For the past twenty years, Susie Wolff has worked to break the glass ceiling for women in motorsports. In 2014, she became the first woman since 1992 to participate in a Formula One race at the British Grand Prix. Two years later, she launched Dare to Be Different, a nonprofit organization aimed at encouraging female interest and participation in competitive driving. And in 2018, she became the CEO of Monaco’s only racing team. In March, she became inaugural director of the F1 Academy, Formula One’s new all-female driver category. In an almost exclusively male sport, Wolff’s career has helped to pave the way for a new generation of women in Formula One racing.
Though still in its infancy, the F1 Academy is driving major change across the sport, finally granting talented women a legitimate stage to compete at the highest level of motorsports. This past October, 18-year old F1 Academy driver Bianca Bustamente became the first woman to be selected for McLaren’s driver development program. Wolff hopes that both her work and the Academy will continue to “inspire women around the world to follow their dreams and realize that with talent, passion and determination, there is no limit to what they can achieve.”
