Fisher Puts Women Back in F1 Driving Seat

American Sarah Fisher put women racers back on the Formula One radar on Friday as the first to drive a Grand Prix car in a decade.

The 21-year-old stepped into the spare McLaren, normally reserved for Scot David Coulthard and Finn Kimi Raikkonen, to perform a three-lap demonstration at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway ahead of Sunday's U.S. Grand Prix.

In doing so, the Indy Racing League (IRL) regular became the first woman since Italian Giovanna Amati in 1992 to experience the flat out power of a Formula One car on a regular grand prix circuit.

"It was great, it was fun, I didn't get to light it up very much because obviously I only had three laps to do it," she said. "I don't see any reasons why a female shouldn't be able to compete in Formula One...every car is different but every car is plainly a race car and it has different techniques that you need to modify your driving styles for.

"But it's certainly something that is very possible and there are many women athletes out there who are very good and very fast and can accomplish that."

No woman has ever scored more than half a point in Formula One racing since the Championship started in 1950 and Amati was the last to try and qualify, in vain, for a race with the now defunct Brabham team.

Racing Background

Fisher was offered her chance to taste the fierce acceleration and braking through sponsor Tag Heuer, who also back McLaren, but she has also got a racing pedigree in the man's world of motor racing.

This year she became the first woman to take pole position in a major open-wheel championship in the United States and has finished in the top three in IRL races.

"Here was just a demonstration and I think people maybe tend to forget the fact that its merely three laps," she said of her outing. "It wasn't a test of ability or skill or determining whether women are in racing. It was just a demonstration. To do a test for a full day would mean lots."

McLaren boss Ron Dennis has said he cannot envisage a woman breaking into Formula One as a serious contender but Ferrari's five times World Champion Michael Schumacher disagreed on Friday.

"I don't have a problem with women," said the German. "My opinion is quite clear, there is no reason why a woman shouldn't be able to race a Formula One car because of physical efforts.

"If you see some athletes, they are certainly stronger than we are, so they can be as strong as we are and do the job. There's just not enough around to do so."

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, a former CART champion now with Williams, also added a supportive voice.

"It had to be so hard for her," he said. "To have never driven the car before, never been in an F1 car before, in front of her home crowd. It's a good thing. If I were in her shoes, I would love to do that. Ninety percent of the people she races against are never going to get to Formula One."

Fisher posted a quickest time of 1:32.651, nearly 20 seconds off the pace set by World Champion Michael Schumacher in today's free practice session.