Swapping pompoms for podiums

As many of our regular readers already know, women drivers in motorsport is a topic close to the heart of CoverGirl car insurance.

For those of you new to these posts, we’ll recap our position: women drivers are statistically safer than men – they are physically and mentally just as capable of driving at high speeds – and, they deserve a chance to compete on a level footing with male racing drivers.

Sadly, though there are few opportunities for young women drivers to get into motorsport, few role models and a considerable amount of prejudice, both personal and institutional.

It’s great to hear Damon Hill, former F1 champion, getting behind the idea of women in motorsport. In fact, the revered champ says that it’s “inevitable” that a woman will one day win F1.

This is true. But in some senses it can only be so, once we begin to believe that it is indeed inevitable. As Henry Ford once said, “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.”

It’s not that women haven’t entered F1 before, although the last woman to take her place on the grid did so in 1976.

"Maybe it's just numbers, maybe not enough women have chosen that career path and eventually someone will and show they are every bit as good as the best guy out there," said Hill.

"It's a little bit hard in motorsport that women don't have their own category, but the women drivers I've spoken to don't want their own category - they want to show they can compete against the men.” – well, he’s right there, women drivers are every bit as good as men. And if the insurance statistics are anything to go by, there’d be fewer serious crashes too!

Women in motorsport is about more than a few blonde girls with fake tans, short skirts and giant pompoms.

Image © *shanghai*sparkles* via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Labels: car insurance, drivers, F1, motorsport, racing