BBC
Susie Wolff has moved from karting as a child in Oban to heading the F1 Academy
Susie Wolff has motorsport in her blood.
When she talks about her upbringing, it’s hard to see how she could’ve done anything else.
Her parents met when her mother bought a motorbike from her father’s shop in Oban. A shop, she tells me when we meet on the beach at Ganavan Bay where she grew up, which closed down earlier this year. ”That would’ve been a wrench” I venture. ”No, actually, it’s given them more freedom I think”, she says.
It seems resilience, conviction and a knack of knowing when to move run in the family.
Susie says so much of her success can be traced back to them, her love of motorsport forged on the hillsides of Oban.
”I remember being on those hills on a little Pee Wee 50, a little motorbike. And after school that’s where I would spend my time. And then at the age of eight I was at Knockhill watching my dad race.
“I was a little girl who loved speed. I loved competition. And they gave me the chance to try karting and that, for me, was the start of the journey. I never realised I was doing something unusual for a girl. I have an older brother and they very much didn’t differentiate between son and daughter.”
From there the path was set. She rose up through the ranks of the karting world, racing alongside the likes of one Lewis Hamilton. By 13 she already knew she wanted to make it to the very top – Formula 1.
And of course she did. Through grit, hard work and unfaltering self-belief. In 2012 she was signed by Williams as a development driver and stepped into an F1 car for the first time. When she describes the experience to me, it seems almost transcendental.
”I will never forget the first time I drove out the pits in the Formula 1 car at Silverstone. I thought, oh my goodness, this incredible. But at the same time I very quickly switched from this to thinking, okay, how am I going to get the best lap time? How can I push myself to the limit but to go over the limit? And it’s that dancing on the edge that is the sweet spot of driving a Formula 1 car. ”
Susie spent 2006-2012 driving a Mercedes in the DTM championship in Germany
By 2013 at Silverstone she was driving for the Williams Formula 1 team
But it was, and still is, a world dominated by men. And, at times, that had a darker side. Susie, who has just released her autobiography Driven, tells how on one occasion she rebuffed someone who she describes as a powerful figure in F1. He came to her hotel room and tried, unsuccessfully, to get in.
”There was such an imbalance of power. That was someone who had huge power and I remember being scared. But then he did apologise, and I felt at the time that I just had to move on, because that was what the sport was.
“And thankfully for me, it didn’t turn into being anything more sinister, but I’m aware that that’s not always the case for women, and I’m glad that our sport has moved on from that and that now.
“If something like that would happen, you can put your hand up and say, ”Look, this happened” and you will be listened to, and there is someone you can tell.”
Susie spoke to Laura Miller near the former F1 development driver’s home town of Oban
When she retired from driving professionally back in 2015 she knew she wanted to do something to support young women and female drivers. She’s now the managing director of the F1 Academy, a championship and development programme exclusively for girls. There’s a even a Netflix series about it.
Ah, Netflix. And THAT series. What has the Drive to Survive effect been on family life?
”I remember so distinctly. We arrived in Miami for the grand prix and at the airport there were all these youngsters, predominantly female, shouting our names. More Toto’s name than mine”
Susie Wolff
Susie loved riding scrambler bikes as a young girl
Susie Wolff
Susie and her family had their eyes on grabbing sporting prizes from an early age
Toto is her husband Toto Wolff, of course. Team principal and co-owner of Mercedes in Formula 1. Quite the power couple. They have a son, who’s eight. And yes, he’s already into karting.
Do they know Scotland and where she grew up?
”My son is two weeks here with my parents every summer. He comes here in the holidays as much as he can and when he heard I was coming here this week he said ‘Oh, I wish I could come with you’. So he has a real connection here.”
Getty Images
Susie is married to Toto Wolff, the boss of the Mercedes Formula 1 team
And Toto?
”It’s a bit of a sore point between us because when we were dating he came three times. Since we’ve been married he’s only been once. But he loves Scotland.
“He’s been gifted a kilt, so there is one at home. I’ve yet to see him wear it but give me time, I’ll try.”
She adds: ”I just love coming home. This is where I have such a good feeling and obviously so many wonderful memories and it will always be home’.”