Branson had his eye on Danica
December 21, 2009 by SJ Skid
Filed under People & Events
Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson had his eye on IndyCar’s Danica Patrick for a spot on the Virgin F1 team, according to England’s The Daily Star newspaper.
That’s putting it politely, of course. Branson is much more colorfully:
SIR RICHARD BRANSON has been foiled in a sensational plan to put even more curves into Formula One.
The tycoon wanted to squeeze a female driver into the cockpit of his newly formed Virgin Racing team for next season.
Branson and his backroom boys combed the planet for a luscious Virgin racer to tackle the likes of champ Jenson Button in a 220mph 19-race showdown.
America’s knockout queen of speed Danica Patrick, an IndyCar winner and regular front-runner, topped his targets – but she opted to stay in the USA.
Team boss Alex Tai said: “There isn’t really a female out there right now who could do it.
“This is a really physical and exhausting sport and they would find it hard to cope.”
Billionaire Branson argued: “I would have loved to have had a looker like Danica drive.
“She is not only good and quick, she’s a stunner.
“I believe there is room for women drivers in F1.”
While there is room for women drivers in F1, I’m not sure the qualifications he seems to have in mind are the right ones.
What do you make of this? Just a PR stunt? Will Brandon deny saying what he’s quoted as saying?
Will Jenson Button get all angry about it?
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Branson himself is one big moving publicity stand. Am not surprised by his criteria. Maybe he should open the first school for sexy female drivers. Then he can create his own future drivers.
I don’t think the guy cares much about making that team successful and i doubt that they will have any success at all. He just wants to have some fun in the F1 world and then go home. The guy isn’t spending a dollar for the team and he expects some miracle with only computer design. All the old guys have a very good reason for doing things how they do them. They learned threw experience. My suggestion is for all this new guys with crazy dreams to go visit old Williams for a nice lesson on how to do things in F1 before jumping in to the boat.
branson is making PR splashes. nothing wrong with it, but he’s focused on the novelty of a woman driver and the PR that would bring.
If Branson keeps this up I’m looking forward to F1b quoting him a lot next year, and for good reasons. I also hope Briatore is back so we can have some colorful characters back in F1.
If I remember stories right, Mr. Branson also had his eye on Jessica Michibata and there was drunken brawl at post race party in Brawn Camp. News were making rounds that, that brawl was ultimately the resulted in Virgin not committing to long term future of Brawn GP and decided to support an under-dog.
Briatore and Vijay Mallya are known to have colorful personalities, add a dash of Branson. Max will be yearning back to return to F1, even if that means dressing as “Stewardess” for Branson ;-)
All apologies for colorful description above, but unfortunately that is one facet of F1, where racing is last thing on agenda, PR Stunts, Parading Celebrities, Yachts, theme based parties , F1 has reduced to Big Boys Club with members having fascination for autocratic rule