When Susie Wolff first got behind the wheel of a race cart as a young girl, the experience didn’t give her the thrills.
“My first time out on the race track, I remember carts flying past me – much quicker – and this little boy – really aggressive – hitting me as I was going past,” she said.
She thought about giving up but her father – a racing enthusiast – encouraged her to be persistent and the second time around young Wolff was thrilled by the speed, the adrenaline and the competitive spirit of racing.
A couple of decades later, Wolff is a Formula One development driver for the British racing team Williams, and pushing to race alongside the men in a F1 race.
If she succeeds, she would be the first female F1 driver in decades. Italian Giovanna Amati was the last to try to get on the grid when she failed to qualify in 1992. The only woman to appear on the scoresheet was Italian Leila Lombardi who finished sixth in the shortened 1975 Spanish Grand Prix and was awarded a half point.
