Susie Wolff

Suzanne Wolff,[1] MBE (née Stoddart; born 6 December 1982) is a British former racing driver. Her parents, John and Sally Stoddart, owned a motorcycle dealership in Oban and her father raced bikes competitively.[2] She progressed through the ranks of motorsport, starting off in karting, then moving up to Formula Renault and Formula Three before moving to the DTM to compete for Mercedes-Benz. In 2012, she was signed by the Williams Formula One team to work as a development driver.[3] On 4 November 2015, Wolff announced her retirement from motorsport, beginning after completing the end of season Race of Champions at the end of November.

Susie Wolff MBE
Wolff in 2014
Born	Suzanne Stoddart (1982-12-06) 6 December 1982 Oban, Scotland
Nationality	British
Education	Oban High School
Spouse(s)	Toto Wolff (m. 2011)
Children	1
DTM
Years active	2006–2012
Teams	Mücke Motorsport, Persson Motorsport
Car number	23
Starts	73
Wins	0
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	13th in 2010
Previous series
2005 2002–04	British F3 British Formula Renault

Wolff (white) battling with Maro Engel, Ralf Schumacher and Katherine Legge at Hockenheim in 2008

Wolff driving for Mercedes-Benz (Mücke Motorsport) in the 2006 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season

Wolff in 2007

Wolff driving the Williams Renault at the Young Drivers' Test at Silverstone on 19 July 2013. She posted the ninth-quickest time of the day, 1m35.093s, after completing 89 laps.

Wolff testing the Williams FW36 at Silverstone during free practice.

She lives in Ermatingen, Switzerland, with her husband Toto Wolff, executive director of the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team.[4] The two were married in October 2011.[5] In October 2016, Wolff announced on Twitter that she was pregnant with their first child.[6][7] On 10 April 2017, she gave birth to a boy.

In 2014, Wolff was the first woman to take part in a Formula One race weekend in 22 years, at the British Grand Prix, at Silverstone.[8] In 2016, she joined Channel 4 in the UK to be an analyst for their F1 Coverage. In 2018 Wolff joined the Venturi Formula E Team as Team Principal.[9]

Career

Early years

Wolff began karting from an early age, and in 1996 she was named the British Woman Kart Racing Driver of the year. In 1997, she competed in a number of different karting categories and succeeded in most of them. She was first in the 24hr Middle East Kart Championship, champion in both the Scottish Junior Intercontinental "A" and the Scottish Open Junior Intercontinental "A" categories and was again named British Woman Kart Racing Driver of the year.[10]

In 1998, she moved up to the British Junior Intercontinental "A" Championship and was placed 10th overall in her first season in the class. She also competed in the Federation Cup European Intercontinental "A" Championship and she was placed 11th overall. For the third year in a row, she was named British Woman Kart Racing Driver of the year.[10]

In 1999, she competed in the British Formula "A" Championship and was placed 13th overall. She also achieved 34th overall in the Formula "A" World Championships and again was named British Woman Kart racing driver of the year. The year 2000 saw Wolff improve on her previous performance in the British Formula "A" Championship where she came 10th overall this time around and she also improved on her previous performance in the Formula "A" World Championships where she was placed 15th overall. She also won an award which named her as the Top Female Kart Driver in the world.[11]

Formula Renault (2001–04)

In 2001, Wolff made the step up from kart racing to single-seater racing. Her first experience was in the 2001 Formula Renault Winter Series, in which she raced for the Motaworld Racing team. The following year she made her debut in the full Formula Renault UK Championship for DFR Racing, and again competed for Motaworld in the Formula Renault Winter Series. In 2003, she again competed in the Formula Renault UK Championship where she finished 9th overall and made her first podium finish this season as well. She achieved recognition for her efforts this year as she was selected as one of the finalists in the prestigious BRDC McLaren Autosport Young Driver of the Year Award and was selected as the BRDC Rising Star of the Year.

In 2004, she competed in her third season in the Formula Renault UK Championship, this time racing for the Comtec Racing team and she finished 5th overall in the championship with 3 podium finishes during the year.[12]

Formula Three (2005)

For 2005, Wolff made the step up to the British Formula 3 Championship to race for the Alan Docking Racing team in the Championship Class, but her season was disrupted by an ankle injury sustained during the winter. She also made a one-off appearance in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Brands Hatch in June.[12]

DTM (2006–12)

In 2006, Wolff made the step up to compete in the DTM, the German Touring Car series, one of the biggest Touring Car championships in the world. She drove a 2004-spec Mercedes-Benz C-Class Coupe for the Mücke Motorsport team and was teammates with Stefan Mücke and Daniel la Rosa. In her debut season she achieved a best finish of 9th overall in the final round of the season at the Hockenheimring.

In 2007, Wolff remained in the DTM series, driving a 2005-spec Mercedes-Benz C-Class Coupe for the Mücke Motorsport team and was teammates with Mathias Lauda and Daniel La Rosa. Her best finish was at Mugello in Italy, where she finished in 10th place.

In the 2008 season, Wolff moved up to a 2007-spec car, and joined Persson Motorsport, where she drove alongside Mathias Lauda and Gary Paffett. Wolff's best performance of the year was at the Norisring in June, where she finished in 10th position.

In the 2009 DTM season, Wolff remained with Persson Motorsport in a 2008-spec car, alongside her teammate Jamie Green. In the first race of the season at the Hockenheimring, Wolff had to retire after 24 laps because of damage caused by a first-lap accident with Gary Paffett.[13]

Formula One

Williams (2012–15)

On 11 April 2012, Wolff was named as a development driver for the Williams Formula One team of which her husband Toto Wolff was already a shareholder.[3][14] In 2014, Williams announced that Wolff would be driving in two free practice sessions at the British and German Grands Prix. At the British Grand Prix, Wolff became the first woman to participate in a Formula One weekend since 1992, when Giovanna Amati made three unsuccessful Grand Prix qualification attempts. However her time on the track was cut short after an engine problem occurred after completing just one timed lap.[15] On 18 July 2014, Wolff drove in a free practice session at the German Grand Prix. This session also started with car problems, but these were solved and Wolff managed to put in a good performance, finishing the session in 15th place out of 22 cars with a time of 01:20.769 just two-tenths of a second behind teammate Felipe Massa's 11th place time of 01:20.542. On 28 November 2014, Williams announced that Wolff would stay with team for the 2015 season in an enhanced role as test driver, with her position expanded to include two runs in Friday practice and two tests.[16] In 2015, Wolff, who drove during pre-season F1 testing, clocked a 1:29.708 (14th place) in Friday's first free session of the Spanish Grand Prix, six places and 0.877s adrift of regular driver Felipe Massa (8th place with 01:28.831). She then managed to post a 1:37.242 in the free practice session at the British Grand Prix for a respectable 13th place out of 20 cars.

On 4 November 2015, Wolff announced on the BBC that she was retiring from Formula One racing, citing that she had always said that she would go when she felt that she could go no further; she felt that she had gone as far as she could go, but expressed intentions to help other women in motor racing.[17] However, she stated that she would compete in the 2015 Race of Champions at the end of November for Scotland with former F1 driver David Coulthard and would subsequently retire from all forms of motorsport.[18]

Mercedes (2016–)

Wolff joined Mercedes as one of their ambassadors in 2016.

Formula E (2018–)

In 2018 Wolff joined the Venturi Formula E Team as Team Principal and also became a shareholder in the team.[9]

Race of Champions

The Race of Champions planned to feature a female driver for the first time in its history when Wolff signed up for ROC 2013, to be held at Bangkok's Rajamangala Stadium on 14–15 December. The news was warmly welcomed by ROC co-founder Michèle Mouton, the world's most successful female rally driver.[19] However, in early December 2013, the event was cancelled due to the political situation in Bangkok.[20]

In the 2014 event in Barbados, the Wolff–David Coulthard pair was able to compete as Team United Kingdom. The pair reached the finals of the Nations' Cup but lost to Team Nordic. Wolff lost to Tom Kristensen in the Audi R8 LMS Ultra while Coulthard won against Petter Solberg in the VW Polo RX, but lost the tie-breaker to Kristensen in the Ariel Atom Cup. In the Drivers' Cup, Wolff was eliminated in the group stage.

Awards

On 8 October 2013, Wolff was awarded an Honorary Fellowship at the University of Edinbugh "in recognition of her role as an ambassador for women in sport".[21] She had interrupted her studies at Edinburgh's Business School in 2001 in order to turn professional.[22] Wolff was honoured as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) on the 2017 New Year Honours list for services to Women in Sport.[1]

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2002	Formula Renault UK	Team DFR	11	0	0	0	0	45	18th
2003	Formula Renault UK	Motaworld Racing	17	0	0	0	1	215	9th
2004	Formula Renault UK	Comtec Racing with Duckhams	20	0	0	0	3	284	5th
2005	British Formula 3	Alan Docking Racing	2	0	0	0	0	2	18th
2006	Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters	Mücke Motorsport	10	0	0	0	0	0	17th
2007	Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters	Mücke Motorsport	10	0	0	0	0	0	20th
2008	Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters	Persson Motorsport	11	0	0	0	0	0	18th
2009	Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters	Persson Motorsport	10	0	0	0	0	0	16th
2010	Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters	Persson Motorsport	11	0	0	0	0	4	13th
2011	Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters	Persson Motorsport	10	0	0	0	0	0	NC
2012	Formula One	Williams F1 Team	Development driver
	Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters	Persson Motorsport	10	0	0	0	0	0	22nd
2013	Formula One	Williams F1 Team	Development driver
2014	Formula One	Williams Martini Racing	Test driver
2015	Formula One	Williams Martini Racing	Test driver

Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Pos	Points
2006	Mücke Motorsport	AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2004	HOC 10	LAU 15	OSC 15	BRH 16	NOR 14†	NÜR Ret	ZAN 12	CAT 15	BUG 13	HOC 9		17th	0
2007	Mücke Motorsport	AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2006	HOC Ret	OSC 16	LAU 12	BRH 16	NOR 16	MUG 10	ZAN 17	NÜR 18	CAT Ret	HOC 14		20th	0
2008	Persson Motorsport	AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2007	HOC 16	OSC 14	MUG 15	LAU 17†	NOR 10	ZAN 15	NÜR 12	BRH 19	CAT Ret	BUG 12	HOC Ret	18th	0
2009	Persson Motorsport	AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2008	HOC Ret	LAU 11	NOR 10	ZAN 11	OSC 10	NÜR 11	BRH 13	CAT 15	DIJ 14	HOC 16†		16th	0
2010	Persson Motorsport	AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2008	HOC 11	VAL 10	LAU 7	NOR 15	NÜR Ret	ZAN 15	BRH Ret	OSC 10	HOC 7	ADR 14	SHA 11	13th	4
2011	Persson Motorsport	AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2008	HOC 12	ZAN 12	SPL 13	LAU DNS	NOR 13	NÜR 14	BRH 14	OSC Ret	VAL 11	HOC 15		NC	0
2012	Persson Motorsport	AMG Mercedes C-Coupé	HOC 12	LAU 21	BRH 20†	SPL 14	NOR Ret	NÜR 17	ZAN 12	OSC Ret	VAL 13	HOC 13		22nd	0

• † — Retired, but was classified as she completed 90 per cent of the winner's race distance.

Complete Formula One participations

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicates fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	WDC	Points
2014	Williams Martini Racing	Williams FW36	Mercedes PU106A Hybrid 1.6 V6 t	AUS	MAL	BHR	CHN	ESP	MON	CAN	AUT	GBR TD	GER TD	HUN	BEL	ITA	SIN	JPN	RUS	USA	BRA	ABU	–	–
2015	Williams Martini Racing	Williams FW37	Mercedes PU106B Hybrid 1.6 V6 t	AUS	MAL	CHN	BHR	ESP TD	MON	CAN	AUT	GBR TD	HUN	BEL	ITA	SIN	JPN	RUS	USA	MEX	BRA	ABU	–	–

References

1. "New Year's Honours list 2017" (PDF). Gov.uk. Government Digital Service. 30 December 2016. p. 92. Retrieved 31 December 2016.
2. "Oban woman Susie Wolff joins Williams F1 team". BBC News.
3. Elizalde, Pablo (11 April 2012). "Susie Wolff joins Williams as development driver". Autosport. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 11 April 2012.
4. "Wolff joins Mercedes and invests in F1 team". ESPNF1. Retrieved 21 January 2013.
5. "Susie Stoddart and Toto Wolff married". Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters. ITR e.V. 17 October 2011. Retrieved 21 October 2011.
6. service, Grandprix.com – First & fastest: The original online F1 news. "Grandprix.com".
7. "Mercedes-Boss Wolff – PS-Baby mit seiner Rennfahrer-Frau".
8. "British Grand Prix 2014: Susie Wolff the first woman to take part in a Formula One race weekend in 22 years". Independent. 4 July 2014.
9. "Susie Wolff Appointed Team Principal of Venturi Formula E Team". venturi.com. 26 June 2018. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
10. "Susie Wolff: Profile". espn.co.uk. Retrieved 16 April 2013.
11. "About Susie". Susie Stoddart. 22 May 2009. Archived from the original on 26 September 2008. Retrieved 22 May 2009.
12. "About Susie". Susie Stoddart. 22 May 2009. Archived from the original on 28 January 2008. Retrieved 22 May 2009.
13. "DTM Hockenheim – Analysis part 2". dtm.com. Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters. 19 May 2009. Archived from the original on 23 May 2009. Retrieved 22 May 2009.
14. "Susie Wolff joins Williams as development driver". Formula1.com. Formula One Administration. 11 April 2012. Retrieved 12 April 2012.
15. "Susie Wolff hits trouble on British GP F1 debut for Williams". BBC Sport. 4 July 2014. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
16. "Susie Wolff to stay at Williams next season as test driver". BBC Sport.
17. "WILLIAMS CONFIRMS SUSIE WOLFF TO RETIRE FROM MOTORSPORT". Williams Grand Prix Engineering. 4 November 2015. Archived from the original on 6 November 2015. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
18. McKenzie, Lee (4 November 2015). "A return to Mexico, a farewell to Wolff". Motor Sport magazine. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
19. "Susie Wolff to team up with David Coulthard at ROC 2013". Race of Champions. Retrieved 24 November 2013.
20. "Race Of Champions 2013 Update".
21. Programme notes at the Celebration of Achievement ceremony at McEwan Hall, Edinburgh on 8 October 2013
22. "A celebration of achievement".

External links

• Official website