It is often said that Formula 1 is a sport dominated by men. And considering that there have only ever been five female drivers to take part in the sport, it’s not a far-fetched statement. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has experienced this bias against women at a personal level as his wife, Susie Wolff, was the last woman to take part in an official F1 session and he recently opened up about this issue.
Williams announced Susie as their F1 development driver in 2012 after she competed in feeder series like Formula Renault and F3. Two years later, she got her first shot at driving a Formula 1 car in official Practice sessions at the British and the German Grand Prix.
However, in November 2015, Sussie announced that she was retiring from Formula 1, stating that she couldn’t go any further in the sport than she already had. She, though, did express her desire to help other women find their way in the world of motorsport.
And that’s exactly what she has done as she currently heads the F1 Academy, a Formula 1 series exclusively for women. Meanwhile, in a recent interview on CNBC, Toto highlighted how women have historically been sidelined from motorsport and slammed the biases that have led to this sentiment.
“I’ve seen the struggles that she had as a professional racing driver. The kind of preconception that a woman isn’t fit enough or strong enough to drive a car and that is just simply not true,” Toto remarked. “That’s why she’s running Formula 1 Academy with the aim of having more women in Formula 1 in a few years and it needs to start with the ground roots in Karting.”
Mercedes F1 Team CEO Toto Wolff on the business of F1, success in the U.S. and growth outlook
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The F1 Academy has not only become a spectacle in itself, but it has already had a big impact on the number of young females who are starting to take up motorsport. While Susie is doing a brilliant job as F1 Academy’s managing director, her role did get her into trouble once. Based on a report, she was accused of passing on confidential information to her husband Toto.
The controversial investigation against Toto and Susie
With Susie heading the F1 Academy, which is directly looked after by the FOM, Business F1 Magazine reported last year that she might be passing confidential information to Toto, which other team bosses might not have access to. The report claimed that several team bosses had reported that Toto said something during a meeting that he could only have known through the FOM.
As a result, the FIA compliance department launched a conflict of interest investigation against Susie. However, soon after, all the teams confirmed that they never made any such comments about Toto or Susie.
| Susie Wolff releases a statement, rejecting all allegations “in the strongest possible terms.”
Wolff adds that these claims seem “rooted in intimidatory and misogynistic behaviour.” pic.twitter.com/NOFZEyXsdD
— formularacers (@formularacers_) December 5, 2023
Although the investigation was taken back by the FIA just a couple of days after it was initiated, Susie claimed that this was an intentional effort to target her and that it had tarnished her reputation. She even filed a criminal complaint against the FIA in the French Courts for launching the controversial investigation purely based on a random report without any evidence that she had actually passed on any confidential information.
