Susie Wolff

Susie Wolff born 6 December 1982 in Oban is a British racing driver from Scotland. She has progressed through the ranks of motorsport, starting off in karting, then moving up to Formula Renault and Formula Three before moving to the DTM to compete for Mercedes-Benz since 2006. In 2012 she was signed by the Williams Formula One team to work as a development driver and she is still in that role.
She lives in Ermatingen, Switzerland with her husband Toto Wolff, since January 21, 2013, executive director of the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team. The two were married in October 2011.

Susie is aiming to be the first ever woman since 1976 and Lella Lombardi to race in F1.

She has her own TV program on Sunday 24.3.2013 BBC2 8pm : Driven: The Fastest Women in the World.

Her race record is none to impressive at zero wins, and you would have to say she would not deserve a drive based on that alone. However it is way beyond time that a woman driver should be in F1 and if Susie can open that door which has been closed since 1976 then I say good luck to her and I hope she gets a drive in a decent car.

 

[FB]

Just a side comment, it is possible for women to compete at the highest level in motor sport as this lady proved.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michèle_Mouton

She scared the crap out of the male drivers in the 1982 World Rally Championship to the point where Walter Rohl got very personal about not being beaten by a woman. Given that rally drivers usually beat F1 drivers when put into equal machinery it's not a difficult leap to imagine she could have challenged at the highest level in all forms of motor sport.

 

[teabagyokel]

If Susie Wolff gets a seat in F1, she could be like Amati. She could be so bad that no woman will get a chance for 20 years.

To challenge prejudice, a woman in F1 needs to be competitive. If she's miles off the pace, she'll confirm the wrong-headed bigots. It is too much of a risk for female motor-racers to allow her to represent them.

 

[Boisko2]

Woman in F1? It can get interesting at Silverstone.

 

[Greenlantern101]

Go Susie

 

[Brogan]

Or not.

 

[Greenlantern101]

She didn't break anything and is heading back out shortly.

Go Susie. but carefully.

 

[Greenlantern101]

Susie is faster than Vettel. Its now a fact.

 

[RasputinLives]

Yeah but she's way off the pace of Maldonado.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Oh she's just lovely isn't she..? And I do love a Scottish accent on a women...

 

[Chad Stewarthill]

I can't really see why this is even being discussed if I'm honest, in this day and age.

Does Maldonado being so bad set back the cause of male F1 drivers by 20 years or more every time he crashes? No.
Narain Karthikeyan? Nope.
How about Alex Yoong? No, think not.
Taki Inoue or Luca Badoer perhaps? No, not even them.

I care not whether Susie Wolff is the absolute best female driver out there, whether or not she is pretty, or whether she has a 'sexy' accent. I wouldn't even care if she were to be advantaged in getting a drive because of who she's married to or who she knows. God knows, plenty of men would never have been within a mile of a F1 car through merit alone. How many male drivers can you think of who got where they did through being part of an influential family, or by dint of being heavily sponsored by a major company from their home nation?

Justin Wilson won the international F3000 title in 2001, with a record winning margin over a certain Antipodean by the name of Mark Webber. So who got a Formula 1 seat with Minardi (owned by another Aussie) the following year? You guessed it.

Jenson Button was by this time already in F1, having won a seat a couple of years earlier on the strength of coming 3rd in the British Formula 3 championship!

We now have more women in F1 than ever before, at every level. Two current teams, Williams and Sauber, are being ably led by women. "Ah, Monisha Kaltenborn" I hear you mutter; "She's doing such a great job with Sauber isn't she? Look where they are now compared to last year". To which I'll say just three words: Dennis. Ron. Mclaren.

There's no reason at all why a woman shouldn't succeed as a F1 driver given the chance, and if Susie Wolff or anyone else were to get the opportunity to try, I'd be all for it.

 

[Jen]

Well, yeh, no, yeh, who knows?

 

[Titch]

But they have to be able to drive. No token women, as teabagyokel points out, it will set back the cause of women by years.
If a woman wants to compete in F1, she has to drive well, be supremely fit, and end up with a neck the same width as her head, from all the strengthening exercises that she does.

 

[Chad Stewarthill]

Titch you've just reinforced my whole point for me.

Why no token women, when the history of Formula 1 is littered with token men, just a few of which I listed?

The mere statement "But they have to be able to drive" is in itself condescending, and panders to deep-rooted stereotypes. In any case, when it comes to Susie Wolff she quite clearly can drive rather well (what does she have to do to be 'good enough' - be world champion material? that criterion would rule out at least half the men currently competing), so she should in no way be considered as 'token' in any event, any more than the likes of Max Chilton or Pastor Maldonado.

 

[RasputinLives]

Chad Stewarthill I don't care if someone is female, male, black, white, blue, green or pink with yellow spots and no genitalia. If they haven't shown the skill to be in F1 I object to them being in F1.

Susie hasn't therefore I object.

 

[Hamberg]

To be fair, we're equally as critical of the 'token' men

 

[Kamui-FastestChefInTheWorld]

when it comes to Susie Wolff she quite clearly can drive rather well (what does she have to do to be 'good enough' - be world champion material?

well, maybe getting at least a few points in a decent junior formula of some form would be a good start...

 

[Mephistopheles]

I'm curious why, is a world champion on the list of token men?

 

[RasputinLives]

Can I just point out that Jenson Button still holds records in Karting that have never been touched by anyone. He was a complete legend on the Karting scene. Hence his quick promotion.

Lewis Hamilton no less says that when he got into karting he aspired to get results like Jenson.

 

[soccerman17]

The real reason we have no women is that women simply aren't that interested at a young age in driving race cars, so they don't pursue it. Becoming a youth driver is a big commitment, one that not too many women are willing to make. The numbers have gone up, especially in IndyCar and recently some junior categories, but whether we will find one with the talent is another question. In Formula One being a women may be a disadvantage due to how physically demanding it is, but in other forms like NASCAR it really might not be. In drag racing there is definitely no disadvantage for women because you literally go in a straight line for a few seconds, and as a result quite a few women have been able to break through into the NHRA (some by virtue of being John Force's daughters and another the daughter of John Paul Dejoria, although I have no clue how she even gotten into that sort of thing).

 

[Chad Stewarthill]

I'm curious why, is a world champion on the list of token men?

There isn't.

I made a separate point about Button, if you refer to him, in an attempt to show how men can get into F1 on the strength of a pretty average record (in cars at least) while it seems that a woman must somehow contrive to be a world champion elect before even being considered worthy of a chance.