Max Verstappen asserts women ‘need’ to race against men to reach F1
Max Verstappen asserted that women needed more opportunities against men to make progress in the world of motorsport.
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Max Verstappen (Via Red Bull), Abbi Pulling winning the 2024 F1 Academy championship (via F1 Academy)
Formula 1 continues to be male-dominated as the grid hasn’t seen a single female racer alongside the others. More Women have still joined the engineering crew of multiple teams in recent years. However, the female racers aren’t really provided the opportunity to race against male racers in junior categories as Max Verstappen feels this is important.
Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, and many other drivers have continued to be active voices to improve gender equality and inclusivity in the sport. The sport launched F1 academy to help female drivers make their way up the categories. However, the paddock hasn’t seen any improvement in the number of females. The Dutchman reckoned that the females needed to race ‘anyone’ and not just the same gender. Racing against males would provide a ‘fair comparison’ since the ladies would have to do the same in Formula 1.
I believe personally that they have to race anyone, not just females. If you want a fair comparison, they need to race against males, because that’s what they will do in F1 as well.
Max Verstappen told sportskeeda
Formula 1 continued to reach new heights and including female racers would only boost the sport’s popularity. Verstappen believed that raising the top level of the sport would enable individual achievements to rise up further. The 27-year-old assessed that in order to achieve the top, Formula 1 would have to raise female talent further.
If you want to achieve the top, you need to raise the top.
Max Verstappen added
Female racers are not ‘racing at the top’
Women are still receiving new and interesting opportunities which would eventually help pave their way into Formula 1. However, Max Verstappen noted that the women weren’t racing at the top despite receiving new opportunities. Moreover, the 27-year-old highlighted that racing against male racers in junior karting categories made him want to push more and improve in performance.
Of course, it’s nice that they get opportunities, but they’re not racing the top of the top you know what I mean and then I always feel that I grew up in go karting in racing older kids, when I was younger and they were faster. So I had to push myself you know I had to learn more I had to learn faster to become better at a young age and I think that is what they have to do as well.
Max Verstappen noted
Certainly, Verstappen’s comments would further strengthen the motion to improve the gender ratio in Formula 1, especially the drivers. The sport would also have to work on improving other issues such as improving racial equality and providing opportunities to underprivileged people in the pinnacle of motorsport.
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Aditya Pandya
(1388 Articles Published)