Time for Bernie Ecclestone to put women's in the F1 driver's seat
Formula One supremo must show sincerity in wanting to create a grid of equality by forcing teams to employ at least one female No 3 racer
We will not see any crowds protesting against Bernie Ecclestone's latest putdown of women drivers at the Shanghai Grand Prix, but there is a whiff of sexual apartheid in the latest madcap suggestion from F1's billionaire boss that teams should launch a championship exclusively for women.
Segregating female drivers in a separate, second-fiddle series that few fans will watch cannot be the best way to advance their cause. Instead, because F1 teams have been so resistant to change, the time has come to force their hand: Rule that they each must hire a woman driver and race them in at least two grands prix per season. More of that later.
To be fair to Ecclestone, perhaps his motivations are noble.
That's why a woman will never be in the top because of the physical issue. I don't want to fight for 10th or 15th. What I want to do is to win
Perhaps he recognises that the enduring stranglehold of men on F1, with no women actually racing and too few in positions of power behind the scenes, undercuts its pretentions of being the most modern of sports.
Or having declared 10 years ago that "women should be all dressed in white like all the other domestic appliances", perhaps the 84-year-old who built F1's commercial success is becoming a campaigning feminist?
Or perhaps not.
Parading women like this smacks suspiciously of being more about money, an attempt to use them to revive F1 television audiences, rather than being an about-face for equality.
"I thought it would be a good idea to give them a showcase. For some reason, women are not coming through - and not because we don't want them. Of course we do, because they would attract a lot of attention and publicity and probably a lot of sponsors," Ecclestone said.