SUSIE WOLFF Details Her F1 Near-Miss and Mission to Break Racing’s Glass Ceiling

November 12, 2025

• SUSIE WOLFF reveals how close she came to an F1 debut in 2015 when Valtteri Bottas was injured, only to watch Williams choose Adrian Sutil instead. The devastating decision became her “moment of absolute clarity” – if they wouldn’t give her the chance then, they never would. She admits she couldn’t have immediately outpaced Felipe Massa but believes she would have been “very respectable” given the opportunity that never came.
• The F1 Academy managing director details the isolation and harassment she faced throughout her racing career, including a terrifying hotel room incident with a powerful F1 figure in 2007. WOLFF describes the impossible navigation between being seen as “girly” or “butch,” the pressure to drive pink cars for sponsors, and the loneliness of being the only woman in paddocks where she heard how “boys talked about girls.”
• Now leading F1 Academy since 2023, WOLFF sees a transformed landscape where young girls like “Greta” are discussed by boys as legitimate podium contenders rather than anomalies. She’s fighting both for the next generation and against the FIA’s baseless conflict-of-interest investigation that was dropped within 48 hours, while maintaining her prediction that we’ll see a female F1 driver within the next decade.

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