The hiring of Susie Wolff to Williams

[Racer_D]

Let me rephrase my point a bit.
Here we have a driver (let's disregard the gender) who is married to a Williams investor. A driver that has no impressive track record whatsoever.
Then we have Frank Williams. The great Frank Williams who has apparently hired this driver for her development skills, stressing that aformentioned marriage had nothing to do with the appointment.
Out of all available drivers, Frank somehow chose this one.

I am just dissappointed that's all.

I know very well that pay drivers are part of the game and that almost every driver has paid his way up the ladder. Even the great ones have had to find a budget at one point in their careers, and there are great ones that never got there because of a lack of funds.

Perez, Maldonado, Senna - those guys bring a lot of cash to their teams. But they have achieved something in their careers. A race win here and there, maybe a championship.

In the old days we had a lot more of non-achieving pay drivers in F1. Lavaggi comes to mind, in the 90s. But he drove at Minardi, a team that was always struggling for cash. And that wasn't even nepotism.

This appointment of mediocre Susie Wolff by the great Frank Williams is just a sad thing. Bernie's quote on the whole thing puts it in a nice perspective: "If Susie is as quick in a car as she looks good out of a car then she will be a massive asset to any team."
Yeah. If is F1 spelled backwards, Bernie

[bhall]

I compared to Patrick because half the reason she is popular is the skin she shows for the NASCAR crowd.

Half? That strikes me as a bit of a low estimate.

There's too much venom in this thread for a series that's seen the likes of Narain Karthikeyan, Takuma Sato, Yuji Ide, Luca Badoer, Jérôme d'Ambrosio, Nelson Piquet, Jr., Markus Winkelhock, et al., all have more prominent roles in F1 recently.

Perhaps some would rather see her wearing an apron?

[snoop1050]

I compared to Patrick because half the reason she is popular is the skin she shows for the NASCAR crowd.

Perhaps some would rather see her wearing an apron?

yea really... it must be because shes a woman that we dont think she should be anywhere near an f1 car..~
its got nothing to do with her never winning anything in her racing career.

where are all the drivers that beat her on a regular basis throughout her whole career? do they need to marry a teams investor aswell?

im sure if saubers female team manager suddenly had her husband in as a test driver everyone would be up in arms aswell.

all this pay driver rubbish is getting out of hand if even the test drivers have to pay these days

anyone with any actual skill will probably be wearing an apron

[bhall]

Fine.

I expect to see a thread opened very shortly to discuss this outrage as well.

HRT sign up Ma Qing Hua to driver development programme

[snoop1050]

Chinese youth national karting championship when he was 12 years-old
2004, when he entered the Asian Formula Renault Series and won the championship
n 2011 he competed in the Chinese Touring Car Championship and won the title

hes actually won stuff which is a big + in my book

[Racer_D]

Fine.

I expect to see a thread opened very shortly to discuss this outrage as well.

HRT sign up Ma Qing Hua to driver development programme

That is somewhat different.
What is HRT trying to achieve? A money supply from Asia. It's a struggling team and no bucks, no buck rogers. And this Chinese guy actually won races. Lotus Renault had a 4th or 5th driver from China for this reason last year.

What is Williams trying to achieve? She's from Scotland. Is it just pleasing the investor and board member? That's just sad.

[Richard]

I see Ma Qing Hua competed in the Chinese Touring Car Championship and won the title after claiming four wins and four podiums. OK, so it's not a world leading series but there are rational reasons for him to be suitable if the team are targeting Chinese investment.

I think a large part of the annoyance about Wolff is the way it symbolises Williams decline. Not so long ago, the Williams test driver role would have been given to a promising driver with a winning record in GP2.

Williams were also an out spoken team that did what they said even if it annoyed others. Are we really expected to believe the PR spin that a family member of a team shareholder who has won nothing has been selected for their skill?

We can expect that for HRT and I wish them luck in finding more cash, but it sticks in the craw when you read the same from Williams.

[bhall]

Ah, yes, the internationally renowned, long-time stalwart of touring car excellence, the China Touring Car Championship. How could I possibly have forgotten his commanding victory of its 1600cc title last year? Perhaps he can leverage his experience with HRT to crack into the hyper-competitive world of its 2000cc division next year.

I'd take a DTM tire over any driver in that Championship.

EDIT: My point is that this thread is uncovering biases that people may not even realize they have. But they're as plain as day if you just open your eyes to see it.

And you know what? I blame Danica Patrick. She's done more to set back women in motorsport than any three men combined in the last 25 years.

[snoop1050]

if she was actually sucessful in dtm like that scottish guy then im sure people would be all for it.

[thearmofbarlow]

Take a look at the current crop of F1 drivers and tell me which ones "deserve" to be there. --- none of them. They got their either because they kick ass or because someone PAID for them to be there. Doesn't matter if they're innies or outies. I'd take her over Karthikeyan any day.

[WhiteBlue]

Now we have Frank Williams explaining the world that Susie's husband had nothing to do with the appointment...

I don't remember Sir Frank saying that. He confirmed that it was an extraordinary decision and that Wolff was not taking part in the voting at the board. Nevertheless everybody is aware that Susie got the job on the back of being Toto's wife. I see no difference to other pay drivers. It was also mentioned that Susie was going to do some straight line testing for the company. They may never put her into an official driver test or into an F1 session. At least they have not committed to that AFAIK. Having a driver like Karthikeyan driving in a race seems a decision much more worthy of criticism. He has proven that he doesn't understand the rules and has no respect for the championship fight that the fans want to see. I much rather have that ignoramus removed than Susie Wolff.

[Giblet]

Perhaps some would rather see her wearing an apron?

No, I want to see her in a racing suit, driving a racing car.

I thought that point was pretty clear myself.

[bhall]

Actually, I said that, and he truncated my statement when he quoted it so as to not let reality get in the way of his position.

[JimClarkFan]

I don't think women deserve any special place in F1. I think they should be looked at as drivers. Good driver? Drive. Bad driver? No money no honey.

I completely agree with this. There is some mission to get a woman behind the wheel of a race care under the guise of equality. Problem is that this is effectively positive discrimination if the female driver in question is not as fast as a male driver which at the very top level few are.

Driver positions should be given based on merit, or what they can bring to the team, this hunt for a female driver to fill the ranks of F1 is only going stop good male racing drivers from coming up through the ranks.

Does anybody really think that if a woman was the fastest driver in the world that she wouldn't be snapped up by a big F1 team. I doubt it, the will to win races far out weighs any sexism that may exist in F1.

[bot6]

Stupid question of the day: did this decision have anything to do with Parr slamming the door? Possibly, he did not see eye to eye with Toto on this point...