Top 45 Susie Wolff Quotes

For me, it’s all about taking things a step at a time, proving I’m good enough and on the right path.

You have to be ready to pounce when a rare chance comes.

I was very lucky in that my parents supported my racing so much – they just said ‘whatever you want to achieve, if you work hard enough you can achieve it.’ They never, ever let me believe that, as a female, I couldn’t compete in a man’s world.

I was always an adrenaline junkie, always competitive, always a speed freak.

I dared to be different, I want to inspire others to do the same.

There was very little opportunity to carry on in Formula 1. My goal was to get on to the starting grid and that didn’t look achievable.

Men are much more egotistical. But that means women can accept criticism and improve easier than men can.

I like being feminine, it’s my way of not conforming to the stereotype that if you’re a racing driver you don’t care how you look.

We want to get more women into the sport, whether that be marshals, volunteers, engineers, female racing drivers. We want to open up the sport and show there’s opportunities out there.

People will say I’m only where I am because of my husband or because the team might want to employ a woman, but you don’t get to drive a Formula 1 car unless you’re good enough, especially with a top team like Williams.

I was always a very competitive little kid. I did swimming very competitively, downhill skiing very competitively. Everything was competition.

I’m not like other females. I’m obviously different because of the path I’ve taken. I’m just as aggressive as the guys when I get my helmet on. Plus F1 is not just about taking risks, but knowing when to take risks and when to back off. It’s also about strategy and managing your tyres.

It’s all very well to talk about how it would be great to have a woman driver, a woman with sponsors and marketing, that’s all great but to get into that drive you have to perform. That’s what I realized early on when I got into Formula One.

I have to perform every time I’m in the car, and show that I’m capable, and I need a little bit of timing and luck to come together.

I never really thought about being a woman in a man’s world. Then at the World Championships in 2000 I finished 15th. I was called on to the podium just for being a woman, and I realised things were going to be different.

It’s not a gender thing. You can pick anyone off the street and it depends on his or her own character how they can drive a car.

I think we all, as drivers, come to the table with a package. It’s either your speed and raw talent, your sponsorship money, your nationality. For me, one of my unique selling points is my gender, without a doubt.

As a racing driver, you’re representing a brand and your appearance is part of your job. But there’s a fine line between being feminine and creating attention on yourself because of what you’re wearing.

These race cars are dangerous and you don’t put someone in one unless you are 100 per cent certain that they can do what they need to do and be safe in the car.

When you’re a driver, you are very selfish and you only need to focus on your own performance because ultimately, it’s your name on the side of the car.

Love it or hate it, motorsport is not purely talent. It never has been and never will be.

As a woman people judge you on your looks regardless of the fact you’re just there to race.

Do I care about what men say at the race track? No, not at all. I’ve always said I race for me, because I love racing. I don’t race to prove a point about how well a woman can do against men on the track.

Just as sport can, art has the capacity to cross so many boundaries like education, race and religion.

When you’re eight, you’re not thinking about the future. But karting was always the big passion, the big love.

The reality is that family is on the cards in the future. But you know in motorsport if you take yourself off to have children, you won’t come back, partly as you’re quickly forgotten in this sport.

We have two issues – not enough young girls starting in karting at a young age and no clear role model. Sometimes you just have to see it to believe it.

I never let my gender define me but in my whole driving career I only ever did one interview not being asked about being a female.

Nobody says Nico Rosberg is only in F1 because his dad was a famous racing driver who funded his karting career and helped him get into F1. It s a bit unfair just to focus on the fact that my husband is in F1 and it’s the only reason I’m in an F1 car.

It doesn’t bother me if I’m getting attention because I’m a girl.

As F1 is a male-dominated environment, you have to prove yourself. And first of all that means being given the chance to prove yourself.

When I stopped racing, I kept being asked to comment on diversity in the sport but I really felt I had done my part.

I think there’s nobody closer in the world than your own husband. And we are very passionate about what we do, very competitive.

I have the deepest admiration for Angela Palmer and her work so having my helmet as her subject has been a true honour for me. I think the sculpture is stunning and very striking, it’s the most incredible combination of strength with fragility.

If there’s 10,000 little boys racing around the world and there’s only 10 girls, best case 100, the numbers are stacked massively against us. If you don’t increase the talent pool of young girls, you’re not going to get the best drivers at the top.

If I was to turn around now and say that motorsport should be segregated, then my whole career would have been for nothing. Every result that I have achieved on my own would stand for nothing, if I couldn’t compete against male drivers.

One of the whole reasons for starting my initiative, Dare to be Different, is about getting more girls interested in motorsport and that’s everywhere, not just driving on track but creating a network where they have the support around them.

When I was driving the simulator, out of the three engineers I worked with one was a woman. So it was very difficult for me to turn around and tell people that I worked in a male-dominated environment, because it wasn’t.

I’ve never played on my gender.

The decision to retire was very easy. The timing had come to the point where it was very clear that my time was up.

When I decided to stop racing, I really wanted to give something back to the sport and for me it was always going to be about inspiring young girls and women.

Your gender becomes irrelevant when you are in a performance-based environment.

Racing’s in my blood. My mum met my dad when she went to buy her first motorbike in his shop.

I’m simply trying to go as far as I can go in racing.

I realised at 13 or 14 when I said, OK, I wanted to be professional racing driver, there wasn’t anyone to look up to that I could aspire to or get inspiration from. But that didn’t stop me.