Sir Stirling Moss may have forgotten, when claiming women do not have the mental strength to compete on the track - especially in Formula One - that he was partly responsible for developing one of the greatest women drivers this country has produced.
He taught her to drive at the age of 11 and, although a decorated horsewoman and member of the British Showjumping team, she also had a passion for rally driving going on to win the European Ladies' Rally championship five times.
She stood on the podium seven times in international rallies and enjoyed three outright wins, displaying a mental strength her brother must have been proud of.
Pat Moss was regarded as one of the best drivers of her generation and while she may not have been at the wheel of a Formula One car - and who knows how she would have handled one today - she set the bar for all other women to follow in her tracks and certainly displayed the mental strength to compete alongside the men.
That is one reason why I find Sir Stirling's remarks this week at odds with his family's racing heritage along with an observation he made many years ago which I came across the other day, describing former French rally driver Michele Mouton as one of the best. She was a rally winner in her own right and in 1982 runner-up in the World Rally Championship. In later years she set up the international motorsport event Race of Champions.
With Pat Moss, she was regarded as the driver by whom all women measure their achievements, and rightly so.
We have all seen, over the years, drivers, tennis players, footballers and cricketers battle with their demons. Everyone needs mental strength in many areas of their life, motorsport is no different. If women like Susie Wolff, test driver for Williams, can demonstrate they have the right stuff mentally and physically, then her ambition will one day be fulfilled.
Just being a woman does not give you a wild card entry into a race team or a place on the board. If you are good enough, you'll get there as Danica Patrick has in the United States where after years at the cutting edge, she is emerging as the most successful woman racer in the history of single seater racing.
Starting in karts at the age of 10, she had a spell in the United Kingdom racing Formula Ford, and is the only woman to win an IndyCar Series race. Her third place finish in the Indy 500 is the best by a woman. This year, switching full-time to the NASCAR Sprint Cup series and again as the only woman, she set pole at the Daytona 500 where for a few laps she led the race, before finishing eighth. Those cars are just as tough to handle as Formula One machines.
She is applauded for her courage, but more often than not she has to cope with remarks such as being fast just because she has a weight advantage - at less than eight stone and standing 5ft, that's pretty light. Take that as a compliment and continue to prove you can punch above your weight.
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