Susie Wolff has opened up on her move from being a racing driver to running a Formula E team and eventually becoming the managing director of F1 Academy.
Wolff grew up riding motorcycles with her older brother, David, and later moved to karting. She competed in Formula Renault and Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters for Mercedes-Benz before she signed with the Williams Formula 1 team as a development driver.
At the 2014 British Grand Prix, she became the first woman to take part in an F1 race weekend in 22 years when she drove during a practice session. However, after suffering a broken ankle while running in 2005, she – for the most part – stepped away from racing and instead moved into the business behind the sport.
Wolff spoke about how this came about during an appearance on the Bloomberg Originals The Deal podcast, where she explained how she initially became involved with the Formula E team Venturi Racing.
“Well, the decision was really easy,” she explained. “The aftermath was… even thinking back to it now, I fell into a black hole. I initially didn’t think I wanted to move into the business side of the sport because by that time, Toto was very successful winning world championships with Mercedes and Lewis. I didn’t want to work against him for the sake of our marriage, but decided I didn’t want to work for him, also for the sake of our marriage.
“So I was searching for the next challenge, and I had been approached by a gentleman I’d met once before, who’d wanted me to drive for him, Gildo Pastor. And when he called regarding Formula E, this new all-electric championship, I thought he was calling me to drive for his team again.
“He said, ‘No, no, no, I want you to run the team.’ And I thought, ‘Run a team? No, I don’t see myself doing that.’ But suddenly, some jigsaw pieces fell into place. Dieselgate happened. The electrification of the automotive industry sped up. But then suddenly, it’s all everybody was talking about.
Susie Wolff
Photo by: Jeff Spicer / Formula 1 via Getty Images
“And I obviously heard from Toto that Mercedes were very much looking towards electrification in the future. And Formula E then gained huge momentum. All-electric racing cars, which none of us had anticipated in the industry, racing in city centres.”
She added, “And I went to visit Gildo at a race in Brooklyn. I could see the Statue of Liberty, electric racing cars, and I thought, ‘Okay, maybe this has something.'”
The F1 Academy managing director added that she negotiated a similar deal to her husband, Toto Wolff, at Mercedes, whereby she would own part of the team.
“His team was racing at the back, and he had a medical issue, which meant it had been mismanaged for a couple of years. And he said, ‘Listen, bring it back to its former glory.’ The team was losing a lot of money.
“So I decided to copy and paste my husband’s deal and said, ‘Okay, don’t pay me a salary. Give me equity. Give me 30% of the team, I’ll turn it around.’ And we were very bound. If he wanted to exit, I would go with him if I wanted to. There was a lot of tag-along and drag-alongs.
“But he was a great partner, and I was the mother of a young baby. I said, ‘Listen, I can’t move to Monaco where the team was based.’ And he said, ‘I’m not gonna judge you how you do it. You do it and you call me if you ever need my backup.'”
Wolff left the team in 2022 after overseeing its most successful season, and it was subsequently renamed to Maserati MSG Racing.
In this article
Lydia Mee
F1 Academy
Susie Wolff
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