To most people, wriggling into a leather catsuit and having your picture taken for a national newspaper in a 20-minute window between getting off a plane from Scotland and getting onto a plane to Germany might be considered high pressure. Not Susie Stoddart.
The 26-year-old is used to racing at 180mph in front of 160,000 people, and lets other people flap as the minutes until take-off tick down. We won’t be the first to call her the female Lewis Hamilton: both started karting as children, both race for Mercedes (Stoddart holds her own against the men in the massive German Touring Car Championship) and like her friend Lewis, Susie is every inch the brand ambassador for a German super-corporation.
Click Here For More Pictures Of Susie Stoddart
She doesn’t drink, has a long-term boyfriend, wears Hugo Boss and has done so many interviews in German that her soft Argyll tones are gradually migrating towards Stuttgart.
Click Here For More Pictures Of Susie Stoddart
My male team-mates hate it when I out-qualify them.
I slaughtered them in the last race. They hated it and were in a bad mood all day. That doesn’t bother me at all. It makes me happy, actually. I’m told when you Google my name it says ‘world’s top female racing driver’. I wouldn’t call myself that without the stats to prove it, but I’m racing at a very high level of motorsport – there aren’t very many females who have reached this level. Anyone who competes in sport wants to be number one. That’s why we compete.
I’ve known Lewis Hamilton since we were nine.
I stood on the podium with him in Formula Renault and even beat him a few times, but not in a one-to-one fight. It was clear from the very early karting days that he was a special talent. We see each other quite a lot through Mercedes-Benz work and he hasn’t changed one bit—he’s still a nice, down-to-earth guy. I’d love to be the female Lewis. I’d certainly relish a chance in Formula One and I don’t think the pressure would be anything more than I have now - but you have to be realistic.
| 
|