Can Susie Wolff make it into F1?

[FAS33]

she didnt do too badly in the drivers test, but 2.2 secs off the pace is miles away in the best time she ran.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by FAS33

she didnt do too badly in the drivers test, but 2.2 secs off the pace is miles away in the best time she ran.

Compare her against her team mates in Williams cars

Juncadella Day1 Med New 1:34.098 55 laps
Moldanado Day2 Med New 1:34.116 71 laps
Juncadella Day2 Med New 1:34.631 33 laps
Wolff Day3 Med New 1:35.093 89 laps

So she was a second off the best time set in the Williams at the YDT.

[FAS33]

still 1 sec in the same car is on a different planet.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by FAS33

still 1 sec in the same car is on a different planet.

Yup, but that was the worst comparison, she is less than .4 off Juncadella on his day 2 time, which on her experience despite her age is probably not too bad.

We would really need more info to get an accurate comparison as the track and fuel loads could be dramatically different, but not nearly as impressive as Sainz jnr. and Ricciardo that's for sure.

She would also appear to be better than some of the other young driver hopefuls in other cars.

[Beryl]

No, of course not.

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by wnut

Compare her against her team mates in Williams cars

Juncadella Day1 Med New 1:34.098 55 laps
Moldanado Day2 Med New 1:34.116 71 laps
Juncadella Day2 Med New 1:34.631 33 laps
Wolff Day3 Med New 1:35.093 89 laps

So she was a second off the best time set in the Williams at the YDT.

And about a zillion light years behind anything with a Red Bull on it...

[bella]

are we going to do the same thread for all the other probably not really quick enough drivers out there this week?

if not then all this is is trolling. man up, guys.

[DS"]

Hopefully not. She's just got a bad character, like arrogantly considering herself as the "fastest female racing driver in the world" (Danica Patrick, Simona de Silvestro and Katherine Legge (Omitting her own achievements in DTM) like have a word with her). She also seems to have been immune to self-criticism. When things didn't go well in DTM (Which naturally happened quite a lot), she never blamed herself, instead blaming her crew, other drivers and so on.
But what really blows my mind is how seven absolutely horrendous years in DTM can warrant a full day of testing for Williams! Yes, I know, Toto Wolff and so on. But that just goes to show how self-delusional she really is, because there a ton of more deserving drivers for the test, let alone a full-season ride (And I can see Williams definitely go for that, especially once Maldonado leaves and with him the PDVSA money).

[jsTrecu]

A lot of men currently in F1 consider themselves to be the best one in the world, and it's not a problem.

I don't think she deserves to be in F1, but there are some other drivers that don't deserve to be there too. So if you are going to grant a drive to someone who is not good enough, why not give it to her and at least increase marketing and earnings ?
F1 is more a show than a sport actually so I wouldn't care if she races, but don't expect me to support her.

Just trying to be realistic.

[F1Pete]

Well, if she doesn't make it behind the wheel, I'm sure she would have a future as a grid girl.

[JeremySmith]

Originally Posted by bella

are we going to do the same thread for all the other probably not really quick enough drivers out there this week?

if not then all this is is trolling. man up, guys.

I think this thread will be full of posters just trolling....

[Aysedasi]

Agreed.......

Originally Posted by F1Pete

Well, if she doesn't make it behind the wheel, I'm sure she would have a future as a grid girl.

Oh dear - down a notch further.........

[F1Pete]

Realistically she is on the upper limit at her age. Although I think she is young enough to drive an F1 car. I don't think she would be any worse than guys like Mazzacane or Takagi or whoever that really bad Japanese driver was. If those guys were allowed to drive why can't she? I do believe she would be much much better than those drivers. What kind of driver would she have been in Schumacher's Ferrari during his dominance when it was stated a monkey could drive that car? I think she would do okay and hold her own. I just don't think a team will give a female a chance unless she brought lots of money and was a decent driver. How I would have loved to see someone like Danica Patrick driving an F1 car. That would have been a spectacle.

I think Suzie would generate a lot of hype and interest also. She would be a good replacement for Maldonado. Would Frank take that chance? His daughter probably would.

[Gingers4Justice]

Is does matter if she deserves the seat or not. Well, not to me specifically - it's none of my business who a team hires at their driver. But I really do care about women in F1, it's a sport that has no reason to be so male-orientated. If that is to be broken, the best way for that to happen would be for the first woman to race in the modern era of F1 to be truly worthy of her talent and get rid of all those horrid prejudices that remain to this day.

The problem with the lack of women in F1 is not that there is a massive queue of talented drivers who aren't getting through because of sexism, at least not in the final few steps in the ladder. There's just not enough women coming out of karting. I'm not sure where I've read it, but I'm sure I've read that many female karters lose interest in their mid-teens and pack it in all together.

There can't be one specific factor for this, but I'd say one of them would be a lack of an inspirational figure. I don't think Wolff is the answer. Is that the dream? To marry into the sport and to be judged on your looks more than your talent?

That said, it's a kind of a "chicken or the egg" problem.

Can she "make it" though? Well of course she can. Van der Garde is on the grid! And anyone remember Sakon Yamamoto?

She may well have not set the world on fire, but her earlier career wouldn't come under such close scrutiny if she were a man.

[Teretonga]

Susie has not shown the level of skill or speed that would earn her a contracted seat as a regular grand prix competitor on the basis of performance in driving a F1 car.
Her career would have come under similar scrutiny as a man, possibly more. Secondly a drivers earlier career is evidence of the ability in deserving a seat. Susie has not shown the level of achievement in her career thus far that indicates she should be rewarded with a paid seat.

That is not to say there aren't other employed drivers currently who shouldn't be there on the same criteria but simply that Susie doesn't make the grade on the criteria all aspiring drivers should be measured by.

[Malfunction Junction]

If she brings enough euros to keep Williams running for a year, she deserves a seat. At the moment, nothing else matters.

[mountainstar]

Can Susie Wolff make it into F1?

Yes if the check clears. It certainly would not be based on ability. There is nothing in her resume and results that points to even being worthy for a test seat.

[JeremySmith]

I am proud of her, and I will tell you why...

Can you imagine what it's like if you are the only male in a sport that is dominated by women..

[F1Pete]

Originally Posted by JeremySmith

I am proud of her, and I will tell you why...

Can you imagine what it's like if you are the only male in a sport that is dominated by women..

Sounds like heaven to me....

[JeremySmith]

Originally Posted by F1Pete

Sounds like heaven to me....

[FordCosworthPanoz]

Does she have a cheque that clears well?

Thats what it takes to become a midfield/backmarker F1 driver, if so, then yes.

She's no worse than Chilton, Gutierrez and company.

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by Teretonga

Susie has not shown the level of skill or speed that would earn her a contracted seat as a regular grand prix competitor on the basis of performance in driving a F1 car.
Her career would have come under similar scrutiny as a man, possibly more. Secondly a drivers earlier career is evidence of the ability in deserving a seat. Susie has not shown the level of achievement in her career thus far that indicates she should be rewarded with a paid seat.

That is not to say there aren't other employed drivers currently who shouldn't be there on the same criteria but simply that Susie doesn't make the grade on the criteria all aspiring drivers should be measured by.

Hard not to see the logic here. The other piece of the puzzle is that it doesnt look like she is currently racing anything, to keep the racecraft up.

Having seen all of this, it would not be a surprise to see Mrs Wollf entered in the second Williams next season... perhaps bringing the stock of Mercedes Benz powerplants along with her.. for nix..

Hopefully then Sir Frank, and his new technogumbies led by Mr Symond, can then afford to hire a superstar for its #1 car... and win... and be successful...

[M_Fritz]

Hi, this is my first post

Not to be totally biased against girls but lets just have a look at past women drivers in a racing series.

Danica Patrick- She clearly is underprepared for NASCAR in a car that could win she can't even get in top 20, should she be in NASCAR not to mention her snobbish, arrogant and selfish attitude. In the Nationwide series whenever she crashed she never blamed herself, either other drivers or her crew.

Silvia De Silvestro- I believe she raced against Danica in Indycar but again just like Danica always blaming someone else. In all her incidents she blamed the other drivers and even in 2010 blamed the safety officials for a crash that she caused

Susie Wolff seems to be off the pace and just like these 2 girls, always blaming the other person because it seems that girls have trouble admitting to their own mistake.

[Beetle]

Could she make it into Formula 1?

One word: no.

It doesn't matter whether a driver's male, female, feline, etc... if you are at the back of the DTM pack most of the time and then rat on your team, car, etc, no one's going to want you. How she even managed to get into the Williams driver test is an utter mystery to me... maybe it's because she's a girl and therefore "special". But she's not fast at all, and would be battling amongst the likes of Giedo Van der Garde and Max Chilton in a car that is much faster than their's. Essentially, in Formula 1, she simply wouldn't cut the mustard, and the driver test results show that perfectly.

It's not prejudice against women in motorsport: Danica Patrick and Simona di Silvestro have done in, and people seem to love them (except Kyle Petty). There's no ice to break anymore... it doesn't matter if she's a woman. It does matter that she spent all her racing career as a moving DTM chicane.

Originally Posted by M_Fritz

Susie Wolff seems to be off the pace and just like these 2 girls, always blaming the other person because it seems that girls have trouble admitting to their own mistake.

Alright, edit my "it's not prejudice against women in motorsport", because that is just offensive. You cannot put such a generalization blanket over a whole gender of drivers and expect to be taken seriously.

[Beryl]

Originally Posted by F1Pete

Realistically she is on the upper limit at her age. Although I think she is young enough to drive an F1 car. I don't think she would be any worse than guys like Mazzacane or Takagi or whoever that really bad Japanese driver was. If those guys were allowed to drive why can't she?

Those drivers (including Yuji Ide, if that's who who you meant) all won races in single-seaters before F1. Susie hasn't won a single race in cars during her career.

And F1 hasn't had any drivers as unready and untalented as Mazzacane in a very long time. You can bring up Yuji Ide, but he was a Formula Nippon runner up (beating out the likes of Lotterer and Treluyer) before F1. Circumstances were heavily against him when he entered F1 with Super Aguri (no testing, not speaking any english, etc.) but nevertheless should have done better than he did. It was a sort of a worst case scenario, so even if Susie Wolff (who is less qualified than Yuji Ide was) could do a little better with her better circumstances, it doesn't merit a place on the grid.

Originally Posted by FordCosworthPanoz

Does she have a cheque that clears well?

Thats what it takes to become a midfield/backmarker F1 driver, if so, then yes.

She's no worse than Chilton, Gutierrez and company.

Gutierrez is a GP3 champion and GP2 race winner. Chilton has wins in F3 and GP2. Wolff has never won a race in cars. Do you see the difference?