F1: A New But Old Face In The Cockpit?

Amidst the rivalries of Ferrari and Mclaren, the sudden yet foreseen rise of Sauber BMW, and the filming of Gilles Villeneuve Honda is yet again making headlines. 

Honda made headlines last year not by posting any victories on track but through their "strange" or rather modern livery.  F1 has been used to seeing tobacco advertisements all over their cars, and as the product's advertisement became illegal this was replaced by 10 of the 11 teams with alternative sponsors such as ING, Johnny Walker, and many more. 

Honda took the removal of tobacco sponsorship one step further and began to advertise not a product, but rather an idea, Earth Dreams, the idea of racing to benefit the planet.  This idea was building on Honda's awareness advertisement pushed by Honda outside of F1 or any sort of automobile racing.

Honda is now making headlines yet again.  Danica Patrick, the darling of American Open Wheel racing may be given the opportunity to test for F1's Honda team.  IF given the opportunity Danica will accept, as what she will be offered is not a test like Jeff Gordon undertook years ago, but actually post teams for the Japanese construct.

The opportunity to simply drive a car for a few laps was offered to Ms. Patrick years ago, in 2005 and at Indy to be exact; however she quickly passed on the opportunity as she foresaw this as simple show or display.

The idea of driving for F1 has not been foreign to the American.  Years ago during an interview she expressed her interest in the pinnacle of motor sport, but she also made it clear that she was happy where she is. 

"I would never say no to anything. I would never say no to F1; I would never say no to NASCAR. I just wouldn't do that to myself because you have to be open to all opportunities. But everything would be weighed up but right now I am happy where I am."

Yet what has changed, why is the star looking to move?  More importantly why is F1 or Honda interested in the female driver? 

Some may consider her career to have started off rather slowly, however the media's attention seemed to drown out her true level of performance by putting her on top of a pedestal even before she sat in a cockpit. 

As with the new installment of F1 movies the media seemed to expect the show to end all shows, but what they got was someone doing as well as anyone in their first season, and more importantly she seemed to beat some of the veterans of the sport. 

Earlier this year she posted her first victory, and if we compare that with the performance of Jenson Button, the lead driver of the team she is to test for, she has achieved victory far sooner than the young Britton. 

Danica's test will pose an interesting question whether she is ready to try her luck in F1?  If the answer is yes then Honda may be looking for the answer to their driver issue that will surely soon come up.  Jenson may want to switch to another better team, if anyone will take him, and Rubens may soon call it quits.

Danica Patrick would not be the first woman to try her luck in F1; in fact there have been a total of 5 women before her, yet only one, Lella Lombardi, made a successful start that resulted in some kind of results.

After performing well in Formula 3 and Formula 5000 in the early 1970s Maria Grazia "Lella" Lombardi entered Formula One in 1974 with an old privately-entered Brabham.   

Ms. Lombardi is also the only female Formula One driver in history to have a top 6 finish in a World Championship race at the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix.  Having switched to a March for the 1975 season she scored 0.5 points as a result of her 6^th place finish.  

Half points were awarded for this race due to a shortened race distance; hence Lombardi received half a point instead of the usual one point.

Throughout her career the Italian made 17 Grand Prix starts in Formula One World Championship.  She then had a one-off drive for Williams before a short-lived and unsuccessful partnership with RAM Racing, driving another Brabham.  Lombardi later raced in sports cars with some success. She died at only 51 years of age from cancer.

Other women have tried their hand at F1 racing, however none were as successful. Outside of open wheel racing, Eliška Junková, holds the record for the only woman having won a Grand Prix. Hellé Nice, on the other hand set the world land speed record for women in the late twenties. 

Aside from the few women having tried their hand and foot at the sport, women's involvement in racing has been as caterers, timers, and grid girls.  Their placement in their hierarchy of F1 seems not to have helped their image in the eyes of Bernie Ecclestone, who has seen their place in the kitchen;.

"You know, I've got one of these wonderful ideas that women should all be dressed in white like all the other domestic appliances."  (Los Angeles Times, 6/21/05, p. A-18.) 

Should Danica indeed be given the opportunity to switch to F1 she will certainly do wonders for the sport now riddled with controversies year after year.  In bringing the other sex into the "damaged" sport help could indeed be on its way.  Having lost Scott Speed last year F1 has lost its American Ambassador, something that has brought more frowns than smiles to Formula 1. 

In bringing an American to the sport the dream of the return of an American Grand Prix may be reawakened.

The arrival of Danica could also improve Honda's standings, because the only way from the bottom is up.  Their image could be improved even more; the team would now be an environmentally friendly and non-discriminatory squad. 

Should Danica Patrick indeed make the jump we need to ask ourselves if perhaps the merger of IRL and CART has been the beacon of hope promised, or if it has been the final nail on both coffins.