Max Yamabiko: Women in F1 a question of brawn or brain?

The topic of gender in motorsport - specifically F1 - has made its presence felt in the media in recent weeks, whether it is the debate over the WEC's banning off grid girls, or the acquisition of Carmen Jorda to the role of Lotus F1 development driver, or the suggestion that perhaps there should be a female-only version of F1.

It's a sizeable (it not entirely new) debate about gender equality and the repetition of the age-old question of why are there no women in F1. I'm not going to stray into the territory of whether this is a good or bad suggestion, rather I'm going to look at the science behind whether there is an argument to split genders in motorsports or maintain the level playing field..

From a car perspective there are some differences between male and female drivers, but none of them significant, as Swiss IndyCar driver Simona Di Silvestro has already proven.

For example, the seat design would ideally be slightly different for the female form than the male (though the seat fitting process largely accommodates this), human females are generally not quite as physically strong as their male counterparts at this peak level, so this may require a slightly different setting on the power steering system, but that again is a minor set-up and there is already notable variation between male drivers in this area anyway.

From a technical perspective that is about it, there is no real technical impediment to female Grand Prix drivers competing with their male counterparts.

It is a fact though that males and females do perform very differently behind the wheel of a car. There are some physical variations between males and females that while they may not prevent like for like competition, they probably reduce the talent pool significantly. The male brain and female brain are significantly different in terms of cognitive function.

Research has shown time and time and again that males, and young males in particular, tend to be more aggressive than women, and they differ in how they use that expression. This is a significant factor in driving performance in males it encourages more competitive and hostile behaviour, something that is rewarded in motor racing.

Males also show on average, higher levels of sensation-seeking and risk-taking again traits rewarded in motor racing. Apparently this is due to a hormonal and neurochemical basis. It means that motor racing by its very nature is generally more attractive to males as an activity than females, and as a result more males decide to take it up as a sport.

Much of this comes down to the nature of human evolution, some research papers suggest that the difference between the genders in terms of driving performance is down to the evolution of humans. They point out that for 99 per cent of the existence of mankind the requirements of societies and cultures were radically different to those of today, as a result the human brain evolved to deal with the life of a hunter gatherer, rather than those of a post industrial revolution, post digital revolution society. In other words a 21st century human has a stone-age brain.

Stone-age humans of course did not participate in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, but the rewards of survival and of course mating resulted in a male brain tuned for hunting, aggressiveness and risk taking.

This has been shown in studies to be represented in the way males drive cars today. This is the reason why males have a higher number of fatal accidents on the road than females. Females were of course during the same period honed to raise and defend offspring. This of course all sounds deeply sexist but it is a combination of historical fact and recent scientific study.

The World Health Organisation agrees with this and its Department of Gender and Womens Health has called for recognition of these fundamental differences between men and women drivers.

Actually the different 'wiring' of the female brain could in fact be advantageous in some scenarios, certainly in terms of communication. Anecdotal evidence from engineers at Williams claims that Susie Wolff is very good in terms of technical feedback from the simulator and the same is said of Danica Patrick in her Chevy Sprint Cup car. Of course much of this is based on individuals and there seems to have been little study on females in competition in general.

It seems to me reading the studies conducted to date, that in simple terms these brain differences mean that there will always be fewer women capable of competing at the top levels of motor racing, but that does not mean that there are not examples of women such as de Silvestro, Danica Patrick, Michele Mouton and Sabine Schmitz more than capable of competing at a very high level indeed, but these females are exceptional, not average.

With fewer females taking up the sport in the first place, and few of those that do take it up proving to be exceptional then it perhaps should be no surprise that there have been no female drivers at the top level of the sport for many years. Even putting aside the nature of the sport and industry being generally male dominated and the wider economic factors which make it even less likely to get a female driver on the grid.

It could be argued that because of these factors a separate all female formula is required, and also that if there was a separate 'Female 1 Grand Prix' series using identical equipment to the World Championship that the field would be significantly slower on average (due to the limited number of exceptional females able to match the males).

If that all female formula has the same budget and engineering support as the male version it could be argued that the rate of technical development would increase as the number of drivers capable of delivering a Fernando Alonso / Anthony Davidson level of technical feedback would be higher than that of the male formula.

However, the reality is an all-female class would seem to be an exercise in futility, an exceptional female will almost certainly excel at the top level of sport in the years to come with the right opportunity (perhaps it could have been De Silvestro), as Michele Mouton did in the WRC in the 1980's.

This would certainly be a better marketing message for the sport than championship full of less than exceptional females, which could be deemed as patronising. The reason some series such as Indycar attract more women than say Formula 1 is purely socio-economic.

As a result it is my opinion that from a technical and scientific perspective there is no real need for an all-female version of Formula 1, even if the marketing potential of an all-female series, as with an all-electric formula is undeniable, if a little short term.

Max Yamabiko

Max Yamabiko will bring you a closer look at the technical side of F1 and motorsport in 2015, from the latest developments and solutions employed to keep you ahead of the game