Susie Wolff opens up about ’embarrassing’ sexism in F1 as she looks to inspire next generation
Scot revealed she was too embarrassed to recount some of her experiences while speaking at the Formula E race in Berlin
SUSIE WOLFF was too embarrassed to delve into the detail of the sexism she faced in motorsport as she hopes to inspire the next generation to encourage female Formula One drivers.
Having reflected on her 14-year career, she is thankful she was in a sport where she could wear a helmet and no one would know if she was a boy or a girl while on the track.
The 35-year-old was a test driver for Williams from 2012-2015 and is now an ambassador at Mercedes.
In 2014, Wolff became the first woman to take part in a F1 race weekend at Silverstone in 22 years, after taking part in the first practice session as a test driver with Williams.
But to make it to that stage the Scot had to break down sexist barriers – which is something her male competitors never had to overcome.
Speaking of her journey into motor racing, she said: “I was only eight and at that age you are not figuring if there’s boys or girls, you are just doing what you love.
“It wasn’t until much later on the down the line that I decided I wanted to try and make into Formula One, that I am one of the very few girls trying this.
“It made me focus so much more on performance, because I was asked so much about my gender.
“I am lucky in my sport because I wear a helmet, so you cant see the driver.
“And it made me realise that as long as I perform on track, everything else became irrelevant.
“Because I got a lot more attention than the guys did, because of the fact I was one of the few girls and it probably made me focus more on performance to make everything else fade away.”
Susie Wolff's career
Formula Renault (2001-04)
Formula Three (2005)
DTM (2006-12)
Williams F1 (2012-15)
Mercedes F1 (2016-present)
She added: “Some of the stories I am too embarrassed to tell, because of the fact it makes my sport look so bad.
“But I don’t tend to focus on the difficulties I went through because we all face difficulties.
“So I just tend to focus on the positives. At the end of the day I made it to F1, I didn’t quite make it onto the starting grid, but I showed it was possible.”
Wolff came from a motorsport background, in a family environment which never differentiated from boy and girl.
And now she is trying to apply those same principles to the motorsport environment.
Alongside her current commitments with Mercedes, Wolff also runs a foundation called ‘Dare 2 Be Different’.
This project, which was started in 2016, encourages young girls to get involved in motorsport and open their eyes to it.
Speaking at the Formula E Berlin E-Prix, she said: “Throughout my whole racing career, I was always asked about being a woman in a man's world.
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"Interestingly when you are in that world, there’s no reason for it to be a man's world, there are successful women and I didn’t find there to be any barriers to stop me from being successful.
"If there is one thing I decided when I stopped, it was I want to give something back and I wanted to inspire the next generation.
“I wanted to see more women in the sport, on and off the track, because from my experience there is no reason why you can’t be successful as women in this sport.
“We just need to increase the talent pool and get more women interested.
“Whether that be as an engineer, driver, mechanic or a journalist - you will get the best rising to the top.
“Ultimately, we have got to make our sport more diverse if we want to be relevant in the future.”
