Susie Wolff quits

Susie Wolff: Female F1 test driver to retire after Race of Champions - BBC Sport

 

Nice.

Here what she wrote in Huffington post.

Time to Hang Up the Helmet | Susie Wolff

 

Quit what, exactly...?

Nice girl but never an exceptional talent, or talented...All she really managed to do in her early career is get funding and drove at the back for years, married a rich bloke with F1 ties who used his money/influence to get a ''test driver'' seat.

Maybe she can ask him to buy her an early 2000s F1 car so she can drive it in anger during BossGP races. She's decent enough to drive it about at good speed.

 

Susie was there just to get Merc engines for Williams.
(And to get her away from Toto during races. )

I had more hopes for Simona, but Sauber's too-many-pay-drivers club put an end to that.

I doubt we'll see a female on the grid while Bernie is still around.

Remember mad Max advising Mac to delay starting Lewis in '07?

Dinosaurs.

 

"I wanted and fought very hard to make it onto that starting grid but the events at the start of this year and the current environment in F1 the way it is, it isn't going to happen."

"We have two issues, not enough young girls starting in karting at a young age and no clear role model. Sometimes you just have to see it to believe it."

I'm going to be blunt. I don't know Susie, and she may be a nice person, and is clearly a better driver than me but...

It doesn't sound like she wants to accept the fact that she just isn't good enough. There are dozens of drivers more qualified than her. Admitting that would be a good start in being a role model, and there is no shame in it if you gave it your best.

 

Nice. She can retire from playing with race cars at 32 to.... play with race cars?? Good for her. She deserves it. :rolleyes

 

But we already have, don't we? remember Lella Lombardi in 1975 (she scored half-a-point) and Giovanna Amati in 1991?

Rgds

 

Exactly. A "test driver" when no testing is allowed is a mere honorary title.

 

Yup.

I think the 2 (3?) years she's been a ''test driver'' I think she's done less than 30 laps.

(yet Claire said her input helped them move forward )

 

When Bottas was out with his back injury, Susie Wolff wasn't even in the running to get into the car as a replacement - That should have told her all she needed to know about her "F1 career".

She's a nice girl, and she's very good when it comes to doing F1 TV work and interviews, but Williams never had any intention whatsoever of even considering her for a race seat from day one!

 

Exactly. I do commend her for her effort but I had never ever heard of her until 1-2yrs ago and only saw her observing from the pits. Take her salary and use those funds to find a driver that is capable of more than being just a team ornament.

 

Nothing against Susie Wolff, but I question Williams for giving a testing job (?) to someone so inexperienced.

Susie never won anything in her racing career. Not in the lower single-seater categories, and not in her 7 years in DTM.
She just managed 3 podiums in Formula Renault many years ago, but never a win, never a faster lap, never a pole, nothing.
Her skills could easily be questioned. In 7 years of DTM, her best placing in a race was 10th.

How can someone with so little racing experience be trusted with "testing" a 900 hp F1, I wonder.

Nothing to do with gender or age, but to qualify to climb in a F1, some strict criteria should be observed, IMHO.

I suspected Claire Williams orchestrated a publicity stunt to attract sponsporship perhaps, or to keep Toto Wolff sweet and have the Mercedes engines, I don't know. But in the end, it seems cruel to me.

 

Luckily Carmen Jorda is now with Lotus to take the torch ; P

 

What are her credentials?

I would have thought that after the accident of Maria de Vilotta loosing control of her car at slow speed, they would have given up the idea of putting pretty girls in F1 cars to attract publicity.

 

Not even good enough for Indy Lights or GP3. Nice body. Nice face.

 

She goes on HuffPo to explain?

 

I think she was once 1 second per corner slower than the fastest guy during GP3 session at spa...

I'm not really sure what the whole point of the hot girls in F1 is. Carmen provides nice eye candy, for sure...but I don't think they're essential to ANY sponsor deal.

 

We will not see a female in F1 anytime soon.

For that matter, we never see that many new faces on the grid each year anyway. How many new drivers will there be in 2016? One? two?.

IMO, this is an unintended consequence of improving the safety of the cars. Drivers are very rarely killed or maimed these days and as a result have much longer careers, and turnover is very low.

I wonder what would happen if there was a 200 race career cap and drivers knew the clock was ticking.

 

+1

 

There is no need for Susie Wolff to retire; just switch her aim towards something more realistic.
I am sure that with all his money, her hubby could buy her a seat in a GT3 in endurance, where raw speed isn't essential. She could have many hours of competitive driving through the year, improve her racecraft and become quite good.
Just look at Sabine Schmit winning the Nurburgring 24h in Germany, or Lyliane Bryner who raced Ferrari in the World GT championship; they are/were pretty good.

There has been very good women drivers, I have to say, who won against males: Evy Rosqvist won the Gran National de Argentina on a Mercedes, Pat Moss-Carlsson won the Liege-Rome-Liege on an Austin-Healey, Milchele Mouton was extroardinary with her Audi Quatro, etc...

I wish one day we can see a woman who arrives in F1 on her own merits and not as a PR stunt.

 

Why, again, is Suzie participating in the Race of CHAMPIONS?

 

She models a lot too... no need to quit that.

 

+1

 

Models? Suzie is nice, but I wouldn't say she was 'model' material, more the 'girl next door who's a bit handy with a gearstick' material.

 

For the same reason they run it indoors as a big video game.