When it comes to competitive skiing, Lindsey Vonn has almost won it all. But did you know that she once almost switched to Formula One? The reason that prevented her from doing that is heartbreaking.
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4-time World Cup winner Lindsey Vonn has quite the need, the need for speed. The 2010 Laureus Sportswoman of the Year winner opened up about her love for car racing.
She recalled the time when she took fellow skier Maria Riesch’s Audi R8 for a spin and was taunted by her for not driving very fast. She also revealed how close she was to switching to Formula One and what stopped her.
Lindsey Vonn wanted to compete in Formula One with the like of Lewis Hamilton
Lindsey Vonn appeared in ‘In Depth with Graham Bensinger’ in 2020. In the interview, she was driving while having a casual conversation with the host. During the conversation, her love for car racing came up when Lindsey’s speed made Graham uncomfortable.
It made him ask her if she always drives that fast or just doing it for the cameras. Lindsey replied that it gets her adrenaline going.
Further, in the interview, Lindsey recalled when she wanted to switch to Formula One.
“I was thinking about switching, going to Formula One”. Talking about the reason why she could not do it, she said, “I couldn’t because they wanted me to commit, uh, was it three years, and they’re like ‘you can’t get pregnant. You can’t do anything’.”
“And I’m like, I don’t know if I really want to do that.” On the question of which team she would’ve been with, Lindsey said that it would’ve been Red Bull and that she was told if she couldn’t make it in F1, she could switch to NASCAR.
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Lindsey went on to talk about the crazy amount of money Formula One drivers make. She said, “The amount of money Formula One has is… just, I mean, I think probably the salary of one racer is probably the total amount of money that ski racing has for their annual bunches.”
“Like, as a sport, I bet Lewis makes way more money than all of ski racing combined”. She is not off on that as according to Forbes, Lewis made around $62 million in 2021.
Lindsey’s love for speed
In the interview, Graham asked Lindsey if she had ever driven a race car. She said that she had driven one in Spielberg, Austria on a Formula One track.
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On the question of how fast she’s ever driven, Lindsey replied, “I don’t know, it was definitely on a track. On the Autobahn it was like, 130″.
She recalled the time she was driving at the Autobahn with Maria Riesch and was egged on for driving too slow. “I was with Maria Riesch and I was driving her R8 and there’s like a good stretch outside south of Munich,” she said.
“She was like, “come on Lindsey, you’re not going very fast”. So then, of course, I had to show her what was up”. She, however, confessed that she eventually had to slow down because she did not want to wreck her car, which was worth several million.
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We have seen Lindsey conquer the world of skiing. Seems like we might not see her racing cars. Or is it too early to call?