Hi, I'm Gerhard Sonnleitner from the REV team. And today
I will present to you the five fastest women I ever met
in my life.
You know, I was on all the Formula One tracks,
and every time I made an interview, some of these mechanics started the engine.
My best interviews were interrupted by sounds like this:
Blow that horn!
Okay, some people just call me Sunny.
Sunny! Yesterday my life was full of pain...
If my accent reminds you of Niki Lauda,
it's not by chance!
I'm Austrian. When I was young
I was a big fan of Nikki, watched every Formula One race, and I thought
it's just bad luck that I didn't enter as a driver in Formula One, just as a journalist.
It is not like this, you know!
It's a tough sport and you have to be really concentrated
and in a very good athletic condition.
It's high concentration!
Adrenaline in your blood, you can't imagine!
I met them all, these champions, but one day a girl
took me on a ride around Monaco, and this was the first time
I found out that a girl can drive faster and better than me
I lost my mind! This was the reason why i started focusing
on female drivers in motorsport, which is a man's world, completely.
Nevertheless, I present you now my very personal score
of the five fastest women in the world.
Okay, let's start! Number five!
There is one woman with an extraordinary strong spirit to fight...
Sophia Flörsch. Only 19 years old, race driver from Germany.
She was one of the hardest competitors of Michael Schumacher's son, Mick,
in Formula Three.
But then, this horrible crash in Macau happened...
I watched it so many times, it's okay now. And also I think talking about it helps.
It's horrible to watch because the crash was just horrible.
It happened so fast and everything. It's... I...
Before I saw the video I didn't know that I was flying.
For me, it didn't feel that bad and then the pain started kicking in.
She was really lucky to survive, but how she handled this setback -
this impressed me very much when I met her the first time after the crash.
I never was really scared to not be able
to continue my sport.
I hope that everyone will see me again as
the girl racing - and the girl racing fast -
and beating the other drivers and not the girl with the crash.
and now everybody wants her. She gets a lot of great offers
in all different racing series from Le Mans to Formula 3,
where she can gather experience for Formula One. Good luck Sophia!
Woo, I 'm back in Macao!
Let's go on!
There is a woman that has already driven in Formula One...
It's my number four: Susie Wolff.
I met her first in 2006, when she was driving in the German Touring Car Championship.
For sure there's lots of jokes.
I think there's always jokes about women in racing,
but for me it means nothing, you know.
I listen to it, I laugh and I ignore it.
Because when I'm out on the racetrack I have my helmet on
and I push as hard as the guys, and I get respect from the guys and I give them respect.
She really kept on fighting and in 2014
after more than 20 years again a woman was driving in Formula One.
I had to work harder for the respect of the people around me.
When I entered a new team, whether it was Mercedes-Benz in the German Touring Car Championship
Or Williams in Formula One, there was probably more skepticism in the room
when I walked in instead of maybe a young male driver.
In the test session she was faster than her teammate Felipe Massa.
But she never got the chance to start in the race.
Felipe Massa was a teammate of Michael Schumacher,
the best race driver of all time, and he was challenged quite hard by a woman.
That's what I learned when Ellen Lohr took me for a ride in Monaco.
Now and then I think:
'Here I am now in Condamine...
in this nice area, in a cafe...
And just a few years ago, maybe even a bit longer...
I was standing 50 meters away with a race trophy in my hands.'
Ellen Lohr: My number three.
In the 1980s, she was one of the hardest competitors of Michael Schumacher in Formula 3.
"Not bad for a woman!"
When I hear things like that, it makes me want to scream.
That´s the worst thing you can say to me.
Then she moved to the Touring Car Championship
and overtook Formula One champions like Keke Rosberg in the final lap.
All the big names in motorsport were driving in DTM this year.
And to beat all these guys, that´s really special, for me at least.
It was the only time a woman won in this racing series.
Do you remember this race? Did you ever see it?
Crashed a little bit, you know!
But she did it her way, Ellen Lohr.
And then...
this girl took me for a ride!
Jutta Kleinschmidt: My number two!
She brought me this shocking experience
I told you already in the beginning... For the first time in my life,
I really felt that there's a woman driving faster than me.
But having felt this under my skin, I started to trust in her and then
I followed her until Timbuktu. It was really crazy!
No matter what happened - bandits were attacking the rally,
sandstorms, technical defects and everything...
But Jutta always managed to arrive right in time for our live links.
I just got in and rushed here for the interview with you.
So I do not know anything about today's results yet.
For me, as a journalist, it paid off to follow her through the deserts of Africa,
because in 2001, she won the Dakar!
The first time and the only time a woman won the hardest race in the world.
I've long dreamed of winning the Dakar.
And then I just went and won it. I don't think it's really sunk in yet.
Nevertheless, next year a team order was issued to prevent her to win again.
Jutta driving for Mitsubishi, a Japanese car company...
and to beat for a second time in a row Japanese drivers was not possible.
in the world of motorsport.
If you are in a team, that's my own experience, in the beginning they like that you are there
because you are good for the sponsors because you get more attention...
But in the end of the day they don't really believe in you,
and it's very hard to get the best material in the team.
There's one woman that attracts all these tough guys...
They all flock together when she calls.
She organizes once a year the Race of Champions, a charity race.
Where the champions of all categories of motorsports come together and compete
You know, you have two identical cars
and you have two minutes to be the best one.
So everybody wants to be the best one.
All the male champions remember how she drove over the rally tracks of the world.
Michèle Mouton
The one and only! My number one.
For me, rallying it's exactly to have the car to drive...
and not to know where you have to go
and to try to be the first.
And this is very exciting.
She won several races in the Rally World Championship
and in 82 she lost the title in a very close run against Walter Röhrl.
And after finishing her career as a driver,
she started to fight for female rights as the head
of the organization "Women in Motorsport"
and her message is quite simple:
Just come and try
Join us and try.
Then it's experience, of course.
And after experience, I think, most of it is motivation.
You know, when you are really motivated to do something.
you try all the time and you try and you try and sometimes you get it.
Woman! Thank you for the truth you let me know!
And don't forget to subscribe! See you next time!