F1 Academy’s Susie Wolff: ‘We’re Not Just Here to Find the Next Female F1 Driver’

The series’ managing director is determined to diversify the sport while also inspiring the next generation of women athletes in racing.

Courtesy of F1 Academy

In the last 10 years, Susie Wolff has epitomized the word “powerhouse.” In 2014 at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, she ended a 22-year drought by becoming the first woman to participate in an F1 weekend since 1992. Four years later, in 2018, she became a successful team principal in Formula E and now she has taken on the role of managing director at F1 Academy, the first women’s racing championship founded by F1.

Currently in the midst of its inaugural season, the F1 Academy is still in its infancy, but it has already made big waves. It’s giving women a global stage to show off their talents under the F1 umbrella, and Wolff is determined to make it a long-term success. The 40-year-old former racing driver caught up with Sports Illustrated to talk all about the championship, working with Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine production company, her time as a driver and on the Williams F1 team, and more.

The following has been lightly edited for clarity.

Sports Illustrated: You’re now managing director of F1 Academy. What have you been responsible for behind the scenes? I imagine there are a lot of plates that you’re spinning.

Susie Wolff: Where to start with that question? Obviously, this was a challenge, which I hadn't anticipated. I think my next natural step would have been F1, but I didn’t want to work for Toto [Wolff, Susie’s husband and team principal at Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1], and I didn’t want to work against him. Then, this opportunity arose. Initially I was reluctant, but then I realized it was such an opportune moment to drive a big impact and change in this sport. There was so much commitment from the very top within F1, and this felt so right because it combined my knowledge of being a driver or running a team, but then my huge passion for diversity.

The championship was set up and running this season. I immediately wanted to get onto the F1 calendar. I immediately wanted to figure out where we’re racing and commercially get the right partners on board to build a long-term success. Then there’s all of the bits in between. Making sure we are building up F1 Academy and that community aspect. We also launched Discover Your Drive [a global initiative to increase the amount of female talent in motorsport]. For me, it was clear from the outset that F1 Academy had to be more than just a race series.

If you asked me what my focus is, it’s 50% the race series, but also 50% on creating that opportunity and those touch points outside of just racing. We’re not just here to find the next female F1 driver. We want to open up the sport, accessibility, inspire the next generation and make sure that we’re making the whole industry more diverse.

SI: Some people might think the Academy is just for the amazing women that have made it this far, but actually, to have a real lasting impact, you want to go to that grassroots level.

SW: 100%. It can’t just be about 15 young women who are racing. We can do so much more. We are F1 Academy, which means we are part of one of the biggest global sports in the world. I’m not trying to fill stadiums. I am moving on to one of the biggest sporting platforms in the world. I’m getting that viewership. I’m getting all of that awareness in only our second season, and in our first season we finish in Austin with F1. We're incredibly lucky.

When I met all the team principals, I very much said to them, please don’t view this as a woman’s thing run by women. This is for the greater good of the sport. Collectively, we can achieve so much together. If we can connect with the growing female fan base that F1 has, we can inspire the next generation and show that this isn’t just a male-dominated industry.

SI: How have you been finding it? What kind of challenges have you faced managing a series in such infancy?

SW: I’m in my happy place when I’m out of my comfort zone. I love being challenged. I love being pushed. I wouldn’t say there's anything which has shocked me or worried me. We have a huge challenge ahead of us, and I don’t want to belittle the responsibility. I have to get this right. But I feel completely comfortable with that pressure. I know we’ll be able to achieve it.

I have a very clear vision. I’ve got to get the right people on board, put the right foundations in place for long-term success, and that’s why we've been very structured in our approach. It’s quite easy sometimes to launch something, get a lot of following and excitement, but then fail three years later because it was all hype and you didn't deliver. We really approached it in a different way.

Courtesy of F1 Academy

SI: You’re such a role model for young women across the globe, especially in motorsport. Who were your idols growing up?

SW: I'm a big believer that role models don’t always have to be famous people. I think there are a lot of times where I’ve met very successful inspirational people, and nobody’s even heard of them because they’re in different industries, which maybe don’t have as much media attention as a sport does. I’m very conscious of not staying in my little motorsport bubble, making sure that I’m going out of it to be meeting other inspirational people. I’ve spent a lot of time researching other sports where women try to give momentum to women’s football, women’s rugby—there are many different sports where it would be naive of me not to learn from their journey.

The biggest role model growing up was definitely my mother. She met my dad when she bought her first motorbike from his shop. She ran her own business. She was an incredible mother and wife but also on her own two feet a businesswoman, so she really set the foundation of me realizing I can achieve anything.

SI: There’s been a big change in the landscape of fans in F1, thanks to shows like Netflix’s Drive to Survive. Can you talk me through how you’ve seen the change in the 10 years since you worked at Williams as its test driver?

SW: I wish I was in Williams now! I have no bitterness or regrets, because in the end, I think it was what it was. It was a difficult time for sure with difficult moments, but in the end, all of that journey led to where I am now.

The world has changed in a huge way. The whole #MeToo movement means there’s a lot of expectation for women to be given equality and an equal chance, which I think has helped massively. Also within the world of F1, Drive to Survive has opened us up to a whole new fan base. That’s something that we can all be so thankful for in the world of motorsport, because it means we’ve got that younger audience.

SI: Going back to Drive to Survive, you appeared in one of the seasons offering some great insight. But do you think that F1 has still got a long way to go? A report by Females in Motorsport discovered women spoke for only 1.54% of the runtime in the most recent season.

SW: It does, and, let’s be honest, I was there giving my view as a team principal in Formula E, but also because I was the wife of Toto Wolff. F1 does have a long way to go, but we also have to stay realistic. If Drive to Survive wants to show more females, where are the camera-facing females in the sport? Because they can’t be forced to look at a different story line just to show female presence in the paddock. We have been working with Hello Sunshine [a media company founded by Witherspoon] on our own docuseries. That’s something I’m very excited about, because we will have very powerful stories to tell!

SI: Do you have a hosting platform for that yet? Or is that still in its early stages?

SW: Yes, we’re in the process. We talked about all the stuff I have on my desk. We’re in the midst now of speaking to the three biggest streaming platforms. But I have no doubt that we will be on one of the big platforms.

SI: You’re clearly very talented and have a very natural gift for business. I read that you studied it at Edinburgh University but dropped it after a year to focus on racing.

SW: I was lucky to grow up with two parents who each had their own businesses, so there was always that entrepreneurial flair. On a Saturday morning, we had to go into either my mom’s shop or my dad’s shop and help answer phones. As we got older, there were more tasks that we had to take on in the shop, but I always knew that business was going to be my area of interest.

I realized when I was at university and trying to be a racing driver and study at the same time, I wasn’t doing both very well. I had to let it drop and follow my dream of being a racing driver. But then I think of myself incredibly lucky that I got to watch Toto for many years. He was running the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 team, which meant I could have a front-row seat watching him and all the challenges he faced and how he did it. He was hugely successful, and that was very powerful.

SI: A big career change for you was becoming a team principal in the all-electric Formula E championship in 2018. You joined Venturi Racing and oversaw the most successful seasons in their history, helping them achieve their first win and go on to secure seven more victories. How did you find the role, which later became CEO?

SW: When the opportunity came up to be a Formula E team principal, but also a shareholder, I had no doubt I could do it. There were a lot of reservations within the industry. When I did my first media roundtable, the first question was: “What qualifies you for the job?” And I’m not sure they ever asked that of a male driver. The second question was: “Did your husband get you the job?” Which was a no. Then the third question mentioned that I had a 6-month-old baby and was about how I was going to manage the travel, and that was the point where I realized there is a long way to go.

There were some big challenges along the way because the team was racing at the back of the grid, and, within four years, we fought for a world championship. Nobody asked me about being a woman anymore. I always say, when I speak to the next generation, just focus on performance. When you’re really good at what you do, the whole gender topic falls away. I’m very lucky that I don’t worry too much about what people see or think. I have a good group of people around me who I think I can trust their judgment.

SI: When you get it, what does downtime look like for Susie Wolff?

SW: I’m not very good at sitting and doing nothing, but I wish I was because sometimes it's exhausting. I wish I could just lie on the sofa and watch Netflix. A dream day is waking up to no alarm, having a great day with the family. I love to get up and move like Pilates, weight training, cycling, paddle, and then reading is a big part. I’m trying to learn French, so that takes up any spare time I have.