Thursday, May 7, 2015

Spanish Sizzle Fades after Forty years...



Whilst I'm familiar with the name Lella Lombardi, who's apparently the only F1 Driver to score a  half-point for her total tally of career Grand Prix points scored. Along with knowing it had happened 'Wayback in the 1970's, nonetheless I'd lost sight that this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix celebrates the 40th Anniversary of said event.

And since this was way before my introduction to Formula 1, I never saw the race or knew anythingy about how disliked said racing venue was, as Reuters Alan Baldwin's report about the F1 team's mechanics personally being dispatched to attempt fixing the ill-prepared Montjuich circuit,   predecessor to today's modern Barcelona track certainly is a thing of bygone era. Along with a current Formula 1 world champion driver threatening not to race  on the basis of safety concerns...


Yet has Formula 1 or modern society really progressed? Since after all, current Team Willy' (Williams) Femme Fatale Susie Wolff appears to  have plateaued at "Simulator Jockey" (Test Driver) status with the occasional Friday morning FP1 drive thrown in.

While "Symona-Symona," aka Simona de Silvestro , Sauber F1's Affiliated Driver last season has since returned Stateside where the likeable "Swiss Missile" will race for Andretti Autosport in IndyCar's premiere race, the Indy 500 this Memorial Day.


And further blunting the cause for female F1 Drivers is Lotus's suspect hiring of Carmen Jorda as "Tester," in what largely appears to be a marketing exercise at best! Since Jorda was kicking round as an Indy Lights Sideshow five years ago...

Meanwhile the name of Alice Powell comes to mind for Mwah for possible future female racer candidates. Yet I must say I've never heard of current European F3 Colombian racer Tatiana Calderon until now.


And lastly, I've scribbled previously 'bout the plights of female racers  trying to crack  the top level 'O motorsports in the slightly dated story below. As we're a long ways gone from the heady Days 'O Five Femme Fatales racing at once in IndyCar, which did indeed happen at Chicagoland...