Despite a convincing performance she was slower than fellow Williams novice
Daniel Juncadella and her many critics think this is proof that she won’t be
able to make it. They rather bitchily say that Wolff was only invited to
take part in the test because of her sex and her husband, Toto Wolff, being
head of motorsport for Mercedes F1 and owner of 16 per cent stake in
Williams.
Those bitchy critics…
These are the same doubters who say that women are not capable of competing
alongside their male counterparts in Formula One.
Wolff hears it constantly, as she tells me breezily when we speak on the
phone: “There were a lot of people who were just waiting for me to not do
well to then write something negative about women not being ready for
Formula One.
“Ultimately, a team will only ever put a driver in the car if they think she
will deliver performance. They are not going to put someone completely
useless in the car,” she explains.
“Prost’s son [Nicholas Prost, son of Formula One driver Alain Prost] was in
one of the cars; his father is a world famous Formula One world champion.
Nobody mentioned that but anybody was the first to jump up and say that I’m
only in the car because my husband owns part of the team.” Touché.
It’s exhausting being the poster girl for women in motorsport
The bubbly 30-year-old Scot had had very little prior experience in a Formula
One car. She herself was unsure of whether she could rise to the challenge
of driving in a car far quicker and more advanced than anything else she had
experienced.
Wolff says that the constant criticism is “exhausting”, as well as the
pressure that she comes with having unwittingly become the poster girl for
women in motorsport: “I have been very clear to everyone the whole way along
my career that I’m not out there to prove a point about women and racing.
“I wasn’t out there last week to prove to the world that women can compete in
Formula One. I was out there as Susie Wolff – racing driver, who wanted to
fulfil her dream of driving in Formula One.”
How it all began
Wolff
began karting aged eight, helped by a family who never let her think
she was doing a ‘boy’s sport’.
She steadily progressed to Formula Renault and Formula Three before moving to
the German touring car series, the DTM. Formula One is a natural next step
for her – even if it’s groundbreaking for the racing world.
She is hopeful that in the future other girls will be able to take her lead
into the sport: “People tell me that their daughters didn’t realise that
girls could even race until they had heard of me. I think the younger
generation’s idea of the sport is changing.”
Women in Formula One are few and far between, although Wolff has bonded with
Spanish test driver Maria de Villotta – who tragically lost her right eye in
a Formula One training accident last July.
Interestingly Wolff thinks it may have been the pressure of competing as a
woman in a man’s world that contributed to the tragedy: “It is such a tough
environment, you have got to surround yourself with good people”.
The support network
She says she is lucky to have that in a supportive husband who helps her deal
with the sexism, which sounds as if it is ingrained into the sport.
“There have been quite a few incidences where someone said something to me
which was pretty tough and he would say you have to make sure that you out
there and answer them on the track.”
She sighs despondently, adding: “The normal comments like ‘how do you reverse
into your pit garage?’ or ‘do you have a place for your lipstick in the
car?’ just don’t bother me anymore because I have come up against that for
such a long time.”
Wolff doesn’t want to name the worst proponents of sexism while she is still
in motorsport, but says she may write a tell-all book when she retires.
Good old Bernie
Formula One chief executive Bernie Ecclestone hasn’t helped the cause of
female drivers with his somewhat tasteless witticisms. “If Susie’s as quick
in a car as she looks good out of a car, she’ll be a huge asset,” he
quipped when Wolff got taken on by Williams
Bernie Ecclestone
Wolff insists that Ecclestone, despite his casual sexism, wants her to
succeed. “For all his sayings that ‘women like domestic appliances’ and
‘belong in the kitchen’, he has been very supportive behind the scenes.”
Initially Wolff struggled with her femininity, especially walking into a
paddock where she knew she would be judged on her looks, particularly where
sponsors are concerned.
“It was trying to find that fine line between looking like I was there to
drive and not all made up trying to impress people but people always judge
women by what they look like, she explains.
“You have got to look presentable and the sponsors want you to look like a
girl not the stereotypical female racing driver which everyone presumes
should be really big and masculine.”
Would she pose for a lads’ mag again?
She also often gets asked if she would go down the ‘lads’ magazine’ route,
having once caved into doing a shoot in her early 20s.
“When I look at the pictures I say to myself, OK it wasn’t the girl I am and
it’s not the message I would want to portray that you have to do that just
to be successful.”
However, there is, though, a double standard, as she reveals: “Lewis Hamilton
did a shoot where he had no top was he then branded for doing a sexy shoot
no he wasn’t.”
For her fairytale ending Wolff would be on that Formula One podium but she is
the first to admit that it won’t be that easy.
Williams has said it has no immediate plans to run her in regular practice
sessions this season.
In the meantime Wolff will have to keep plugging on: “I want to push for more,
I want to be out on racing again but it’s not going to be about just
sticking my hand up and saying hey I am a girl now give me a chance.
“I have to get everything into place and hope that my time will come
again.”