New Sauber test driver, Danica Patrick defend women in F1
Tatiana Calderon was announced as Sauber’s test driver on Tuesday and quickly had to defend women’s presence in Formula One.
The 24-year-old Colombian spoke a day after Carmen Jorda, a former development driver in F1 and a member of FIA’s Women in Motorsport Commission, reportedly said women can’t compete equally with men because F1 is too physically demanding. According to ESPN, Jorda said women should try racing in a series like Formula E, which uses electric cars.
“I don’t think there is a physical barrier,” Calderon told Spanish media during preseason testing near Barcelona. “Obviously women and men are different and we have a little less muscle mass, but I can make up for that with training.”
Calderon is the first woman to become a test driver in F1 since Susie Wolff drove for Williams in 2015.
“Wolff has already shown that there is no physical barrier,” Calderon said. “I hope to show that we can compete.”
There was widespread reaction to Jorda’s comments, with former NASCAR and IndyCar driver Danica Patrick saying she didn’t agree with the notion that women are at a disadvantage in racing.
“I don’t buy into that,” Patrick told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “We are in a competition of repetition and staying calm and loosening up the death grip on the wheel, and staying focused and using your mind. These are the things that help you with endurance: Keeping a level head, keeping relaxed and having general fitness. If we were going for Olympic lifting, how strong can you possibly be? Then women would not win because that’s not how our bodies are built. But that’s not the game of racing.” / AP