F1: Privileges matter little as Wolff tries to break through

Gentlemen, start your engines. While that line is not often used in Formula One, it aptly sums up the gender imbalance in the sport.

Susie Wolff, a developmental driver with the Williams team since last season, would very much like to change that, even though the tall blonde - currently the only woman driver in the sport - insists she is not solely "focused on the gender aspect".

"Of course I'm always going to face barriers because there hasn't been a successful woman driver in Formula One for so long," she told The Sunday Times on Thursday after the Women in Business luncheon, during which she spoke with 100 UBS senior management and business partners across divisions.

There have been only five women racers in F1, the last in 1992. Only one, Italian Lella Lombardi in 1975, managed to score points.

Last March, Spaniard Maria de Villota was appointed a test driver with Marussia. But she was involved in a horrific accident during a test four months later which cost her an eye.

"Ultimately, I am racing and trying to break through in F1 because I love racing," said Wolff, 30, who has competed in several classes, having had a successful karting career before moving up to the British F3 and then the German DTM touring car series.

"I am a racing driver. Regardless of my gender, I am trying to break into one of the top levels of motor sport, and nobody ever said it was going to be easy.

"It's certainly tough but it's the same for the many new drivers coming through."

Indeed, a place on the track during a race weekend is still some way off, even though she impressed in her first full test day at the Young Driver Test at Silverstone in July.

Then, she completed 89 laps and set the ninth-quickest time, a performance rated "positive" by Williams' chief engineer Xevi Pujolar.

Said Wolff, who, together with Williams' deputy team principal Claire Williams, spoke at the Women in Motor Sport forum, which was presented by UBS: "Ultimately I still have a long way to go. I still have a lot to achieve, so I am still working hard."

Ironically, she has two very powerful men in her corner: F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone and Toto Wolff, the executive director of the Mercedes team and a shareholder in the Williams team, who happens to be her husband.

Ecclestone had feminists around the world rolling their eyes when he said last year: "If Susie is as quick in a car as she looks good out of a car, then she will be a massive asset to any team and, on top of that, she is very intelligent. I am really looking forward to having her in Formula One."

But Wolff insists that her fellow Briton has been very supportive of her fledgling F1 career.

She said: "Bernie ultimately is a fan of a female breaking into F1.

Commercially, it's the one thing left to happen.

"Behind the scenes, he's been very supportive of me and the Williams team. His comment doesn't sound so great because it doesn't matter what you look like as a racing driver, you just have to be fast, but I think he's supportive."

She cited how after the July test, he had rung her to check on how she had fared and "ask if everything was okay".

" I think sometimes he gets misquoted and misinterpreted," she explained.

"But he has made F1 what it is today, so I think he realises that a woman on the grid would be a huge asset."

She insists that, despite her connections, she is there on her own steam.

"When I am on the race track, Toto can't help me. He can't make me go any faster, it's not like he's sitting in the passenger seat changing gear for me," she pointed out.

"Ultimately, I have to perform in the car and, if I don't, I'm out and there's nothing he can do to help me."

But she deems herself "incredibly lucky" to have his full support, adding: "I don't think there are many men who would be supportive of their wives getting into an F1 car on the race track."

The good thing for Wolff is that she is not alone, as women have made significant inroads into F1 in recent years, with Claire Williams and Monisha Kalternborn, principal at Sauber, holding leadership positions within F1 teams.

Despite the inroads that the women have made, Wolff said: "It's not something you can tick off and say, 'I've achieved it.' It's a work in progress.

"It's always going to be about progressing, advancing and trying to improve yourself."

yulin@sph.com.sg

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