Susie Wolff


Suzanne Wolff, is a British former racing driver. Her parents, John and Sally Stoddart, owned a motorcycle dealership in Oban and her father raced bikes competitively. 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. 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.
She lives in Ermatingen, Switzerland, with her husband Toto Wolff, executive director of the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team. The two were married in October 2011. In October 2016, Wolff announced on Twitter that she was pregnant with their first child. 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. 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.

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.
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.
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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 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. 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. In 2015, Wolff, who drove during pre-season F1 testing, clocked a 1:29.708 in Friday's first free session of the Spanish Grand Prix, six places and 0.877s adrift of regular driver Felipe Massa. 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. 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.

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.

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. However, in early December 2013, the event was cancelled due to the political situation in Bangkok.
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". She had interrupted her studies at Edinburgh's Business School in 2001 in order to turn professional. Wolff was honoured as a Member of the Order of the British Empire on the 2017 New Year Honours list for services to Women in Sport.

Racing record

Career summary

Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters results

YearTeamCar1234567891011PosPoints
2006Mücke MotorsportAMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2004HOC
10		LAU
15		OSC
15		BRH
16		NOR
14†		NÜR
Ret		ZAN
12		CAT
15		BUG
13		HOC
9		17th0
2007Mücke MotorsportAMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2006HOC
Ret		OSC
16		LAU
12		BRH
16		NOR
16		MUG
10		ZAN
17		NÜR
18		CAT
Ret		HOC
14		20th0
2008Persson MotorsportAMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2007HOC
16		OSC
14		MUG
15		LAU
17†		NOR
10		ZAN
15		NÜR
12		BRH
19		CAT
Ret		BUG
12		HOC
Ret		18th0
2009Persson MotorsportAMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2008HOC
Ret		LAU
11		NOR
10		ZAN
11		OSC
10		NÜR
11		BRH
13		CAT
15		DIJ
14		HOC
16†		16th0
2010Persson MotorsportAMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2008HOC
11		VAL
10		LAU
7		NOR
15		NÜR
Ret		ZAN
15		BRH
Ret		OSC
10		HOC
7		ADR
14		SHA
11		13th4
2011Persson MotorsportAMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2008HOC
12		ZAN
12		SPL
13		LAU
DNS		NOR
13		NÜR
14		BRH
14		OSC
Ret		VAL
11		HOC
15		NC0
2012Persson MotorsportAMG Mercedes C-CoupéHOC
12		LAU
21		BRH
20†		SPL
14		NOR
Ret		NÜR
17		ZAN
12		OSC
Ret		VAL
13		HOC
13		22nd0

YearEntrantChassisEngine12345678910111213141516171819WDCPoints
2014Williams Martini RacingWilliams FW36Mercedes PU106A Hybrid 1.6 V6 tAUSMALBHRCHNESPMONCANAUTGBR
TD		GER
TD		HUNBELITASINJPNRUSUSABRAABU––
2015Williams Martini RacingWilliams FW37Mercedes PU106B Hybrid 1.6 V6 tAUSMALCHNBHRESP
TD		MONCANAUTGBR
TD		HUNBELITASINJPNRUSUSAMEXBRAABU––