Girls can’t win F1, they lack the killer instinct
Says David Coulthard.. who never quite managed to win Grand Prix title
NO-TIME Formula 1 world champion David Coulthard says women will never beat men on the race track because they don’t have the killer instinct.
The Scot, who spent 15 years in F1 without taking the title, reckons men are superior racers.
But he insisted he wasn’t being a “caveman” about women, and added: “They have the mothering gene.”
Speaking ahead of the start of the new Grand Prix season next weekend, Coulthard admitted women could compete at the highest level but added that they wouldn’t win.
He said: “We all have different skills and some people choose to develop those skills in competition and there’s no reason why a lady could not compete at the highest level.
“It’s not the physical aspect that limits ladies’ ability to compete in Formula 1 at the top level.
“It’s maybe that last little bit of separation between the mothering DNA that makes ladies capable of having a child and providing for that child.
“Not to sound too caveman about it – there are well-understood physical and profile differences from a man’s and lady’s point of view.
“There would be lot less war if the guys weren’t doing their thing.
“Show me other sports where you can have males and females competing on the same sports ground.”
Coulthard said he rated Scot Susie Wolff, a 34-year-old from Oban who was a test and reserve driver for one of his old teams, Williams. He called her “a very talented individual”.
But he added: “The reality is though, and she would acknowledge this, that in the same way I was not as talented as Michael Schumacher or Lewis Hamilton, she wasn’t as talented as Schumacher or Hamilton.
“The sport at its highest level is not about finding good competitors – they’re all good. It’s about finding exceptional, and that’s how life should be.”
As well as giving his verdict on women, Coulthard, now a commentator for Channel 4, pronounced on Brexit and Scottish independence.
He said: “In terms of Brexit and the independence side of things, I personally – as a child of the world – think we are stronger working together.
“That’s the way I’ve achieved the success I’ve had in my life, by working with international people.
“If I’d stayed living in Scotland, purely focused on racing with a Scottish team with only Scottish people working on it, I would never have made it from home.”
Coulthard is originally from Twynholm in Kirkcudbrightshire but now lives with his wife and eightyear-old son in the tax haven of Monaco.