Motor racing-Woman racer Fisher to drive McLaren F1 car

LONDON, Sept 19 - American Sarah Fisher will become the first woman in 10 years to drive a Formula One car when she tries out a McLaren at Indianapolis next week, the team announced on Thursday.

"We are pleased to provide Sarah with this one-off opportunity," said McLaren International managing director Martin Whitmarsh in a statement.

"Through our 39 year history we have never had a female drive one of our Formula One cars so I guess it's about time.

"Hopefully, Sarah's demonstration will assist in promoting Formula One in America further and give her a taste of the category."

Formula One visits Indianapolis next week for the penultimate round of the championship, the U.S. Grand Prix.

Fisher, 21, competes in the Indy Racing League (IRL) for Dreyer and Reinbold Racing and last month became the first woman to qualify on pole position in a major open-wheel championship.

Now in her third season, she has also secured second and third place finishes.

The last women to try, unsuccessfully, to qualify a Formula One car for a race was Italian Giovanna Amati in 1992.

McLaren said Fisher, who has already raced in the Indy 500 and lives in Indianapolis, would do a demonstration run on the grand prix circuit on Friday September 27.

She will drive the spare McLaren MP4-17 car used by regular drivers Kimi Raikkonen of Finland and Briton David Coulthard.

HOME CROWD

Fisher visited McLaren's headquarters in Britain on Wednesday for a seat fitting and met team members.

"I'm obviously very excited about driving a Formula One car in front of my home crowd," she said. "It's extremely rare to get a chance like this and I can't wait."

Fisher secured her historic pole position at the Belterra Casino Indy 300 in Kentucky when she also set a track record of 221.390 mph. She finished the race eighth.

She is already the youngest and fastest woman ever to qualify for the Indy 500 at the historic 'Brickyard', averaging more than 229 mph in this year's event, and starting ninth on the grid last year.

"Sarah has done a great job in IRL and by achieving pole position at the Kentucky Oval in August," said Merecedes Motorsport boss Norbert Haug.

"We are pleased to support this initiative to further increase awareness of Formula One in America."

The chances of Fisher making it to Formula One eventually would appear to be remote, however, with McLaren team principal Ron Dennis saying last month that he could not envisage a woman racing in the championship.

"I think that, over-simplifying it, oval racing is a very different type of racing to circuit racing," he said.

"It (Formula One) requires different abilities and I think those abilities are more challenging for a woman to fulfill than for a man. I think it is very difficult for a woman to be competitive in Formula One."