Sabine Schmitz ready to take on the men at the Nürburgring

Sabine Schmitz will make her FIA World Touring Car Championship debut this weekend at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, a track she knows more than all the other drivers in the championship put together, and admits she’s not afraid of mixing it with the boys as she becomes the second female driver in the WTCC’s 11-year history.

Schmitz will drive with the Münnich Motorsport team in their Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1, a car which won two races last season, and driving with a team that has won three times in their relatively short WTCC career. The Cruze TC1 will also be 60kg lighter than the Citroën C-Elysées this weekend.

“When I am behind the wheel I give everything,” she said. “I am tough and I bite also. I am always racing against men so I am used to it. But I don’t know how these high-profile drivers will react. I know that men are vain. When a woman wants to overtake them they are not always happy. I don’t know if they are fair and let me pass them, in case I have the possibility to pass them of course.”

Schmitz will carry the colours of the FIA’s Women in Motorsport initiative during the weekend, and is also the only German driver entered in the race, running in car #8 as team-mate to Stefano D’Aste.