Susie Wolff details battle to secure full F1 team support for F1 Academy: "Pinch-me moment"

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F1 Academy managing director Susie Wolff has shed light on how she managed to get all 10 Formula 1 teams to support the all-female racing series in 2024.

After the first season of F1 Academy made it clear that work needed to be done to get more eyes on the series, Wolff set out to gain the support of every F1 team.

"I remember when I took on the role, I drove to the first race we raced, not with Formula 1 at the time, and it was at Circuit Paul Ricard, not far from where I live in Monaco, and I remember getting near the track thinking, it's strange, there's no cars around," Wolff explained during an interview with Talks At Google.

"It's so quiet. And I drove in, and I thought, 'Have I got mixed up with the dates or something?' Because I've never been to such an empty racetrack. And I drove in and it was literally just the F1 Academy trucks and nobody there. I'd never been at such a deserted racetrack before.

"I got out of my car and I immediately got met by two of the team bosses who said, 'Listen, this is not working. We're not finding any sponsorship. So we're out at the end of the year.' It's like, 'OK, great to see you.' And then some of the drivers came to see me and said, 'Well, listen, we're supposed to pay for one third of our budget, but we also can't find the money. So I'm just telling you now that I can't pay what I owe you.'

"It's like, 'OK, guys, let's take a step back here.' And I spent the day and the next day there, and I called Stefano [Domenicali], the CEO of Formula 1, and said, 'This is not going to work because nobody's finding sponsorship money.' It was set up that Liberty would pay one third of the budget, the driver one third and the team one third.

"So we had a flooded market of everyone searching for sponsorship, some asking for €5000, some asking for €500,000, and it was just so disjointed. And obviously no sponsor is going to pay to be in a race car that's racing in front of an empty audience, literally nobody in the grandstand."

Maya Weug, MP Motorsport