There is no rule preventing women from competing in Formula 1, but you can still count on just two hands how many times a woman has competed. sat in the cockpit a car that can boast of being the fastest in motorsport.
First there was Maria Teresa de Filippis, the first woman to race in Formula One, finishing 10th at the Belgian Grand Prix in 1958. Lella Lombardi was the first woman to score points in the racing series in 1975, and Giovanna Amati was the last woman to compete in the Formula One World Championship in 1992.
Then there was Susie Wolf, who drove the FW36 during a practice session for the 2014 German Grand Prix and was the last of her sex to compete at the prestigious Formula One race weekend. Her best lap time was just two tenths slower than her teammate and 11-time Grand Prix winner Felipe Massa.
Wolf hung up her helmet in 2015 after she admitted she would never have become a Formula 1 driver, but her racing spirit never left her. The former racing driver, who competed in single-seater championships such as Formula Renault, Formula 3 and the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM), is now managing director of the F1 Academy, a women’s racing series launching in 2023. There are 15 female racers taking part. Competing at seven circuits throughout the season, the Formula 1 Academy has the opportunity to infuse a male-dominated sport with real prospects for the first female Formula 1 World Champion.
This weekend the Formula 1 Academy will take part in the support races for the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona. 280,000 visitors on the weekend. The women’s racing series will not only showcase the talents of up-and-coming drivers; with women makes up 40% of Formula 1 fansThe Formula 1 Academy is creating a new model for future generations of drivers.
“This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to really make a positive and impactful change in the sport,” Wolf said. Luck. “It really felt like a moment where we stopped talking and started taking action.”
First gear
Racing is in Wolf’s blood. Her parents, who raced motorcycles, gave Wolf her first bike when she was two years old. By the age of eight, Wolf had gone from two wheels to four, racing go-karts.
“I just had a huge passion for competition, speed and adrenaline,” she said.
The passion was there, Wolf recalled, but her talent did not come so naturally. She recalled competing in go-karts and begging her father to take her home after she couldn’t keep up with the other kids and was pushed around on the track.
“Now we have two options,” Wolf remembers her father saying. “Put the cart back in the truck and we go home, or you go there and try to go faster. And when they hit you, you will hit them back twice as hard.”
Paul Wolff became a frequent topic of conversation for the press and competitors as she rose through the ranks of karting to eventually become a development driver for the Williams F1 team in 2012. Although she understood that she was in the minority, Wolf did not want it to become a topic of conversation. .
“In motorsports, your gender doesn’t matter because you wear a helmet,” Wolff said. “All that matters is that you follow the right path and do your job.”
It’s a philosophy she has brought to the Formula 1 Academy, which aims to create a pipeline of female athletes to join the wider racing world, not just for the women’s racing series to gain popularity. But while performance is a necessary part of becoming a competitive athlete, it is only one piece of the Formula One puzzle.
In motorsport there is high financial barrier to entry, requiring hundreds of thousands of dollars to even be considered a location. For women under even more pressure To provide financial partners with support for their careers, the relative lack of opportunities available to them makes money an even bigger challenge. F1 Academy solved this problem through its a number of high-profile partnerships– Puma, Tommy Hilfiger, Charlotte Tilbury – who help subsidize the driver’s entry fee into the series. Instead of an incredible 600,000 euros, participants only have to pay 100,000 euros.
Stalled engines
There are some issues in the world of motorsport regarding gender equality that Wolff simply cannot solve.
“There are definitely days where I feel like doors are slammed in my face and people tell me, ‘Well, you need to stick your elbows out,’” she said. “But it feels like I live with my elbows out.”
In December 2023, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), motorsport’s governing body, said it was investigating Wolff after allegations of conflict of interest against her. Wolf’s husband Toto is the Mercedes F1 team principal and the FIA said it was “aware of media rumors” that they had exchanged confidential information. FIA completed the investigation 48 hours after staff at nine other Formula One teams refused to lodge complaints with the organisation.
Wolf then served criminal case against the FIA in March over statements made to it, saying: “There has been no transparency or accountability regarding the conduct of the FIA and its staff in this matter to date.”
Lewis Hamilton, the Mercedes driver and Formula One’s top driver and the only black driver in the sport’s 74-year history, praised Wolff: “It’s still a male-dominated sport. And we live in a time where the message is, ‘If you file a complaint, you’ll get fired.'” He said. “And that’s a terrible story to project onto the world, especially when we talk about inclusion.”
It also raises questions about how Formula 1 deals with allegations of sexual harassment. Formula One team Red Bull Racing launched an internal investigation into team principal Christian Horner in February after an employee alleged “inappropriate conduct.” Horner has repeatedly denied the allegations, even after numerous nude photos and illicit texts containing alleged conversations between him and a Red Bull employee were leaked online.
The investigation, although dropped by Red Bull, was still the focus during the first Formula 1 Academy race a week later, which coincided with International Women’s Day and the Saudi Arabian Formula 1 Grand Prix: “Following recent news and headlines,” Formula 1 commentator Laura Winter said on air“It’s not easy being a woman working in Formula 1.”
Wolf did not comment Luck about her complaint or allegations against Horner, but she has thoughts about the challenges facing a woman in a male-dominated Formula One club.
“Of course there were times when I was upset, I was constantly asked about being a woman in motorsport and I joined all the panel discussions,” she said. “I felt like I was seeing the same thing over and over again. People love to talk about diversity. But very few people have actually done anything about it.”
Full throttle
Even previous female-only single-seater racing series failed to generate enough money and clout to stay afloat. Previous version of F1 Academy, W Series, entered the administration after three seasons in 2023. It failed to make money, and motorsports fans didn’t watch the races, even those who supported more female drivers, because they weren’t widely broadcast.
F1 Academy has corrected some of these troubles. In addition to the Formula One Support Series, each Formula One Academy race is held during a Formula One race weekend, with 10 of the series’ 15 drivers racing in the corresponding Formula One team livery. Drivers also earn more Super License points for competing, the necessary currency to qualify to climb the motorsport ranks and eventually drive for Formula One. His race available for streaming on social networks and on the F1 streaming platform.
If frequent disappointment and failure is one side of the coin of leadership in the Formula 1 series, then hope is the other.
“I see the dramatic changes we are seeing,” Wolf said.
F1 Academy Championship Leader Abbie Pulling went down in history in May as the first woman to win a British Formula 4 race. Iron Dames, a support project for female drivers, announced in April that it would support 2023 Formula 1 Academy champion Marta Garcia and current Formula 1 Academy driver Dorian Pina as its sponsor. first participants to the regional European Formula Championship from Alpine. Earlier this month, Jamie Chadwick, three-time W Series champion, became third woman win an Indy NXT race.
When Wolff left the Formula 1 cockpit in 2015, she admitted that it was unlikely that a woman would compete in the Formula 1 championship anytime soon. She has since changed her tune.
“There’s a lot of great talent out there,” Wolf said. “And if we can nurture that talent the right way, give them the opportunity, hopefully in the next five to six years.”