FORUMula1.com

[Jabberwocky]

Tis a sad day

[MACH141]

It has been a long time since we heard a formula 1 driver get injured during the test or race, this is very sad I hope she get better.

[racechick]

Oh that is so sad! Lets hope first she gets well but then she has to face the fact that the career she loves is over . That sounded like one hell of a nasty accident. Poor girl.

[f1ea]

Wow that's really sad. It's already terrible for the driver and her family, but hopefully this doesn't close doors on other female drivers participating.......

[madbrad]

I hope she can later provide info to the team about the crash.

[Jessie]

So sad, poor girl. At least she's survived & will recover, but life will never be the same for her & her F1 dreams are over.

[LewEngBridewell]

Good god, this is absolutely terrible news, especially when you consider how precious one's eyes actually are.

[Jabberwocky]

In a very bad way I think this could reflect badly one women reaching F1. I would imagine a lot of the older generation tutting and shaking there heads with a "Woman drivers" type of comment.

If they are good enough and deserve to be in the sport on merit then it does not matter how many testicles (if any) a driver has.

[LewEngBridewell]

In a very bad way I think this could reflect badly one women reaching F1. I would imagine a lot of the older generation tutting and shaking there heads with a "Woman drivers" type of comment.

Only a bigoted, narrow-minded, uneducated and behind-the-times person would think this. And yes, as you say, it tends to be the older generation that fall foul of such odious prejudices.

[spankyham]

In a very bad way I think this could reflect badly one women reaching F1. I would imagine a lot of the older generation tutting and shaking there heads with a "Woman drivers" type of comment.

If they are good enough and deserve to be in the sport on merit then it does not matter how many testicles (if any) a driver has.

Only a bigoted, narrow-minded, uneducated and behind-the-times person would think this. And yes, as you say, it tends to be the older generation that fall foul of such odious prejudices.

As to testes and measures of toughness, I like this quote...

[darwin dali]

I can see the headline already: JB blames having only one testicle for his on-track woes.

[geetface9]

Very depressing news to read. Glad I didn't make some silly gender comment yesterday! because gender aside I wouldn't want this to happen to any driver, not even vettel!!!

[McLaren]

This is very sad news to hear,fingers crossed she makes a good recovery.It's always sad to hear something like this.

But can lessons be learnt from this ?, What was she even doing in a formula one car ? (yes I know she had a test for lotus) .I'm guessing it's a case of a very rich father or she has very good backing of some kind.

Before I continue this has nothing at all to do with the fact that she's female,We are seeing drivers paying their way into the sport ,P1 is a classic example with some teams allowing other drivers to step in ,something I find silly and can halm the teams prep for raceday.

Anyway back to what i was saying I've looked through her record and in all her races in Grand Am Series,WTCC,Euroseries 3000 and Superleague Formula she's has never even managed a podium let alone a race win.Also doesn't hold a super license.I've read a few articles that say she was average at best,something I wouldn't of thought would qualify you to drive an F1 car.

There maybe a reason other than her father/backing why but I'm struggling to see it.Maybe if we had tighter rules on how you qualify to drive an F1 car we can prevent something like this happening in the future.

At the end of the day it was a tragic accident ,luckily it looks like not being a fatal one ,I would like to think lessons will be learnt from this for the safety of drivers in the future.Once again a I wish her a speedy recovery.

[ShoutingNow]

Obviously it has nothing to do with her being female, but we can't overlook the fact that she IS one. In motor-sport, gender shouldn't matter but a female driving dying on track is going to raise a much bigger ruckus than a male driver, I for one having watched Formula one for years and years...and years do not really wish to see a debacle because of gender issues. I do not claim that male drivers are better intrinsically and that females can't do well, nor do I believe it. This is a sport that can turn for the worse very quickly if there is a fatal injury to a female driver, anyone denying that is delusional.

If it need be that no female drivers should take part to keep the sport as it is, then so be it. No one strictly speaking nowadays gets in purely because of driving merit. These aren't the "best" drivers in the world, and there probably are other female drivers better than de Villota, do we really need to see female drivers in the sport just for the sake of it? Clearly she didn't get in because of pure driving merit, a whole unemployment exchange centre could be made to fit the amount of drivers who could do this role.

I don't write this to vilify her, or other female drivers, but this is how I see it, as realistically as possible. I'd bet my bottom dollar that a large number of females would be wanting to drive to just prove that they can match their male counter-parts rather than drive for the love of the sport.

[ShoutingNow]

In a very bad way I think this could reflect badly one women reaching F1. I would imagine a lot of the older generation tutting and shaking there heads with a "Woman drivers" type of comment.

Only a bigoted, narrow-minded, uneducated and behind-the-times person would think this. And yes, as you say, it tends to be the older generation that fall foul of such odious prejudices.

That's a pretty stupid call.

Education somehow has a bearing on this how? Narrow-minded maybe, but that's rather subjective. "Behind-the-times" - yes, clearly everyone needs to jump on the popularity band-wagon. Let's no longer think, let's just do what the times dictate.

I'm not of the older generation, far from it, but people of the older generation do have a point here. Why stop at F1? Let's lead the way and be really hip, women in men's rugby! Recruit women into infantry battalions, we need to show 'em ol' farts how far thinking we really are!