McLaren's Pedro de la Rosa Thinks Women Are Too Weak To Race In F1

With all the buzz over Danica Patrick wiping the floor at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan last weekend, it's easy to forget there's other talented females engaged in various forms of motorsport across the world. Just look at Michèle Mouton's rally career — multiple wins in her Audi Quattro and finishing a close second place in the 1982 WRC championship. So you know that the girls can go just as fast as the boys — and as we saw this past weekend, sometimes faster. So this ultimately leads to the question, "Can a women be successful in Formula One?" Well, veteran McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa seems to think women might just not be strong enough to deal with the rigors of the track.

According to F1-Live, the 37-year old de la Rosa said:

"There are less and less obstacles because there are now many women in kart racing ... The base of the pyramid is expanding ... I would be delighted to see it happen sooner or later, but it is more difficult for women because of the important physical elements of racing in Formula One,"

Although we wonder what Danica would have to say about that, we're pretty sure she's too busy on a Sports Illustrated or FHM shoot to dignify it with a response. Of course as soon as she's done with that, she'd probably point out to de la Rosa that she managed to do pretty well against Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon and Tony Kanaan. Of course none of them were in Formula 1, but who's counting. [via F1-Live]

Contact information for this author is not available.