While Bernie Ecclestone might have his opinion regarding women racing in F1, a number of others within the paddock are far more open-minded, especially following Danica Patrick's recent win in Japan.

Asked if he thought F1 is ready for a woman racer, Toyota's John Howett said: "Why not? I think it would probably be very good. We just need to see a driver with the capability that could deliver performance because we are basically all focused on winning and track performance.

"I don't think there's any discrimination in terms of anything within our organisation or team," he added, "so if we could find a suitable driver, we would be delighted. We have young driver programmes. Unfortunately most of the guys coming into karting at the moment and who are delivering performance are male, but I think it would probably be good but you would need someone who could be competitive."

"We can all see the commercial attraction," added Ross Brawn, how exciting it would be to have a female driver in Formula One. I think the key thing is that they can be competitive, because it would be a shame if, purely because they were a female driver, they got put in the car and couldn't compete properly, but if they can compete properly, absolutely, it would be great."

"We ran Sarah Fisher at Indianapolis once," said Norbert Haug. "I fully agree with what Ross has said. I think the key is to be competitive and if that is the case, I think motor sport is... it's certainly not possible in soccer to compete against these fellows. In various sports it's not possible but it should be basically possible in motor sports as the Indy Racing League has proven; or as, for example, DTM shows but the key is to be competitive.

"We had a winner in touring cars years ago - many years ago, 16 years ago, I think - with Ellen Lohr beating her team-mate Keke Rosberg at that stage, which was not very pleasing for my friend Keke, but anyway, it is possible and hopefully Formula One will experience that in the future."