Women can't drive Formula 1 racing cars.
Not fast enough to win, anyway. At least, that's what we've all been led to believe. The fairer sex just can't "cut it" at the top of the speed game according to some high-ranking folks in the sport - we're not genetically able, apparently. Not muscular enough, not tough enough, not, not... men.
Men can drive Formula 1 racing cars, and they can go really fast in them, too. Hundreds of miles an hour in a straight line, before breaking and turning a corner, subjecting their neck muscles to the kind of G-forces that would make the rest of us pass out. Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, Sebastian Vettel, all champion F1 racing drivers, all men.
Susie Wolff, a woman (though that was probably obvious), can drive Formula 1 racing cars though, and this week she'll do it on one of the biggest stages motorsport has to offer.
The Silverstone Grand Prix, the British home of F1, takes place on Friday 4 to Sunday 6 July and Wolff will be taking part. The 31 year-old Oban-born professional racer has been a development driver for Williams Formula One team since 2012, but this is the first time that she will sit in an F1 car in front of spectators on a competitive race weekend. Wolff will also be the first woman to drive a F1 racing car at a Grand Prix event for 22 years.
The Williams team announced that Wolff would be driving in the first practice sessions at both the Silverstone and Hockenheim (German) Grand Prix this year, after impressing her bosses with fast lap times during testing days. Though to be clear, driving in a practice session isn't the same as competing in a full-blown F1 race, but for female racing drivers, and Wolff's career particularly, it's an enormous step in the right direction.
Despite her achievements, while Wolff speeds around the Silverstone track there will undoubtedly be the odd murmur about female racing drivers, their abilities and their limitations.
Indeed only last year racing legend Sir Stirling Moss suggested that women lacked the mental strength to compete in F1. He said: "We've got some very strong and robust ladies, but, when your life is at risk, I think the strain of that in a competitive situation will tell when you're trying to win. The mental stress I think would be pretty difficult for a lady to deal with in a practical fashion. I just don't think they have aptitude to win a Formula One race."
It's the kind of view Wolff has heard many times in her racing career, but one that she has consistently ignored and, more importantly, proved wrong. Indeed when Wolff heard of Sir Stirling's comments she said: "I completely disagree with him. It makes me cringe hearing that."
Wolff's message? Women can drive F1 racing cars. Given the chance, they could even win.
www.silverstone.co.u
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