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Topics: Formula 1
Jack Kenmare
Susie Wolff says “one of the most powerful men in Formula 1” tried to enter her hotel room following a "terrifying" phone call at 2 am in the morning.
The 42-year-old, who is married to Toto Wolff, the boss of the Mercedes Formula 1 team, has recently released her autobiography Driven, a book that delves into her extraordinary rise in the sport.
She is arguably best known for being the first woman in 22 years to compete in a Formula 1 race weekend, when she took part in Free Practice 1 at the 2014 British Grand Prix.
More than a decade later and Wolff is now the managing director of the F1 Academy, an all-female racing series that was created to develop and prepare young women drivers for higher levels of motorsport.
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She is a trailblazer for women in the sport, and has been open about her good, and bad, experiences as a female in the industry.
In her autobiography, Wolff details being left scared following an incident in 2007, when she attended a Hugo Boss Christmas party to celebrate the fashion brand’s sponsored athletes.
Wolff didn’t drink at the event and went to bed, but at around 2 am, she received a phone call from "one of the most powerful men in Formula 1”, who would later call again and ask for her room number.
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“I forced a laugh, light, dismissive,” she writes. “No, no, don’t come to my room. I put the phone down.”
After he called again, Wolff pulled the cord from the wall, but moments later, the unnamed man was knocking at her door and trying the handle.
“What am I going to do if that door opens? I couldn’t think of anyone I could call to help me,” she says in the book. “I mapped the room. The wardrobe. The door to the stairwell. If he managed to force his way in, I’d slip into the wardrobe, wait, and the second I had an opening I’d run.”
Wolff says the man later apologised for his actions.
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Speaking in an interview with The Times, Wolff said it was “terrifying because of the huge power the other person had”.
She added: “There are situations we find ourselves in as women where a split-second decision can have a huge impact on your life. I would hope that now a woman could turn around and say, ‘This happened to me and it was truly terrifying,’ and that they would be listened to.
"I do think the sport has come a long way. It doesn’t mean that we’ve not got more work to do.”
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In a more recent interview with Reporting Scotland, Wolff spoke about the incident again.
''There was such an imbalance of power," she recalled. "That was someone who had huge power and I remember being scared. But then he did apologise, and I felt at the time that I just had to move on, because that was what the sport was.
"And thankfully for me, it didn't turn into being anything more sinister but I'm aware that that's not always the case for women, and I'm glad that our sport has moved on from that and that now."
She added: "If something like that would happen, you can put your hand up and say, 'look, this happened' and you will be listened to, and there is someone you can tell."