Marko: Formula 1 is too physically demanding for women drivers

Red Bull motorsport advisor Dr Helmut Marko believes that Formula 1 is too physically demanding for women drivers.  

The Austrian insisted the demands of modern era Formula 1 cars would be too extreme for a female driver to handle.

Speaking to Austrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung, Marko explained that the speeds and forces modern F1 drivers experience are too physically demanding for a female driver to become competitive in the sport.

"If you're driving at 300 [km/h] and have a wheel-to-wheel fight, then brutality is part of it, I do not know if that's in the female nature," Marko said.

"You have to be fit in Formula 1 and you need an insane power from the shoulder.

"In the old Gösser curve at the Red Bull Ring you drive with 4G. These are huge physical demands, and that is maybe too difficult and too strenuous for women.

"There are now power brakes, but still you have to go in there with a lot of effort, you're encased, and in the cockpit you're 40, 50 degrees.

"The hot cables run past you, we've seen top drivers who were just about to collapse in Singapore, and I think the physical strain [for women] is way too big."