F1 Academy is not a “feminist crusade” as female participation in motorsport is rising

Susie Wolff believes it’s improper to recommend she is on “a feminist campaign” with F1 Academy saying the championship helps motorsport enchantment to feminine followers of System 1.

The managing director of the single-seater, all-female collection revealed the objective of F1 Academy is to have ladies competing equally towards their male counterparts.

F1 Academy started in 2023 following the demise of W Collection, which entered administration and later liquidated, and is ready for its third season in 2025.

Talking on the Autosport Enterprise Trade: London, Wolff stated: “There’s a enormous viewers on the market of females who love System 1, and rightly so.

“I really like F1, we will love this sport, and it’s proper as we transfer ahead that we present this sport is evolving and it’s taking conscious actions to attach with the feminine viewers.

“That doesn’t imply I’m on a feminist campaign to point out what ladies can do, completely not.

“However it is a sport the place women and men can compete towards one another, one of many few sports activities on the earth, and when you’ve got your helmet on, it doesn’t matter what your gender is.

“Once I took on the function, I went and noticed the F1 staff principals. I stated to them, please don’t view me as a lady operating a ladies’s factor.

“I believe the F1 Academy generally is a very supportive factor for the event of F1 however I would like them on the journey.”

Wolff thinks that the collection additionally gives a profession pathway, not solely to aspiring feminine racers but in addition those that want to work in motorsport in different capacities.

She added: “If we do not improve participation, and we do not get extra younger ladies racing, the very best won’t ever rise to the highest, and ultimately, it comes all the way down to expertise.

“We’re right here to create that chance that hopefully essentially the most proficient can seize with each fingers and transfer onwards and upwards.

“However we undoubtedly needed to concentrate on making an attempt to vary the preconception that it is a man’s world and encourage not simply the following era of younger ladies, however the mother and father of the following era to understand there’s a probability.

“There are potentialities now for younger ladies in racing, on and off monitor. All of the sudden these younger ladies and the moms of those younger ladies, they’ll see there’s a pathway.”