F1 'grid girls' under 'strong review'

[Robem64]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/42346331

I'd rather they reviewed grid penalty use as a priority over whether to use grid girls.

At the end of the day nobody is forcing these girls against their will.

[Dare]

In the new world we live in you have to be aware of what
you think or say as people get their feeling hurt so easy.
Before long there won't be any actors left on tv.

[Jericoke]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/42346331

I'd rather they reviewed grid penalty use as a priority over whether to use grid girls.

At the end of the day nobody is forcing these girls against their will.

A few years ago they added some 'grid dudes' into the mix.  I think that's the better solution.

[Jericoke]

In the new world we live in you have to be aware of what
you think or say as people get their feeling hurt so easy.
Before long there won't be any actors left on tv.

While there are plenty of people who whine about their feelings being hurt, the actors/producers etc. getting erased from the entertainment world are people who got physical without consent (or worse, forced 'consent'). 

We can debate where the line should be drawn, but when these people vanish with a vague apology and no fight, they know they've crossed it.

[Ian]

I am sick and tired of all the PC and gender awareness, even worse is kids a young as 4 or 5 being asked if they're happy in their gender, let them be kids for heavens sake, they learn soon enough now that the world is not always as friendly as it should be.

[sprite]

If a driver can't find his grid spot without someone holding a sign with their name on it, should he be on the grid?
Wouldn't miss them..

[John S]

For me F1 drivers, teams and especially the new FOG have become way to serious about all aspects of the sport/circus that is F1. Grid girls or boys are just part of the pageant atmosphere on race day. Sure it"s frivolous and may not be really necessary but IMHO it adds to the whole trackside show.

The teams and management seem unwilling to let us have, or even see, big and crazy personalities as standard amongst the drivers so extra Showtime sparkly bits help with the general razzmataz.

I note that Brawn would also like female F1 drivers. - Yeah like that's really gonna happen with the tighter and tighter Super Licence points rules.

With almost no representation in the qualifying series we are many years off any woman getting even half the points required to be in F1. Perhaps Ross needs to address that issue more proactively rather than fiddling with the window dressing. 

[Jericoke]

If a driver can't find his grid spot without someone holding a sign with their name on it, should he be on the grid?
Wouldn't miss them..

I presume the signs aren't for the drivers, but the people paying for paddock club access and want to seem knowledgeable about which drivers are 'good'

[cosworth151]

A couple of quotes:

Max Verstappen: "The grid girls must stay."

Nico Hulkenberg: "It would be a pity if they took the eye jewelry from the grid. What will come next year instead? Halo? Oh dear."

[Dare]

Give us halos and no passing and cars with no sound
but taking away the grid girls is more than a true fan can
stand. But please no trans grid girls what ever they do

[Scott]

Too many tangents in this thread to make a reasonable comment, but as for Grid Girls, I couldn't care a less.  Stick the car numbers on a post and have the team haul it away when they run off the grid.  Maybe they can save a bit of money and stop trying to reduce the number of engines.   

[lkjohnson1950]

A literate view from a woman who loves racing.

https://racingrecap.wordpress.com/2017/03/13/372/

[cosworth151]

But that's just the problem. The cars and the circuits aren't sexy anymore. They're minivan V-6's on over gimmicked cookie cutter Tilke-dromes. The engines don't moan & purr. They emit a sad, pathetic whimper. The drivers don't go all-out to win. They can't They have to go easy on their engines to make them last or face ridiculously large grid penalties. There are no truly innovative designs. Why bother? Every time one comes along, the FIA springs into action to outlaw it. The sport is still being run by people who think that having pretty buildings in the background is far more important than putting on a good race.

In spite of all this, F1 still has fans that will get up at ridiculous hours of the night and search the internet to find feeds to watch the races. That's because the powers-that-be don't think we're worth a decent, affordable feed.

Worrying about issues like grid girls at a time like this is about as useful as rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

[Alianora La Canta]

If a driver can't find his grid spot without someone holding a sign with their name on it, should he be on the grid?
Wouldn't miss them..

While we have had F1 race winners fail to do so on the start grid (I've supported one who managed it twice at the same track), the boards with names on haven't have helped that bit as they leave, with the grid girls, before the formation lap. The post-installation lap grid has been guided using race numbers since at least 2015, and even then Pascal Wehrlein managed to miss his grid slot (he went on to score a point for Manor in the very same race, largely because of some extremely quick reversing!)

When the grid girls are on the grid, they get from the line equivalent to the start of the pit lane restricted area to their grid slot by mechanics pushing them. If every single one of them forgets which grid slot they're going to... ...the entire team has a big problem. Though the name sign, in fairness, doesn't help then either as it is facing the wrong way. (In reality, the signs are there for rookie fans attending the race - celebrity or otherwise).

As for the news item, I think it's a "slow news day" story. Liberty, last I heard, were reviewing literally everything within their power.

Female drivers? I agree. This is one more failing of a system that heavily rewards success in the most expensive series - women don't get the sponsorship to do well in expensive series very often. The only time it's happened is Carmen Jorda, who took a F3 car in a team where the other driver won the championship to 0 points. That's because big sponsors don't want to sponsor speedy women; they only want to sponsor women who look like grid girls, who can be supporting characters on male-targeted adverts.

Unfortunately, Liberty can't change the Superlicence system to reward cheaper series. They can't even force the FIA to award points for the horrible women-only scam-resembling subseries that some businessmen whose names I can't be bothered to remember keep toting where it's not wanted. All they can do is cheerlead.

Big, bright personalities are a function of team restrictions, media saturation and possibly overlong (in calendar months) scheduling. Liberty can't influence the first one except indirectly, and the other two would probably work against Liberty's short-term bottom line if it did anything about them. Depending on its long-term goals, it may still be worth its doing so financially (and it certainly is from the angle of interest).

Scott, what you describe is what WEC does. The change occurred at the beginning of last year and has been received well. Admittedly, F1 has had grid girls for a lot longer, so it's natural there'd be more resistance in F1 than WEC.

[cosworth151]

Now, Liberty wants to "reform" them, make them "more relevant." Murray Barnett, Liberty's sponsorship and marketing chief, said, "We're 100 percent committed to looking into grid girls and making them a more relevant part of the competition rather than just holding a board and standing next to a car. We haven't quite cracked what this will look like, but we've recognized we need to become more progressive there."