Source: Danica Patrick’s Twitter
American former racing driver Danica Patrick reveals she hung out with Lewis Hamilton back in the early 2000s, while she was racing in Europe.
Danica Patrick will be joining the Sky Sports broadcast team for this weekend’s United States Grand Prix, so she was recently asked to comment on the title fight between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.
And Patrick should know a thing or two, as back in the early to mid-2000s the former Indycar and NASCAR star was racing in Europe.
She also personally knows some of the players involved in Formula 1. In a 2010 interview with the Times, Danica revealed she hung out with two future Formula 1 world champions – Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.
“I wasn’t going to be a go-kart driver forever,” Patrick said at the time.
“As soon I was old enough to race cars, I took it to the next level. I was told that I could learn more in a year in the UK than I could in five years in the United States.
“I met Lewis Hamilton at Jenson’s 21st birthday party, by which time Jenson was already an F1 driver.
“We were a brat pack of friends, him and a few other drivers. Button’s a nice guy – I was happy to see him win last year.”
However, she also felt the racing environment in Europe was a bit chauvinistic at the time.
“It felt much more old-school over there [in Britain], though. Women still cooked and cleaned. I feel the women’s movement happened a little faster over here [in the US].
“I remember I was the quickest one day in practice, and one of the team owners I drove for couldn’t believe it. To the male drivers he was like, ‘She’s the quickest – what are you doing?
“Get out there, go!’ as if it wasn’t okay to be slower than me. He would tell his wife to fetch him beers.”
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We all know Lewis is a big proponent of equality and is using his voice and resources to open motorsport up for people of all races and genders. This week Patrick told Sky Sports that she believes things are now moving in a more positive direction.
“There are programmes to support it and there’s a narrative to support it, I think you see it more and more all the time. But these are big ships to turn.
“They have to be interested from a young age, too. As far as drivers go, you don’t just pluck someone when they hear a story and they’re like, ‘I’m 22, I’ll give that a try’. You need to be more like two!
“These things start really young, so it will be more interesting as this has been a common narrative for what, 15 years? What’s going to happen in the next 15?”
However, she doesn’t believe we will ever see a ‘half girls half guys’ grid.
“I don’t think that we’re ever going to see it 50-50, so I don’t know if that’s what people think should happen, half girls half guys, but it’s not a feminine sport.
“Just like there are sports where there are going to be more girls doing than guys, it’s the same thing. It falls into what comes naturally to someone.
“But over time I’m sure there will be more and more, as there are more women in the pit-lane there will be more women in the seat, more opportunities.
“But 50-50? That’s not going to happen,” Patrick concluded.
