F1 Academy Managing Director Susie Wolff | Driven

[laughs] Definitely don't miss all the training sessions.

[laughs]

[laughs]

You know, my, my neck took a lot of strain because when you are driving a, an F1 car, you're strapped in so tightly, and the seat's obviously molded to you, but the only thing that isn't obviously fixed is, is your neck.

And people don't realize that an F1 car, there's power steering.

So it's not actually the force of turning the wheel which is tough, which is difficult to comprehend because when you see the size of the car and the tires, you think, "Well, it must be hard to turn." But because of the power steering, it's actually very light, and a driver can very much play with how much power steering they want in the car.

So you get huge forces coming through your, your neck.

And I remember in one of the, the test sessions I did at Barcelona, I was doing a race distance.

And I came to the first braking zone, and you hit about 4.5 G, and one G is your own body weight.

[laughs]

And my f- head got thrown forward, and I thought, "I got 74 laps of this."

[laughs]

[laughs]

Um, but you get accustomed to it.

Um, but the training is, is really relentless.

And I guess because I knew a lot of people questioned whether a woman would be physically fit enough-

Mm-hmm

... uh, to drive an F1, that I certainly didn't want that to be the barrier that stopped me, so I was very disciplined, um, in the training, and that is one thing I don't miss at all.

Um, but when I was discussing with my brother how to open the book, I very much, 'cause I love reading autobiographies regardless of whether it's sport or, or business because I love real-life stories.

And when I looked at the books which really drew me in, which I really enjoyed, it's when the author brought me into their world and took me on the journey.

So when we were discussing how to open the book, we knew we didn't want it to just be a motorsport book-

Right

... that, that chronicled the, the kind of journey through racing.

And my brother said, "People, I would love people to know what it's actually like," 'cause I would love to know what it's like to drive an F1 car.

So we opened the book by really trying to bring you on that journey of, of what it's like sitting in an F1 car, driving it for the first time.