According to The Guardian, when asked if he anticipated the return of a female driver to the grid, Ecclestone said: “I doubt it. If there was somebody that was capable they wouldn’t be taken seriously anyway, so they would never have a car that is capable of competing. There was a girl that was driving in GP3 for a whole season so it is not something that hasn’t happened.”
When he was asked if a woman would ever start another Formula One Race, Ecclestone’s response was : “No, I don’t think so.”
22-year-old British woman Alice Powell who became the first female winner of the Formula Renault series in 2010 has responded to Ecclestone’s comments: “Someone needs to prove Bernie wrong. It would be a shame if a team would turn down a female to race in F1 because they would not be taken seriously.”
Powell also said that many women in motor sport don’t take the chances to go further because they feel like they will be derided and treated as a joke or novelty.
“We’re not a joke and it is just another factor which makes it harder for females to race at the highest level.”
It is now almost 40 years since the Italian driver Lella Lombardi became the last woman to start a Formula One race at the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix.
