Ford Italia Unveils the Monza W-Track for Assetto Corsa

Wow! this topic descended quickly.
I think it is a good initiative....exposing more women to motorsport and racing in general.
It certainly cannot hurt.
I don't see it as a bad thing to peak the interest of the woman accompanying her husband or boyfriend to that race on Sunday evening.
Heck!...many are there already because they're major fans of motorsport.
I also know....given prolonged exposure and resources...they're just as capable as any one of us in getting the job done.
That has been proven over and over again.
We are dominant by sheer numbers.

Please return to the topic of this news article.

No more discussions centered around race, nationality, religion, politics, cultures or belief systems, check our terms of service if you have difficulties knowing what you can and can't write about here on RD.

If they wanna compete against other drivers, they just gotta get good. Nobody's discriminating them, they just aren't fast - except some who absolutely wreck the opposition, but those are rare.

Bram Hengeveld said:

Please return to the topic of this news article.

No more discussions centered around race, nationality, religion, politics, cultures or belief systems, check our terms of service if you have difficulties knowing what you can and can't write about here on RD.

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That is exactly what this article is about - sexism

The problem with this type of enterprise where it is not a free racing category but a selective one where only woman can compete is just unfair and so it's bad.
Many things in life are sold as good because they are surrounded by nice adjectives and, by that, derivatives of good intentions. But this is not the case. Is wrong.
The amount of woman trying to get in motorsport is way less than the amount of men left out of the sport. So, you did not solve the issue you just intensify it way more, there are more men without the opportunity than woman pretends to have.
So now they are creating a new privilege class.

Nothing good could come from denying the truth.

It's a shame there aren't more virtue signalling days. Spare a thought, there are some people that only have the opportunity to pretend to be good caring people online for a few days of the year. We can do better.. I want to live in a world where they can feel morally superior to others *every* day.

The gross sexism on display in this thread really sucks the joy from RD and simracing.

Bram Hengeveld said:

Please return to the topic of this news article.

No more discussions centered around race, nationality, religion, politics, cultures or belief systems, check our terms of service if you have difficulties knowing what you can and can't write about here on RD.

Click to expand...

I think it might be better to refrain from posting this kind of promotional articles that have some sort of "empowerment" (politics) embedded in them and no other value; there's no download link to a track, no further info on who worked on this project, not even a video of a lap on board and only a picture of some boardroom figures who likely can't even recognize the layout of Monza.

There's always going to be people who have thinking X, Y or Z, and they will always "clash" in this type of comment sections, and you start off with this user statistic of male vs. female users. I think you knew exactly what was coming.

SvenUilhoorn said:

you start off with this user statistic of male vs. female users.

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I start things off by displaying the gender split of our audience?

It's posted to outline how many female drivers there are already in the simracing community compared to only a few years ago when it was more a 98 vs 2% split. Close to 15% of a millions people audience I find very impressive already and I proud to see so many female drivers are enjoying the simracing hobby.

But sure, ill leave the facts out next time if that is too sensitive for people.

Austin Ogonoski said:

Watching this virtue signalling spiral deeper and deeper into insanity with each passing year is just bizarre.

It is as if people and companies think life is an RPG, and they are trying to farm trace amounts of "good person XP" by shouting from the rooftops how much they care about current social issues. Day after day, month after month. Congrats Ford, here's your 2XP, make sure you post about Ukraine within the hour as well for another 2XP otherwise people might say mean things to you on Twitter if you don't post fast enough.

I grew up primarily a fan of Monster Trucks and Drag Racing. Between Shirley Muldowney, Lori Johns, Shelley Anderson, Angelle Sampey, Kristen Powell, Melanie Troxel, Pam Vaters, Jill Canuso, Debra Micelli, Kathy Winston, and Dawn Creten, there has been no shortage of successful women in motorsports with big money backing. The above had sponsorship from Supershops, Jolly Rancher, Western Auto, Reebok, Exide Batteries, Winston Cigarettes, NAPA, Sobe Energy Drinks, & Checkers Schucks Kragen.

And that's just pre-2002. Let's skip ahead to modern day to twist the knife further; Lizzi Musi, Erica Enders, Angelle Sampey, Ashley Force, Brittany Force, Courtney Force, Brianna Mahon... do you want me to continue?

And this is before you list off international heroes like Michele Mouton, Danica Patrick, Jamie Chadwick, and Sabine Schmitz. There is very obviously not a barrier.

I have family that have been involved in the NHRA and have been racing locally for about 5-6 years. Anytime a racing family has daughters, the question immediately becomes "how do we get them into my race car?" There are no barriers to entry for women. In fact I have personally seen the opposite; men trying awkwardly to "include" their girlfriends by purchasing a provisional racing license, putting them on the grid having never driven a race car before, and then proceeding to watch them junk the field.

What ends up happening, is the daughters or wives/girlfriends just aren't interested in it. The same way men generally aren't interested in makeup or fashion. One of the late model drivers up here is a published model. Another became a realtor. A third moved away from her dad's race shop, moved in with her boyfriend, bought a dog. The men were simply so passionate about it that racing consumed them and they just... kept racing. You ever see those instagram memes about "men really make three friends at 15 and keep them for life?" Yeah it's the same with hobbies.

The sudden ret-conning of 30 years of auto racing history to pretend these female drivers didn't exist, their accomplishments meant nothing, and implying men are bullying women out of racing, and that women are somehow oppressed and "can't make it in motorsports", splitting hairs over meaningless demographics while bombs are currently being dropped in eastern Europe, is just sad.

At this point, any virtue signalling or pandering for these causes is just pathetic.

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I knew there would be people who wouldn't be able to comprehend your post. Women are being forced into mens spaces, yes mens spaces if anyone wants a cry. Nothing wrong with women being involved with Male dominated sports but stop forcing mens spaces to be filled with women. I dont see any push to force men into netball. When you force women into mens spaces rather than let them find their own path look what happens: you get idiots like Megan Rapinoe talking absolute bollocks about gender pay.

Men created all of these successful things over a century, I dont see women being forced into Male spaces that aren't successful. There is nothing stopping women creating their own thing, starting their own racing series or invent some sport.

Aiden237 said:

Danica Patrick famous for being used a model for GoDaddy (Sex sells I guess). Jamie Chadwick who can’t get a F3 seat. Sabine Schmitz who’s Wikipedia page spends more time talking about top gear than her time on the Nordschleife.

Why is there no women drivers in f2/f3 let alone f1? Why is there no female WRC drivers? Why is there no female NASCAR Cup drivers? Why do series like XE and W-Series if there is no barrier?

Why do pink trophies and women only series exist if there’s no barrier?

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Maybe because they're not fast enough? You think they should be given a seat just because they dont have a pe pe between their legs? You think there are teams saying damn that girl is fast, faster than my current drivers, but not signing her though because she has boobies? Maybe there are girls good enough but the girls that are good enough aren't in F2/F3 because they have better deals elsewhere, ever consider that?

Andrew_WOT said:

View attachment 548076
This is so bizarre, no idea why this happens. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
View attachment 548073View attachment 548074

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Males and females are different. Males are interested in things, females are interested in people. Some boys will even play with their younger sisters dolls occasionally of their own fruition then get bored after 5 minutes and neced do it again. It's a fallacy to believe men and women take their roles because its conditioned upon them. You know what has been conditioned upon women over the last 50 years? They must be career women, leave school and think about work, and women have never been unhappier.

I don't think it's important if women are hard to find among the frontrunners. For diversity reasons, I would appreciate their participation in my events, voice chat and discussions.
We race for fun in my community with respect for each other even though everyone is trying their best and getting better. The midfielders and backmarkers have their own battles to be faster than the man in front and they all enjoy it even with no chances to win. It's a healthy competitive culture with no macho performances
I think there are plenty of women who will like these races too if they will try it.

I hope women read this thread and give the Wednesday events a shot.

Like this one for tonight: https://www.racedepartment.com/thre...x5-riverside-wednesday-9th-march-2022.222133/

Hardcore racing fans want motorsports to be pure meritocracy, where the top seats in the top teams of the top series of the world are filled by the very best, most talented drivers, right?

Quotas dividing per genre, race, ethnic or whatever go against that. Of course that I want women to succeed in motorsport, of course that I would love to see one that has the skillset to compete in a world class field. But I want for one to arrive and achieve on merit, not being shoehorned into any place.

Sample size is a matter here. Motorsport needs either money, or such an enormous passion that you are willing to put every aspect of your life behind it. That puts lots of people off, either because they don't have the means to buy or rent a racecar, or not willing to put their family, friends, social life, studies, jobs, etc to the side and concentrate on building, preparing and carrying a racecar to the track and compete. Only that puts many men away from a racecar. Now on top of that, women as a whole are less interested in cars. Is not that women can not be passionate about racecars, but stop 10 random people of the street of both genres and ask them about cars and racing. Chances are you will get more positive answers from male than female.

Many people like to preach that motorsport is sexist because only males feature in F1. Well, sorry to say it, but the little sample size in the female pool of prospect racers makes it very difficult to find one that can make it into the most competitive (do not mistake this term with parity, ever) 4-wheel-racing series in the world. You need for women to get interested in cars early, even before their teens, and then to have the means to back a motorsport career that will help them develop skills from go-karts, to high perfomance open wheelers. It's not impossible, but it's very hard for it to happen.

I have one 5 year old son and one 3 year old daughter. They sit with me sometimes when I watch motorsports, they see me drive on my simrig, and sometimes they ask me to show them stuff, or play some driving that does not last long. But I don't see any of them being truly interested/passionate with cars, and I cannot force them to drop any toy they may be playing with, and pick up a small toy car and play with it. I've tried, sometimes it works, but most of times it does not, so I just go with the flow, lie down in the floor with them and follow whatever they want to play with.

My daughter loves dressing herself and picking the clothes she wants to wear. Then loves watching herself in the mirror, and showing off her fashion to both my wife and I. She also sometimes applies makeup to herself, as good as any 3 year old girl could do it. She picked those things up on her own, because both my wife and don't give AF on what do we wear or how do we look when we are at home, and we don't go out often. She picked those things up on her own. And there is no sexist bringing up in all of this.

The world needs to change for the better, but sometimes it feels like we are picking the wrong fights and the wrong targets.

Was expecting to get a download link for this track... sad.
I welcome any woman... and everybody should do, but some can't, some won't... i don't know why, we are all humans, should be easy to tolerate...