F1 Academy Director Susie Wolff on Fighting Through the 'Good, Bad and Ugly' of Male-Dominated Sports

NEED TO KNOW

• F1 Academy managing director Susie Wolff tells PEOPLE how she paved her way in a male-dominated sport while discussing her new memoir, Driven
• Wolff reflects on "the good, the bad and the ugly" of her career as a female F1 driver
• Wolff says female drivers now have a lot more support than she did at the start of her career

Former F1 driver and current managing director of F1 Academy Susie Wolff is reflecting on "the good, the bad and the ugly" of paving her way in a male-dominated sport.

In an exclusive conversation with the President of the Entertainment and Beauty & Style Groups at People Inc., Leah Wyar, Wolff spoke on Friday, May 1, in Miami about her new memoir, Driven, and how she wanted it to detail her path to success. "I didn't want it to just chart my journey through the sport," says Wolff.

"I wanted it to really detail the challenges that I've faced, not just as a woman in the sport, but as a woman, in general, because I think there are moments in life where it's sometimes challenging to navigate when you become a mother, and when you want to hang on to your own identity, your own ambitions," Wolff continues.

The former F1 driver, who made history in 2014 by becoming the first woman to participate in an official F1 race weekend session in 22 years, says she "wanted to bring those moments to life" in Driven, "So that there were parts of the story that could really resonate, and I think I feel very privileged to be a part of the F1 Academy team, to see the impact it's having in the sport."

Wolff says she "figured that I should do something outside of the sport" after she stopped racing. But when I got a call from [F1 CEO] Stefano Domenicali, I very much realized it was a once in a lifetime chance."

"I didn't think I would ever see the owners of the sport stepping up to put double digit millions investment into building up a platform for female drivers," Wolff continues, calling the F1 Academy "something I wanted to be a part of" at Friday's panel.

Wolff adds, "And given the fact that I had spent so long in this sport, I had so much experience of the good, the bad and the ugly, and I felt it was a real opportunity to help the next generation to learn from my mistakes, but also create a pipeline for them to be able to excel in the sport."

Currently, the F1 Academy has 17 full-time female drivers competing in the 2026 season. "In such a short space of time, we've managed to achieve so much and I'm still very ambitious about what we can do in the future, but very grateful for just how many impact F1 Academy's had in such a short span of time," says Wolff.

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Sharing how she supports her female drivers, Wolff says, "I always give them a pep talk at the beginning of the year where I lay out my expectations and what the challenges will be," adding she gets "a lot of satisfaction knowing that they're not on this journey alone."

"I was in many situations in my career where there weren't any other women I could talk to, there wasn't anyone I could lean on and ask for advice," Wolff says.

F1 Academy has "created an environment" where the drivers "can get more of the tools" and lean on a "support network," says Wolff. "And I think that's really what's different now compared to even five years ago, when women were excelling in the sport but on their own…now it's much more of a community."

Read the original article on People