that she didn’t feel welcome in England and Europe and that the social structures on that side of the pond don’t compare to the United States of America. 

She stated that people in the US were generally excited to see her, which was not the case in England and Europe. 

“I can definitely speak to this in terms of domestic in the States and in England — I definitely didn’t feel like I was as welcome in England as a girl. So I always felt like England and Europe was more behind in their social structures and their hierarchy of who does what and gender dynamics. I don’t know, for me that’s how it felt. 

“I felt like I was way more welcome when I came home. I felt like people were genuinely excited to have me around; I felt equal, but it didn’t feel like that in England. So maybe that’s part of why you don’t see as many females come through and up the ladder to go to Formula 1,” said the one-time Indycar race winner. 

She thinks that the people in charge should make a cultural change if they want to bring in female drivers to F1. Patrick says the US has made great strides in progressing and offering women to compete with men in car racing.

Patrick is seen as a trailblazer for women in motorsports as she competed for top honors while also winning a race and standing on the podium in a few other races. 

F1 hasn’t had a woman driver in over thirty years, with Giovanna Amati being the last full-time woman driver. She, though, did not qualify for any of the three races that she was scheduled to participate in. 

In recent years, there have been a few teams that have offered test drives to women drivers, while Williams also has a woman development driver in W Series champion, Jamie Chadwick. The 23-year-old is a two-time W Series champion and has set her sights towards an F1 drive in the future. The W Series is an all-female racing series that has run two seasons so far, both won by Chadwick. 

Ferrari F1 driver Charles LeClerc recently endorsed the addition of a woman to F1, stating that there are talented female drivers that could line up alongside him on the grid in the future.