In the six decades of Formula One history, there has only been five female drivers. Currently, the closest to a Formula One female driver is Susie Wolff, 30, the development driver for the Williams F1 team. However, while the next female F1 driver may not be coming along anytime soon, there has been an increasing female present in motorsports in general.
For example, we have the first female F1 team principal, Monisha Kaltenborn, heading the Sauber F1 team. Then there is also Claire Williams, 37, daughter of Sir Frank Williams, with her appointment as the deputy team principal for the Williams team.
While some people might say that Claire got there through the personal connections, it was actually completely unplanned.
Speaking at the Women in Motorsport Singapore conference on Thursday evening alongside Susie, Claire said, “I never thought I would be in this position. As children, we were never given the impression and it was never on the cards. I was fine going out to make my own way and never had any expectations. To be honest I wasn’t aiming for a career in motorsports. To be honest, I did not necessarily know what I wanted to do and it was by luck that I got my first press job in motorsport.”
Claire’s motorsport career began when she joined Silverstone Circuit as a press officer in 2000. She later joined the Williams team as their communications officer in 2002 and was promoted to head of communications in 2010. After Williams floated on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in March 2011, Claire took on an additional role as head of investor relations. She was appointed Director of Marketing and Communications in April 2012 and in March this year, Claire stepped up to her current position.
Motorsports is a male-dominated world, but Claire has never experienced any discrimination nor feels any disadvantages.
“If you are good at your job, then gender doesn’t come into it. Gender shouldn’t matter as long as you do your job to the best of your abilities,” she explained.
While it is largely male, there is a place for women in motorsports.
“There is this perception that Formula One is very male-dominated but when you walk down the paddock, there are copious amounts of women. The numbers are growing! Five years ago we didn’t have any female engineers at Williams but today we have eight. The balance is changing and with the likes of Susie and Monisha, we hope to inspire more women to come into F1. Not just as press officers or marketing, but on the engineering side too,” Claire added.
More initiatives are being taken in modern times to encourage more women into motorsports. For example, the FIA Women & Motor Sport Commission (WMC) was created in December 2009 with “the aim of creating a sports culture which facilitates and values the full participation of women in all aspects of motor sport”.
Women in Motorsport ambassador Susie emphasised on the importance of support and sticking together.
“We are not just getting more women to drive, but getting women into motorsports in general. We are not creating a feminist movement and saying we want to show the men what we can do. Rather, we are sticking together to support each other. I love to see other successful women! Sometimes women are the worst in criticising each other, so really, the role of WMC is to show women that there are many possibilities in motorsports,” Susie explained.
Susie’s racing career started with karting at the age of eight – where she then went on to win numerous awards for being the top female karter in the world – before progressing to Formula Renault, Formula Renault and Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM). In April 2012 she was confirmed as development driver for the Williams team.
In July this year, she got her first real challenge when she went for the Formula One Young Drivers Test at Silverstone. She ran on the final day, driving 89 laps in total and was ninth quickest overall with a time of 1:35.093 seconds, 2.2 seconds off the top time posted by Sebastian Vettel. On the combined timesheet, she was 23rd overall, about a second off Williams race driver Pastor Maldonado.
Married to Toto Wolff, executive director of the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team and also a 16% stakeholder in the Williams team, Susie often gets comments about how she got to where she is because of her husband.
However, she does not let that bother her.
She mentioned that women naturally have 30% less muscle than men, which means women have to work harder at their physical fitness.
Certainly, it has not always been easy for Susie and she nearly gave up at certain points of her career. She shared how she broke her ankle in 2006 and lost her drive in Formula 3 after losing a sponsor. At that time, she was “very much on the brink wondering whether it’s time to quit”, even struggling to pay her rent at the end of the month. She had left university to go racing and she was almost at wit’s end, but something inside her told her to keep going. Boy was she glad she did not quit, as her life changed tremendously in six months when she became a works driver for Mercedes-Benz and raced in DTM.
“Things can change very quickly, so don’t give up, believe in yourself and in your dreams,” she advised.
Although she feels that she should have left DTM earlier, Susie is happy with where she is now.
“I don’t have any plans as I’m a great believer in taking the path that life takes you. I don’t see myself racing in my late 30s, as we hit our peak at some point. I love what I do now and I still feel there’s more to achieve but I do want have kids in the future. I definitely don’t want to have kids in the next two to three years, as I’m too egoistical now to have kids and I’m travelling too much. I don’t worry about it too much or have a timeframe as the path will become clear,” she elaborated.
Likewise, Claire wants to get married and have kids in the future, but she will probably need help when that time comes. Fortunately, her boyfriend Andrew Murdoch works in Formula One too (as Pastor Maldonado’s race engineer) so they get to see each other often.
Ultimately, as a woman in motorsport myself, I do agree with Claire on the part about how gender should not matter even in a male-dominated industry. To add to that, I think it takes a lot of courage for them to step up to major roles in Formula One and hopefully we will see more women taking on senior management positions in the sport soon.
