F1 team bosses give Danica green light.

an FHM cover girl in formula 1, great.

no peeking under the hood now guys and 'specially no spying (in the showers)

A point of clarification.

"After triumphing in the Indy Japan 300 at Motegi last month, the 26-year-old from Wisconsin admitted that she had long hankered after competing in F1"

After her victory in Motegi Danica was asked by a news reporter if she would like an F1 Test. Danica responded candidly that indeed she would. Danica did not bring up the issue nor is she lobbying for an F1 test. It also has recently come to light that Danica has had discussions with NASCAR Team Owner Jack Rousch about considering a transition to Tin-Tops when her commitment with AGR ends. Danica also has stated that she is happy where she is right now. So it's not easy to say what her future holds.

Hello non-story!

They're not really saying anything. Brawn basically says he thinks it would be ok to have female drivers in F1 - if they're good enough. I imagine quite a few people share his view here. But he doesn't say a thing about Danica. Fry goes even further - he "would consider" giving her a testing opportunity. Wow! The contract really is all but signed.

A female in F1 would be good but I don't think Danica is the right person.

She's not dominating the IRL so she's not the best in her class, and F1 has a long list of failed American series drivers.

A sport which is based 90% on oval racing isn't going to produce drivers suited to european racing on "street" style circuits. Where do you learn the art of breaking, setting up a car for left and right handed corners when you've come from a background of modulating the throttle and slip streaming around ovals for 200 miles per race???

If she was dominating IRL she may have a slim chance but for her to get a F1 drive ahead of someone like Davidson would just be a publicity stunt.

No chance.. She has no skills on street or non ovals.

"an FHM cover girl in formula 1, great. "

there s a few already so that wouldnt be anything new. No need to give names, drivers tipped as the next big thing and then not delivering at all.
She may not be a top driver, but i cant see why she d do worse than some of the primadonnas in f1 who talk, write autobiographies and live the hi life but then cant improve the car or getresults to save their asses.

Chu

I think you greatly overrate a drivers impact on improving cars. Teams line up in budget order by and large with a few exceptions (cheifly the Japanese teams who seem to suffer from 'corporate' mentality I guess).

The teams that have moved forward recently have all talked about the correlation of wind tunnel to computer models - neither of which the drivers go near. And Renaults recent improvement is also linked to succefull implementation of the J-damper, which has replicated the effect of the banned mass damper. In all the complexity of engine devepment, software, wind tunnel, computer modelling etc, the drivers contribution is consistant feedback and driving the thing fast!

I have regularly attended IRL and Champ Car Race weekends in the USA and Canada. The problem with Danica Patrick is that whilst she has sorted out oval racing, she has not got the racecraft to succeed on street or road courses. And it's not something that you can learn - you've either got it (Montoya) or you haven't. So she has zero potential in F1 or any other European style racing.

chu, i did say GIRL !! or does lulu qualify? as the carlsberg ad says "probably" given his tantrums and quotes

A driver's input and a stop watch is probably the most important part of a race car development and proing platform. Wind tunnel only works on a car on straight line... it does nothing on weight transfer and even comouter models cannot simplate that effectively.

If a driver cannot tell the difference bwteen one setup and another then he cannot provide vital imput to the race engineers... hence the teams less r experienced drivers will rely on what the race engineers, tyre engineers etc tell them what to try.

There are a few exceptional driver who can do that and still have the natural speed to prove it... one of them is retired lol.

Give Leanne Tander a go!

^ Yeah, that would be cool too!