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In Formula One's 72-year history, only two women have ever started a race and F1 chief Stefano Domenicali has opined that watching a female driver starting on the grid is not going to happen anytime soon. However, Sebastian Vettel does not support the remarks of the former Ferrari boss on aspiring female racers.
Ahead of this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix, Domenicali said, “We believe that it is crucial in this moment to try to give the maximum possibility to women to come to Formula One… Realistically speaking, unless there is something like a meteorite, I don’t see a girl coming into F1 in the next five years. That is very unlikely.”
The Aston Martin racer, Sebastian Vettel opposed Domenicali's 'meteorite' remark about female racers as it might demoralize young girls to take F1 racing as their career option.
Vettel said, "It was a very unlucky choice of words because it’s statements like that, that I guess women are, probably all girls, are probably confronted with when they grow up and sharing their dreams…sitting at breakfast, saying that I want to become a racing driver."
"And the father might just have read exactly statements like that and say: ‘You do like other things, why not focus on other things?’ Maybe they do focus on other things and drop racing or the idea. It is important we don’t say these things because there are sparks everywhere," he added.
The first woman to race in the championship era, Maria Teresa de Filippis started three races and finished 10th at the Belgian Grand Prix in 1958. The last female racer to start on the grid was Lella Lombardi, who made her debut in 1974 and is the only female driver in F1 history to have a top six finish in a World Championship race at the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix.