1. internationalinternational C9C8
Wolff out to make racing history
British driver is striving to become only the third woman to take part in an f1 grand prix
Dubai
F
ormula One truly is “a
man’s world”, as the
song goes, tradition-
ally the sole domain of
testosterone-fuelled pet-
rol heads bidding to prove their
masculinity by being faster than
their rivals.
Indeed, the ultimate example
of sporting machismo has never
been, in the immortal words of
soul singer James Brown, “noth-
ing without a woman or a girl” —
apart from in the pit-lane dollies
and leggy lovelies cooing over
their driver boyfriends.
Hoping to buck such a deeply
entrenched, male-dominated
tradition is Susie Wolff, a British
development driver with Wil-
liams — “basically I carry out
aerodynamical tests at the start
of the year, with a lot of work in a
simulator testing the new devel-
opment parts”.
The Scot is bidding to be-
come only the third woman, and
the first Briton, to take part in a
grand prix in the Formula One
World Championship.
Since first getting into kart-
ing at the age of eight – she was
named as the top female driver
in the world in this discipline in
2000 – Wolff has risen through
the motorsport ranks, taking
part in Formula Renault and For-
mula Three.
In 2006, Wolff made the
big step up to compete in the
Deutsche Tourenwagen Meister-
schaf (DTM), the German Tour-
ing Car series, one of the biggest
championships of its kind in the
world.
Now the 30-year-old wants
to break new ground by moving
into the rarefied realms of For-
mula One, having joined Wil-
liams last year.
But threatening to put the
brakes on her dream is not only
the fact that she has to contend
with scepticism about her cre-
dentials from many male coun-
terparts in the sport, but also
the fact that F1 is renowned as
a highly competitive and cut-
throat environment.
The roguish supremo of the
sport, Bernie Ecclestone, per-
haps did not help matters when,
on reflecting on Wolff’s arrival at
Williams last year, he remarked:
“If Susie’s as quick in a car as she
looks good out of a car, she’ll be a
huge asset [to the sport].”
The blonde-haired Wolff is
undoubtedly attractive, but is no
brainless bimbo, as Ecclestone
also noted by praising her for be-
ing “intelligent”.
The straight-talking, feisty
Scot certainly appears to possess
the requisite mix of streetwise
savvy and steely determination
to ensure she will not cowed by
any criticism or cynicism from
her male peers.
Does not fawn over Vettel
She insists that, while she
respects the top drivers in the
world and followed closely the
fortunes of fellow Scot David
Coulthard, who retired several
years ago, she does not fawn over
world champion Sebastian Vettel
and co.
There’s also a hint of impres-
sive insouciance in her voice
whenshereveals:“Iknowalotof
them very well. I’ve known Lew-
is [Hamilton] since I first started
racing, I wouldn’t say I socialise a
lot with him, not at all.”
It’s also clear she’s mildly ex-
asperated and weary about her
sex being brought up in relation
to her involvement in motor-
sport.
Asked whether she is passion-
ate about proving that women
can thrive in a man’s world, she
declared emphatically: “No, not
at all. I am not passionate about
being the first British woman in
Formula One. I am passionate
about the being the best racing
driver I can be.”
Earlier this year, a BBC televi-
sion documentary about Wolff
carried the grandiose title of:
Driven: The Fastest Woman in the
World. Does Wolff think she is
indeed the quickest female on
the planet, and does she also feel
as if she has strive to live up such
a lofty and potentially pressure-
laden billing? She said: “That
name is no problem to me. I am
not one to turn round to the BBC
and say they shouldn’t call the
documentary that; it was their
choice to call it that. Whether
I am or not [the fastest in the
world], it’s not really a title I’m
interested in.”
Wolff, who refused to name
names of people in the sport who
have treated her with disdain,
added of the problems she has
faced: “I think throughout my
career there have always been
moments when it’s been quite
tough [to be a woman in motor-
sport]. Many people want to see
a woman in Formula One, many
people don’t think it can happen.
Many people are for it and many
people are against it. I have my
critics and I have my supporters.
When people try and generalise
by saying women can’t compete
at the level of Formula One, that
annoys me. But ultimately, I am
there because I want to be a suc-
cessful racing driver. I try and
ignore the comments and do the
best job possible.”
Other detractors have mis-
chievously suggested that the
fact that Wolff’s husband Toto,
the head of motorsport for Mer-
cedes F1, is a Williams share-
holder is a key reason for her
presence in the team.
Unsurprisingly, Wolff is irked
considerably by such an asser-
tion — perhaps even more than
when her gender is being used
as a stick with which to beat her.
She said: “Do people think he
was in the car changing gear for
me driving around Silverstone
[for the Young Driver Test in July
for up-and-coming drivers]?
It’s such an old story now, I get
asked about it so much. Carlos
Sainz Junior testing for Red Bull:
Did people question that his fa-
ther [former world rally cham-
pion Carlos Senior] helped get
him a test? Nico Prost: did any-
one mention that his four-time
world championship-winning
father Alain get him a test [for
Lotus Renault]? No. But people
love to drag up the fact that my
husband owns shares in the Wil-
liams team. As much as he’s a
massive support to me and I am
very grateful to him, he’s not the
one that puts me in the car as I
am the one out there.”
While Wolff appears well ca-
pable of taking the barbs from
misogynistic males and naysay-
ers in her stride, it remains to be
seen whether she can succeed
under the crushing weight of
history. The Italian driver Ma-
ria Teresa de Filippis, who made
three starts for Maserati and
Behra-Porsche, was the first
flag-bearer for the women’s mo-
torsport movement when she
became the first female to com-
pete in a grand prix in 1958, in
Belgium.
But only one other woman has
followed in her footsteps since,
De Filippis’ compatriot Lella
Lombardi, who achieved the
distinction of scoring the first
points by a woman (0.5) at the
1975 Spanish Grand Prix.
However, Wolff has not been
ploughing a lone female furrow
in her groundbreaking attempt
in the modern day.
The Spaniard Maria de Villota
joined the Marussia team as a test
driver last year, but her attempts
to break new ground for women
were cruelly derailed by a life-
threatening testing accident last
July.
De Villota lost her right eye as
a result, but has not ruled out a
return to F1 despite her injuries.
As such, for now Wolff is
shouldering the burden of be-
ing the only female driver in
the sport, although she stresses
she has no particular future goal
in mind other than racing in a
grand prix.
She said: “When I first joined
Williams last year, I told peo-
ple I wasn’t going to run before
I walked. There were a series of
steps I needed to take, including
the Young Driver Test. I showed
I could do 89 laps around Sil-
verstone, which is a super-fast
track (on the final day she fin-
ished ninth, 2.2 seconds behind
three-time and current world
champion Vettel). I think that
was a step in the right direction,
but Formula One is very fast
moving. The car had an incred-
ible amount of downforce – the
harder you push, the faster you
go. It was great fun to drive. Cer-
tainly at the end of the day I just
thought I had to get back in this
car because it was so much fun
to drive. You never know what’s
around the corner, so for me it’s
a case of continuing on my path,
keep working hard and keep
hoping an opportunity [in the
sport] will arise.”
Of the hardest thing about
the rigours of F1, Wolff said the
exacting fitness levels required
were a “big challenge” for her.
But after her Silverstone experi-
ence, she insists questions about
physical capabilities have been
“put to rest a bit”.
Single-minded Susie may
never make it to the starting grid
in F1, but her brave “woman’s
heart” is a welcome addition to
this most masculine of environ-
ments.
By Euan Reedie, Deputy
Sports Editor
Gulf News | Saturday, August 31, 2013 | gulfnews.com HHgulfnews.com | Saturday, August 31, 2013 | Gulf News
Susie Wolff
Name: Susie Wolff
Date ofbirth: December 6,1982
Place ofbirth: Oban,Scotland
Place ofresidence: Switzerland
Job description: Development
driver
Height: 1.68m
Weight: 53kg
Hobbies: Karting,cycling,skiing,
watersports and reading
Track record: Susie began her
career in karting,being named
British Women Kart Racing Driver
of the Year in 1996,1997,1998,and
1999,and in 2000 was named top
female kart driver in the world.Susie
progressed to single-seater racing
in 2001,competing in the Formula
Renault Winter Series.
In 2002,she made her debut in the
full Formula Renault UK
Championship,and in 2003 won the
BRDC Rising Star of the YearAward,
as well as being selected as a finalist
for the BRDC Mclaren Autosport
Young Driver of the YearAward
in 2003 and 2004.In 2004 Susie
competed in her third season in the
Formula Renault UK Championship,
finishing fifth overall with three
podium finishes.
In 2005,Susie progressed to the
British Formula Three
Championship.She also made a
one-off appearance in the Porsche
Carrera Cup GB at Brands Hatch.
2006 saw Susie compete for the
first time in DTM,the German
Touring Car series.In her debut
season she achieved 6 wins out of
the 2004-spec cars,with a best
finish of ninth in the season finale.
Susie continues to race in DTM for
Team Persson Motorsport who she
joined in 2008,and in 2012 will drive
the TV Spielfilm Mercedes AMG
C-Coupé.In April 2012 Susie was
confirmed as development driver for
the Williams F1 Team.
Sources: Susie Wolff.com,Williams F1.
factfile
Record bid
■■ Williams’ development
driver Susie Wolff
(above) is bidding to
become only the third
woman, and the first
Briton, to take part in a
grand prix.
Courtesy: Williams F1
Courtesy: Williams F1
One of the boys
■■ Wolff impressed in the Young Driver Test at Silverstone in July
(centre picture) and (below) has settled well at Williams.
Ben’s bidding to
clean up athletics
Drugs cheat and former sprinter is now
fronting an anti-doping campaign
London
E
ven at 51, envel-
oped by his taint as
the most notorious
drugs cheat in the
history of sport, Ben
Johnson has lost none of the
old braggadocio.
That searing image of the
cheater in the red Canada
strip, right arm aloft before
he even crossed the finish-
ing line, is at odds with the
intense, thickset figure who
sits here in the basement of
his London hotel and de-
clares his ability to run jaw-
dropping times when clean.
“Sprinters were born, not
made,” he says, in a West
Indian accent richer than
Michael Holding voicing a
Malibu advert.
“The other week I was
running a relay in Toronto,
and people couldn’t believe
how fast I was. I had to tell
them, ‘I haven’t trained.’ So
that’s the talent I have. It’s
not about doing drugs.”
But in Johnson’s case it
is everything about doing
drugs. In September 1988
he was recast in 48 hours
from an Olympic 100 metres
champion, signing auto-
graphs in his white suit at the
Seoul Hilton ‘Ben Johnson,
fastest man in the world,’ to
a wretched pariah who had
tested positive for stano-
zolol and awoke to Canadian
headlines ranging from ‘Dis-
grace’ to ‘You B---d.’
As of yesterday, he un-
derwent another drastic
reinvention, fronting an
anti-doping campaign that
exhorts the next generation
of athletes to “choose the
right track.” Either it is an
act of bravery or one of su-
preme brass neck. For while
Johnson goes heavy on the
contrition, describing his
own performance-enhanc-
ing path as the “destiny I
chose, and that cost me,” he
is still excoriating about his
enemies.
Almost 25 years after his
defining disgrace, Johnson
remains a darkly compelling
figure. He will mark the an-
niversary on September 24
not by withdrawing into hid-
ing but with a visit to Seoul’s
Jamsil Stadium, unfurling
a giant anti-doping peti-
tion along the lane where he
made his burst into infamy.
“It might feel as if, ‘this
is where everything hap-
pened,’” he says of his return
to the scene of the crime.
“But that was the first life of
Ben Johnson, this is the sec-
ond. Now I am older, wiser,
smarter, stronger.”
The great contradiction
about Johnson surrounds the
question of just how sorry
he is. On the one hand he
invokes the homespun phi-
losophy of his mother Gloria,
saying: “She always claimed
that the only person I hurt
in this world was myself. I
didn’t hurt anybody else,
didn’t endanger anybody.
I never did, never would. I
take full responsibility and
try to move forward in a pos-
itive way.”
But on the other, he pur-
ports to be the victim of a
vast conspiracy, claiming
that his drink was spiked by
a “mystery man” in Seoul’s
anti-doping room — al-
leged in his autobiography
to be Andre Jackson, a US
diamond executive last found
working at a mine in Angola.
Now, Johnson insists, “I’m
someone who wants to fit in
with society.” This was an
impulse he seldom displayed,
though, in the grisly after-
math of Seoul, living remote
from the outside world in the
Toronto suburb of Newmar-
ket, and spending most of his
days watching Road Runner
cartoons.
His only companion was
his mother, who passed away
in 2004 and to whom he was
utterly devoted.
“The hardest thing I
ever faced was to confront
my mum,” he remembers.
“When I did, she just em-
braced me and said, ‘At least
you have a clear conscience.
It’s going to be tough in the
years to come but you will get
over it. By the time you have
dealt with your problems,
other people will still have
theirs’. I came to understand
that, growing up into a man,
what she said 25 years ago is
coming to pass.”
— The Telegraph Group
Limited, London, 2013
By Oliver Brown
Rex Features
Making amends
■■ Almost 25 years after his defining disgrace, Johnson (above) will mark the anniversary on
September 24 not by withdrawing into hiding but with a visit to Seoul’s Jamsil Stadium,
unfurling a giant anti-doping petition along the lane where he made his burst into infamy.
Rex Features
Ben Johnson
Cardiff
E
ngland World Cup-win-
ner Josh Lewsey was
yesterday named as the
new head of rugby for Wales.
The 55-times capped ex-
fullback and wing will join
theWelshRugbyUnionatthe
end of September to take up
his new role.
In his 19-year career,
Lewsey played for Bristol,
Wasps, England and the Brit-
ish and Irish Lions before re-
tiring in 2009.
The 36-year-old, who has
a Welsh mother, will take op-
erational and strategic man-
agement of the whole of the
game in Wales, from com-
munity to elite level, outside
Warren Gatland’s senior in-
ternational squad.
Lewsey has previously
worked extremely closely
with Gatland and many of
his backroom staff while at
Wasps, winning two Euro-
pean Cups and four National
Championships. “I am de-
lighted to have been offered
this opportunity to play a
pivotal role,” said Lewsey.
— AFP
Lewsey
lands top
Wales
rugby job
Sindhu, Kido shine for Warriors
Bengaluru
T
een sensation P.V. Sind-
hu and doubles special-
ist Markis Kido carried
Awadhe Warriors into the final
of the Vodafone Indian Bad-
minton League as their team
edged out Mumbai Masters
3-2 in the semi-finals, here on
Thursday.
The Warriors, who take on
Hyderabad Hotshots in the fi-
nal today at Mumbai, rode on
Sindhu’s crucial win in the
women’s singles against Tine
Baun and then Kido won both
his doubles matches, men’s
and mixed, to power the Luc-
know-based team into the ti-
tle round.
The Masters, who had lost
to Warriors by the same mar-
gin in the league phase at this
very venue last week, paid
dearly for getting their mixed
doubles combination wrong.
Vladimir Ivanov, after win-
ning a tough second men’s
singles against K. Srikanth to
tie the match 2-2, had just a
five-minute break before he
came back on court for the
mixed doubles partnering
Baun who seemed to be nurs-
ing a hamstring problem, and
promptly lost to World No 9
pairing of Kido and his young-
er sister Pia Bernadeth 21-19.
Earlier, World No 1 Lee
Chong Wei gave Masters 1-0
lead by easily winning the
first men’s singles 21-15, 21-
17 against Gurusai Dutt, but
Sindhu put Warriors on even
terms by outclassing a way-
ward Baun 21-16, 21-13.
In the men’s doubles, Kido,
combined brilliantly with
Mathias Boe to beat Suneeth
Reddy and Pranav Chopra 21-
15, 21-10 as Warriors moved to
a 2-1 lead only to see Srikanth
losing 20-21, 19-21 to Ivanov
as Masters drew level at 2-2.
Ivanov, who had to work
hard for his win over Sri-
kanth, had not much left in
the tank for the mixed doubles
tie along with Baun as Kido
and Bernadeth came through
21-19, 21-15 to help Warriors
wrap up the tie.
— IANS
Awadhewill take on
Nehwal’s Hyderabad
Hotshots todayin Indian
Badminton League final
Easy win for Bolt
at Diamond meet
Zurich
J
amaican sprint king Usain
Bolt eased to yet another
comfortable 100m victory
at the Diamond League meet
in Zurich on Thursday.
Bolt charged home in
9.90sec, leaving fellow-Ja-
maican Nickel Ashmeade and
American Justin Gatlin trail-
ing behind him.
Ashmeade finished in 9.94
and Gatlin in 9.96 in the pe-
nultimate Diamond League
event of the season.
For once Bolt was relatively
slow out of the blocks and
seemed to take longer than
usual to find his rhythm, but
the man with six Olympic
gold medals and eight world
titles to his name recovered
and overtook his two rivals
with 15m to go.
Earlier, Meseret Defar pro-
duced a telling sprint fin-
ish to hold off a strong chal-
lenge from fellow-Ethiopian
Tirunesh Dibaba and win the
5,000 metres.
Defar, the world champi-
on and double Olympic gold
medallist, finished in 14min
32.83sec, with the beaten
Dibaba trailing in 14:34.82.
Dibaba, 28, the triple
Olympic champion who com-
pleted the 5,000m/10,000m
double in Beijing five years
ago, tried to break clear after
her sister Genzebe had upped
the pace at the four-kilome-
tre mark.
Despite covering the final
1,000m in 2:40.68, Dibaba
could not shake off Defar and
lost the run-in on the home
straight. The victory gives
Defar a 15-11 advantage over
her arch-rival.
— AFP
Sprint king finishes the
race in 9.90 seconds,
overtaking main rivals
with just 15m to go
AFP
Usain Bolt
Badminton
Awadhe Warriors beat Mumbai Masters 3-2
(Gurusai Dutt lost to Lee Chong Wei 15-21,
7-21; PV Sindhu bt Tine Baun 21-16, 21-13;
Markis Kido / Mathias Boe bt Suneeth Reddy
/ Pranav Chopra 21-15, 21-10; K Srikanth lost
to Vladimir Ivanov 20-21, 19-21; Kido / Pia
Bernadet bt Ivanov / Baun 21-19, 21-15).
results
PTI
Classy display
■■ P.V. Sindhu put Warriors on even terms by outclassing Tine
Baun 21-16, 21-13.