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RACERS AND BEAUTY - THEN AND NOW
By
Carlos de Paula
Female
race drivers are not very common, yet, they have been around for some time and
they are not rare. In fact, a female racer, Czech Elizabeth Junek (Eliska
Junkova), caused much commotion when she proved faster than most of her
counterparts during the 20’s and 30s.
Most high impact female drivers of yesteryear share a peculiar trace. Maria Teresa de Filippis, Lella Lombardi, Desire Wilson, Divina Galica, Lyn St. James, Janet Guthrie, Ellen Lohr, Giovanna Amati, Christine Beckers, Hannelore Werner, Helle Nice, Elizabeth Junek, Waltraudt Odenthal were not what one could call very pretty women.
The
Women Drivers in Formula 1
Maria
Teresa de Filipis, Lella Lombardi, Divina Galica, Desire Wilson and Giovanna
Amati
The
rather subjective statement becomes almost axiomatic when the above are compared
to the current crop of Danica Patrick, Vanina Ickx, Susie Stoddart,
Sarah Fisher, Milka Duno, Liz
Halliday, Katherine Legge, Suzanne Carvalho.
Women
drivers today: Milka Duno, Vanina Ickx and Susie Stoddart, Liz Halliday, Dnaica
Patrick, Katherine Legge.
Who is Suzanne
Carvalho? Well, Suzanne was a Brazilian model/actress, who decided to
fulfill her lifelong dream of racing cars, in 1992, and ended up Brazilian and
South American Class B Formula 3 champion.
She might have started the “babe” driver trend.
Suzane Carvalho
I can only recall two old time lady racers who had good looks under most people’s estimations, Dutch Lianne Engemann and Marie Claude Beaumont. I am positive there might be others, but I simply do not recall them.
Lianne
Engemann and Marie Claude Beaumont - the pretty lady racers from the 70s.
Before I
am accused of being a male chauvinist, read on. It would be silly to reduce
looks as the predominant factor that has brought prominence to the above racers.
In other words, these lady racers are not where they are only because of their
looks. They have racing talent to boot.
On the
other hand, it is silly to consider that Motorola has dished out multimillions
to bring Patrick to Andretti Green, simply on the basis of her track
performance, after all, Danica has failed to win a single race to date.
Looks
do not affect only women in racing. The sport’s commercialism dictate that athletes who look and
communicate better have more commercial value than those that are poor
communicators or simply unpleasant looking. They will, after all, become
ambassadors for their sponsors, and looks rule in advertising.
In fact, take the world champions from 1966 until 1975, Jack Brabham, Denis Hulme, Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart, Jochen Rindt, Emerson Fittipaldi and Niki Lauda. None of them very handsome men, by classical standards. And I am being quite generous in that statement, for some of them. The pattern was only broken with rockstar look-a-like James Hunt in 1976. Compare to the list of world champions since 1996: Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve, Mika Hakkinen, Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso.
Male Top Drivers of yesteryear - Not your regular "Hunks"
Jackie
Stewart, Denis Hulme, Jochen Rindt and Niki Lauda
Go
through the current Formula 1 grid, and you will find that part of the appeal of
many of today’s drivers lie on their looks. Nico Rosberg, Mark Webber,
Jenson Button, David Coulthard, Ralf Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen, Scott Speed,
Tiago Monteiro add value to their obvious speed and racecraft.
Male Top Drivers of today - Case Closed!
Nico Rosberg, Kimi Rakkonen, Tiago Monteiro, Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber!!!
A
motorsport writer from F1 Magazine went as far as saying that Nico Rosberg
looks better than most of the seemingly thousands of female models that hang on
Formula 1 paddocks…
Robert Kubica - Hope For the Future!!!!!
