Michele Mouton, who leads the FIA’s Women in Motorsport Commission, has dismissed Carmen Jordá’s credentials as a potential future Formula 1 star, despite her involvement with the Lotus F1 Team in 2015 as a development driver.
Mouton, herself a former four-time World Rally winner, named current Williams F1 Team Developmental driver Susie Wolff, former Sauber F1 Team associated driver Simona de Silvestro, the high-profile NASCAR driver Danica Patrick and current Formula Renault 3.5 Series driver Beitske Visser as driver with the ability of being able to make it in Formula 1, ignoring former GP3 Series back marker Jordá completely.
“If I would suggest names of female drivers who have what it takes to make it to F1, I’d say Simona de Silvestro, Danica Patrick, Susie Wolff or even Beitske Visser, who is performing well in the Formula Renault 3.5 series,” revealed Mouton on Motorsport.com.
“These girls have scored very good results in their career. Other less successful girls have managed to climb the motorsport ladder, but that has more to do with marketing strategies and political reasons, and I am not interested in that.”
Mouton believes it is imperative that female racers are given equal opportunities and equal machinery to be able to see whether they are good enough to succeed in motorsport, and despite feeling it will be difficult to achieve complete equality, she has already seen some signs of this happening, such as with Tatiana Calderon in European Formula 3.
“The most important thing is to make sure that girls have access to the same equipment as the boys,” said Mouton. “When I raced, I had the same equipment as my male rivals. With equal equipment, it’s really easy to see if you’re good or if you’re not.
“Our goal is to make sure that the girls have comparable equipment. Things are moving forwards, and we start seeing some results. But we continue to work hard with the help of the national federations.
“It’s a huge task, but we start seeing the results.”
