F1 analyst Danica Patrick is absent from Australian Grand Prix after Netflix diss,,,”Drive to Survive,”
Danica Patrick has certainly been active on social media in the past 24 hours.
But as fans of F1 realized, it’s not as an analyst for Sky Sports for the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, the most prominent on-air coverage team for Formula 1 that’s simulcast on ESPN (in the final year of the deal) in the United States.
The 42-year-old 2008 IndyCar Japan 300 winner, the only IndyCar Series female champion, posted on her Instagram Stories working out at the gym, a staple of hers, and having a solo dinner after 18 holes for the newfound passion, golf, all while hanging out at her home in Phoenix, Arizona.
Patrick is still supposedly part of the Sky Sports F1 team, but her role seems to have been scaled back significantly after being part of their international coverage last season, including the finale in Abu Dhabi.
Plus another female driver, current British driver Jamie Chadwick, has been added into the mix.
To add insult to injury, Patrick is also not a part of Season 7 of Netflix’s “Drive to Survive,” which is the show that made F1 a phenomenon stateside.
Patrick hasn’t spoken publicly about it yet, but her golf game is keeping her occupied.
Danica Patrick made her debut on the latest season of Formula 1: Drive to Survive – but some fans of the sport are not happy about her appearance in the Netflix series.
The 41-year-old former NASCAR and IndyCar driver appears as a pundit in the docu-series all about the world of F1, with season six focusing on the 2023 championship season.
After the latest 10 episodes dropped on Friday (February 23), F1 fans took to social media to complain about Patrick’s punditry for the show.
“I don’t understand why there is Danica Patrick in #DriveToSurvive this season? She was an Indy car pilot, she has nothing to do with #formula1 and, let’s be honest, her interventions ARE NOT INTERESTING AT ALL …” one person wrote.
Another person said: “Why is Danica Patrick on #DriveToSurvive she was terrible with #f1skysports and we have to endure more of her.”
“The way I was ready to turn my TV off the second they showed Danica Patrick,” someone else added.
A fourth person commented: “I’m trying to be open to seeing Danica Patrick and I just…. Why is she here?”
However, some people defended Patrick’s appearance on the show due to her motorsport background, as well as her role as a Sky Sports F1 pundit.
One person said: “Leave Danica Patrick alone! I love that she’s part of the Sky F1 coverage. I love hearing from drivers. She drove at the top echelon of American motorsport, just like Mario Andretti. Enough of this bullying crap!”
“I love Danica Patrick,” another person wrote.
Patrick retired from racing in 2018 after a successful career which saw her become the first woman in the U.S. to win a major league open-wheel race. Some of the awards she won over the years include Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year in 2005 and the NASCAR Nationwide Series Most Popular Driver in 2012.
She has since become a motorsport pundit, but some of her comments have caused backlash among F1 fans.
In September, Patrick caused controversy when she described F1 as a “masculine” sport and something that is “not normal in the female mind,” which viewers felt was discouraging towards young girls who want to get into the sport.
Last year at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Patrick said during the Sky Sports F1 coverage: “I think that the nature of the sport is masculine. It’s aggressive.”
“You have to, you know, handle the car—not only just the car because that’s skill, but the mindset that it takes to be really good is something that’s not normal in a feminine mind, a female mind.”
Then in November when F1 had its inaugural race in Las Vegas, fans had to leave during FP2 due to a two-hour-and-a-half delay when “logistical issues,” arose as a result of a loose drain cover which caused damage to the car of Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz.
Patrick said at the time that disappointed fans who missed out should have bought tickets for the entire race weekend, this comment left viewers unimpressed and called the pundit “out of touch.”
“Maybe it’ll drive them to get tickets for next year so that they can see the whole thing or buy a whole weekend pass,” she said.
“It’s everything around the cars, not just the cars and so I’m sure that they were able to enjoy that. The suites, the views, the entertainment and the opening ceremonies were stunning and there are just so many things about this city.
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