In Conversation with Susie Wolff

I attended an event this week at Edinburgh University’s Business School with former racing driver Susie Wolff.

I’m a long-time F1 fan and I can remember when she took part in a race weekend for Williams. It was a remarkable achievement. Following racing retirement she became team principal (and part-owner) of a Formula E team, which was eventually sold, and she’s now managing director of F1 Academy as well as being a Netflix star. She’s also a mum, and is married to some guy called Toto. 

That’s an impressive resume, and she’s still only in her early 40s! Again, remarkable. 

Listening to Susie speak, you understand why she’s been so successful. To survive in the male-dominated, cutthroat world of motorsport as a man must be hard enough, never mind as a woman. Yet she did a whole lot more than just survive, despite the odds never being stacked in her favour. She developed a wealth of grit, determination and tenacity, which she took into the business world with similar ambition and applied it to great effect. 

Sure, to succeed you need connections and good fortune as well as all that elbow grease, but Susie’s story shows that hard graft and ambition is non-negotiable. 

Her autobiography has just been released (hence this publicity tour) and I’m looking forward to reading it. It has the perfect name for a racer turned entrepreneur – Driven.