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Performance justified my test - Wolff

Susie Wolff: "I've got to keep fighting hard" © Sutton Images

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Susie Wolff feels her performance at the Young Driver Test on Friday justified Williams' decision to give her a whole day at the wheel of the car.

Wolff completed 89 laps with a best time of 1:35.093 and tested some aero parts in the morning, followed by some driver assessment and the pit stop practice in the afternoon. Her time was 0.4s off the best effort of European Formula 3 champion Daniel Juncadella on Thursday and roughly a second off race driver Pastor Maldonado's quickest time at the same test.

She said it was up to the team to decide what happens next in her career, but felt she gave a good account of herself at Silverstone.

"A race team is only going to put the best driver they can in the race car because they want performance," she said. "For me it was important today to show that I have the performance, it was important to show that I have the pace and I was only 0.4s off the European Formula 3 champion; a guy who is rated as an up-and-coming young star.

"For me that was really important and if that has more meaning for some people because I'm female, then of course I will use that to my advantage. But I'm not going to play that card and say give me the right [to drive] because I'm a girl and fast enough, because at the end of the day there were a lot of great performances from young drivers over the three days and we're all fighting hard to get into Formula One. I've also got to keep fighting hard."

She said she had been targeting Juncadella's time and felt she could have achieved it with a cleaner run on the medium tyres.

"I'd seen what he had done and the team were quite impressed by that so that was my goal," she added. "I was 0.4s off that in the end so it wasn't so bad, but it was quite tough because after all my running in the afternoon I'm pretty sure that with a new set at the end it would have been really nice to go out and go for it again.

"It's quite tough to get the fronts and the rears in at the same time. I struggled quite a bit with the fronts on my first flying lap and then when the fronts were in the rears were already starting to go. I think I did my quickest lap on the fourth lap, which is not how to get the best out of a tyre. There was more potential there definitely."

Her next step if she wants to compete at a race weekend, either with a Friday drive or race drive, would be to apply for a superlicence, but she said she would analyse this test first.

"I haven't done it yet, it's so bloody expensive! I did nearly 600km today so I doubled it, but I also have to say thanks to the FIA and Michele Mouton because off the back of my DTM results I wouldn't have had enough for an International A license to do this test. So I spoke to her and she spoke to the people at the MSA and FIA and they immediately granted me an A license to do this test. They said come back to us after this test and let's speak about possibly a superlicense. Let's see, I've got to analyse today and figure out what my next steps are."

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