When one thinks of female racing drivers, a name that comes easily to mind is Sabine Schmitz. Long before feminism was even a thing, she was winning races while proving she could drive just about anything as fast as her male counterparts in a field dominated by them; a natural born poster child for female strength if ever there was one.
Her predisposition for speed almost seemed a given, as Sabine was born as the youngest daughter of parents who owned the Nurburgring Nordschleife’s Hotel am Tiergarten and grew up right on the circuit. Her first laps of the ‘Green Hell’ reportedly came at just six months of age in her father’s BMW’s back seat, and right from the start she possessed an innate desire to go fast on anything with wheels.
“I grew up at my mom’s hotel in the middle of that little village Nürburg. When I was young I was always fast, on roller skates, with the bicycle, you know. It didn’t matter what. At least it had to be fast. I had the fastest horse around. I never played with Barbie or with the girls. I always liked to play football. And I was always interested in machines,” Sabine stated in an official BMW video. “There were not many hotels at that time around the track. And all the former Grand Prix drivers, like Ascari, they were all in our hotel. And later, Nelson Piquet. So very famous people came. So I had all the time interest in motor racing. And when I was 13 years old I decided I want to be a racing driver.”
Even while other teenagers were sneaking off to nightclubs, she was finding her own ways to drive her first laps of the ‘Ring before she got her license. “When I was 17 I did my first lap in my mom’s BMW. And she didn’t know that for sure. And the guy at the track, we had just one person there, you had the ticket, you show him the ticket and then you could go. He said, ‘Oh Sabine, you are already 18? You’ve got your driving license?’ I said, ‘Oh yes! Bye bye.’ Vroom! And then I would go on the track.”
Indeed time would see Sabine’s relationship blossom with BMW, winning the 1996 and 1997 24 Hours’ of Nurburgring with a Group N E36 M3 co-driven with Johannes Scheid, becoming the first, and thus far only, female driver to have won the famously iconic race. On top of 45 wins with the brand’s cars, she would go on to become one of BMW’s official ‘Ring Taxi’ drivers, taking paying passengers on hot laps with the E39 and E60 M5s. What endeared her most to riders and viewers alike was her joy at intimidating passengers while being ‘the fastest taxi driver in the world’, always with a happy demeanour and wide grin on her face even while drifting four-up through the circuit’s many sweeping long radius turns. “It’s really fun to scare people. They love to get scared, so they pay me for that,” she once remarked on Top Gear in 2010.
Sabine’s guest appearances on the well known motoring show would simply bring her fame to greater heights, with her female German presence being a most welcome breath of fresh air next to the show’s British male dominated cast. When Jeremy Clarkson set a 9 minute and 59 second Nurburgring lap time driving a diesel Jaguar S-Type with her guidance, she promptly proceeded to demolish it by 47 seconds and quipped, “I tell you something, I do that lap time in the van.” The film crew were reportedly unable to keep up with Sabine on her run, and had to ask Jaguar test driver Wolfgang Schubauer to take over camera chase car duties with the quicker S-Type R.
“I think she loved how much she could shock middle-aged men who thought they could drive a bit – until they saw what she could do,” fellow Top Gear host Chris Harris later remarked.
It was Sabine’s later career in motorsports that also cemented her popularity among Porsche enthusiasts. Together with her partner Klaus Abbelen, she drove their Frikadelli Racing 911 GT3 R to six VLN endurance championshop race wins. On one particularly unforgettable rainy occassion, she overtook 40 other cars on the race’s opening lap itself, sometimes picking off two or three slower racers at once. Never short of wit, she would often quip cheekily, “He’s so slow I could’ve done an oil painting of him,” in reference to competitors who were off the pace.
She was no stranger to more road oriented 911s either, often driving her own upgraded 997.2 911 GT3 RS 3.8 while training drivers who were new to the ‘Ring in partnership with RSR Nurburg. All in all Sabine reckoned she had driven over 30,000 laps of the Nordschleife, yet she never lost a single bit of her inspiring enthusiasm and love for the track. She also personified a heart for people, never turning down an opportunity to connect with fans and customers alike with an autograph or personal selfie. Seeking experiences beyond the realm of motoring, she flew helicopters, ran hotels and bar-restaurants, and even trained up to be a wine sommelier.
Sabine withdrew from racing and television in July 2020, revealing that she had been battling ‘an extremely persistent cancer’ since late in 2017; her condition had been improving after treatment, but a relapse meant that further treatment was needed. Yet through it all, she never lacked her smile or inspiringly optimistic bearing. Unfortunately it took its toll, and she passed away at just 51 years of age on 16th March 2021.
Tributes poured in from across the automotive sphere, including an official statement from Formula 1 that read, “We are all deeply saddened to hear that Sabine Schmitz has passed away. An incredible talent and wonderful person who made us all smile. Our thoughts are with her family and friends at this sad time.” At the next Nurburgring VLN Endurance Series’ opening race, many teams’ race cars commemorated Sabine by bearing her name as an ‘additional driver’. Finally, the ‘Green Hell’ itself honoured her by renaming its very first turn the Sabine-Schmitz-Kurve. Sabine will always be remembered for living life to the fullest, and she was the first truly iconic female racer who had no fears or qualms whatsoever about competing toe-to-toe on equal footing with the boys.
