Money is obviously not the hurdle to be cleared, as you rightly point out. It’s the borderline hostile environment that requires more motivation and drive to overcome and push through, since it’s an additional barrier to all the other barriers every young driver needs to overcome. If girls are made to feel less…

I think you’ve missed the real problem. It’s not that men like to look at women, it’s that some of the men who like to look at the grid girls can’t help themselves from sexually harassing fans because the race weekend is setting the precedent that it’s ok to view women at the track as prizes to be won or objects to be…

Are you saying that because someone is offended by the Monster girls, then those girls, who are not being forced to do the job, shouldn’t be allowed to do the job?

As always, I wonder just how many people in favor of the Monster Energy Girls would either stop watching/attending NASCAR races or buy less Monster Energy drinks if they either disappeared or were replaced with less sexualized models. Does it really sell, or is that just the narrative?

No they’re not forced into it, and I’ll agree it’s tough to criticize them for participating willingly. A job’s a job, and hard to turn down even if some of them might have reservations about it.

I like that they’ve shuffled around the gags. They’ve managed to make things fresh and clever without feeling like a retread of the old stuff, yet still feeling distinctly like Top Gear.

Especially since the fans being alienated are more than just women. Even guys can find it skeevy, not to mention families who maybe aren’t excited about a family outing if it’s full of T&A.

It’s very much a cause and effect thing. Are women not as common in racing because they like it less, or do they like it just as much but not enough to put up with the crap they get from the macho guys?

At the core, they’re marketing spokespeople. The only difference between a grid girl and the people manning the booths is that some of them wear skintight lycra with cleavage windows for some reason, and the others wear classy polos.

Statistical fact because it’s inherent to women’s preferences, or statistical fact because of crap like this driving younger girls away from the sport.

That said, you’re absolutely right, sexually objectifying the sport is stupid.

Last year’s joke:

Good catch, I was still looking at Season 2 solutions.

Well, most of the events have had free entry at one point or another, so relatively real. Even paying, most tickets were well under that. Even the Baltimore GP was only about $30 for non-Sunday tickets, plenty cheap enough for people only mildly interested in racing.

The powertrain is free, meaning development motors and transmissions. Plenty of clever stuff there. Batteries might become a development item in the future, but the weight will need to come down since the reason it can’t be swapped now is that integrating it into the chassis keeps it light.

City circuits get more casual attendance, it’s convenient and a carnival atmosphere. And since they need relatively short straights with hard braking zones for battery life, city circuits are perfect compared to permanent courses. You wouldn’t want them going to Watkins Glen, having to add 3-4 chicanes to the track,…

They’re sticking with a spec chassis both to save weight with the batteries and so the teams don’t have to spend money on aero which isn’t road relevant (and would end up with the cars looking and racing like modern F1 cars because they’re over-CFD’d).

Because people like different things. Don’t be like Jack Black’s character here.

There’s no reason for Porsche to give free advertising to another company. If they don’t pay, they shouldn’t run someone else’s colors. Doesn’t mean they have to be boring, though. Porsche can make legitimately good corporate liveries, like the red with white stripe 917.

They actually had the 911 Hybrid at the Prologue for promo shots.