Angelina Sokoloff

Angelina Sokoloff (Ангелина Соколофф, born 22nd of May 1940 in Moscow, Soviet Union), also known as Anne Schröder is a Soviet, later German racing driver, who participated as the official racing driver of the State Committee for Sports and Body Culture of USSR for the 1960s and the early to mid 1970s. Midway through 1977 she defected from the Soviet Union to West Germany, taking on the pseudonym of Anne Schröder due to her Baltic German ancestry. She was inspired by motorcycle rider Ernst Degner, who had defected from East to West Germany in 1961.

Early Life

Sokoloff was born to two Baltic German parents at Moscow in 1940, Alice Franz (Alisa Fromkin) and Udo Schröder (Vuk Sokoloff). Both had a high level of involvement in the Party since the 1920s, which would later serve Sokoloff in her earlier motorsport career. She grew around the Stalinist era, and was then invited to see the 1955 Soviet Grand Prix alongside her parents. This proved to be a turning point in her life, as she saw her heroes "battle out the Western capitalist pigdogs". She then started to go up the rankings thanks to her connections with the party, and then eventually became the official driver of the State Committee for Sports and Body Culture of USSR.

F1 (1976-1979)

Hoping for a last hurrah of her career, Sokoloff asked permission for a number of one-offs with a number of teams throught 1976 and 1977. All one-offs ended in DNPQs or DNQs.

By mid-1977, Sokoloff was becoming increasingly anti-communist, and given her parents' death in late 1976, she saw no reason to stay in the Union. After the Soviet GP, she asked for a permission to do a one-off in France at an F2 race. Though suspicious, they accepted given her track record. After the race, she travelled from France and defected safely into West Germany, where she was accepted into the country. She then took up an offer to replace Patrese under the new name of Anne Schröder. The Soviets filed a complaint about this, but to no success. She qualified twice with the LEC team, outperfoming her teammate, Bruno Giacomelli, consistenly.

Sokoloff qualifying her Estonia-Volga at the 1976 Italian Grand Prix.

Complete Formula 1 Results

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	WDC	Points
1976	Tallinna Autode Remondi Katsetehas	Estonia 17M	Volga 3012 3.0 V12	ARG	RSA	USW	ESP	BEL	MON	SOV DNQ	FRA	GBR									0	—
	Moscow Motors												GER DNPQ	AUT	NED	ITA DNPQ	CAN	USA	JPN
1977	MADI	MADI-02	Volga 3012 3.0 V12	ARG	RSA	USW	ESP	BEL	MON	FRA	TUS	SOV DNPQ	GBR	NED							0	—
	LEC Refrigeration Racing	LEC CRP1	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8												GER Ret	AUT Ret	ITA DNPQ	CAN	USA	JPN

*Season still in progress