(English) Susie Wolff: No place for women in F1 … Yet

She put the pedal to the metal in a male dominated world but Susie Wolff has now decided to put the brakes on her bid to shatter Formula One’s glass ceiling.

Wolff has come closer than any woman in 20 years, taking part in practice sessions for the Williams team but never reaching the start line. Now she has chosen to quit.

The 32-year-old said the current F1 set up means her dream “isn’t going to happen,” but also believes her gender wasn’t the key thing holding her back.

“I always said it was my goal to get onto that starting grid because I wanted to prove what I was capable of — I managed that every time I got in the car at the test sessions that I competed in,” she told CNN Sport.

“But the pinnacle of the sport is on the grid and every driver is fighting for one of those spaces. I don’t believe I didn’t make it onto the grid just because of my gender.”

Wolff graduated to Formula One from the German Touring Cars series, and became a test and development driver for Williams in 2012.
She took part in four practice sessions across the past two seasons, becoming the first woman for two decades to do so.

But when an injury to Valtteri Bottas raised the possibility that she could get a start in the Malaysian Grand Prix in March, Williams said she was not under consideration.

In a blog explaining her decision she said: “I got oh so close. I 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.

“My progression into Formula One came to represent so much more than a racing driver simply trying to reach the pinnacle of the sport.

“I rode the wave, was energized by all the support and fought hard. There were those who wanted it to happen. Those who didn’t.”