The Future of Women in Racing: A Screening
05.29.25
F1: The Academy UK premiere, from @f1academy and @f1 on Instagram
As Esses readers know, we're big fans of Susie Wolff and what she's building with the F1 Academy. For our first issue, Toni Cowan-Brown created an incredible Guide to the F1 Academy, breaking down the racing series' format and the mission. In Issue 02, we profiled the three rising stars in this year's lineup: Chloe Chambers, Rafaela Ferreira, and Alisha Palmowski
Some of the Esses team was lucky enough to attend the F1: The Academy premiere in Miami during GP weekend. When we got the invite to Tuesday night's UK premiere, timed to the release of the brand-new docuseries on Netflix, we knew we couldn't miss it. So, we sent London-based Sheridan Wilbur, a former D1 runner who now writes for publications like The Guardian and Outside Magazine, to capture the celebratory event and unpack what it all means for the future of women in racing.
Where the Purple Carpet Ends
What the future of women in racing looks like at the ‘F1: The Academy’ UK premiere
By Sheridan Wilbur
Around 6 p.m. London’s Leicester Square looked like a greyscale Times Square: overcast skies, tourists clutching M&M World bags, joggers weaving through the crowd, pigeons pecking at KFC scraps. Just beyond the chaos stood Cineworld, a portal into another dimension. Inside, the vibe was Katy Perry-coded. Hot pink DJ booth, bubblegum lighting. A woman in a glittering gold suit spun a remix to J.Lo’s “Let’s Get Loud.” Onlookers craned for a glimpse of someone important. Someone like Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali.
It was Tuesday night, and Susie Wolff, former racing driver-turned-F1 Academy Managing Director, was hosting the UK premiere of the new Netflix docuseries F1: The Academy on a purple carpet lined with sponsors and teenage dreams. The series follows a group of young women competing in an all-female, F4-level racing series, with the winner securing a fully-funded FRECA seat next season. The goal: to get more of them into the highest levels of motorsport. The unspoken caveat? Probably not into Formula 1. At least not yet.
Susie Wolff smiles with fans at F1: The Academy’s UK Premiere. @F1academy on Instagram.
I stood near a clique of guests dressed like they were queuing for Berghain. Black-on-black-on-black. I hadn’t gotten the memo and apparently neither had Wolff. She cut through the inky swarm in a white blouse, looking cool, composed, and in her element beside Toto and their son Jack. She wasn’t trying to fit in or stand out. She just was.
By 6:30 p.m. I’d weaseled my way into the media pen. Unlike the boom-mic zones of the Olympics, this one was younger, more female, and way more fun. One balding man from the old guard loitered with a microphone the size of my forearm. No one bit. These women were playing a different game.
I scanned the crowd, tip sheet in hand, trying to sort drivers from influencers. Most looked glamorous but slightly disoriented. “I’m more comfortable in my racing suit,” F1 Academy driver Maya Weug told me, half-shouting over an Adele remix blaring through the speakers. “But it’s super cool and nice to see everyone dressed up like this.” Not everyone seemed as composed. Doriane Pin, backed by Iron Dames, shared her pre-race ritual: running one lap around her car “just to say hi” because she needs to “just touch it” and “connect with it.” Oddly tender, the kind of superstition that makes the sport feel more endearing. Less cutthroat.
For many, this was the first time they’d all been in the same place without a stopwatch running. “Usually at the track, you don’t speak to many drivers,” said series standout Chloe Chambers. “You’re all in different places, so it’s exciting to say hi.” Chambers called “support” the most surprising part of women’s motorsport today. “It’s still male-dominated but the growth over the past 10 years has been exciting.” That isn’t spontaneous; it has to be built. “You need the right team around you,” she continued. “Family, managers, people who have your best intentions.”
That message made the rounds. So did its limits. Alisha Palmowski, another F1 Academy driver (not featured in the show), told me, “I hope this inspires more females to realize how many opportunities there are—not just in driving, but in engineering, mechanics, media. That’s what makes the sport bigger than just the driver.” But opportunities only go so far. “I don’t have the finances, so it’s important to be given the opportunity,” said Abbi Pulling, a breakout star of the series. “But also to be the one who wins.”
17-year-old Aiva Anagnostiadis, who “races purely to race against the boys,” understands that cynics might call it marketing. “Maybe they’re right,” she said. “But more viewing and media helps us progress toward Formula 1.” Even if it’s just exposure or a well-lit PR campaign, visibility matters. Her great granddad was a stock car driver. Formula 1 was always on the TV. But she never knew girls could do this. “We need this stuff to keep us going in the sport.”
The big screen at F1: The Academy’s UK Premiere. @F1academy on Instagram.
Inside the theatre, Wolff took a group selfie while a camera crew trailed a gaggle of girls to the Pick N Mix. The snack station was closed for the rest of us, but each seat came with popcorn and a canned still water. The seat next to me was empty so I ate for two.
By 7:30 p.m. the lights dimmed. Wolff took the stage, thanked Domenicali for “empowering us,” for encouraging her team to “go big and be bold,” and called it a “movement, not just a moment.” Next up was F1: The Academy.
The opening credits rolled over pink title cards and drone shots of Miami beaches, giving more Love Island than Drive to Survive. The pilot focused on family dynamics, financial gaps, social media pressure, who gets access and who doesn’t. The stakes felt sky-high. The girls have two years to prove themselves. If they don’t, they’re out. One moment we’re watching Pulling pack sweatshirt orders at her manager-landlord’s gaff in Oxfordshire. The next, we’re with the Al Qubaisi sisters racing jet skis outside their Abu Dhabi compound.
‘Support’ was the word of the night. But in motorsports, that can often mean corporate sponsorships and generational access—a polished euphemism for privilege. It can hinge on whether you can commodify your personality or be that once-in-a-lifetime talent. Sometimes you need both. Most of the girls were introduced to racing by their dads; men who never had to hustle in the way their daughters now do. This tension was palpable. Still, the jokes on-screen drew easy laughter.
Before the screening, Wolff said, “I truly hope by bringing these stories to life, lots of people in the next generation view our sport slightly differently. In F1 Academy, as we know, you have to see it to believe it.” Then came the line everyone was waiting for: “Actually it’s not a man’s world anymore.” More manifestation than fact, but no one seemed to mind.
These days, the line between representation and rebranding feels increasingly hazy, especially in women’s sport. But the branding makes sense when you remember the target audience: girls aged six to 16, who might see Charlotte Tilbury-sponsored cars, and begin to believe that there’s a place for them in pit lanes and paddocks too.
Two seasons on F1: The Academy probably won’t launch a racer to Formula 1 stardom, but it does put a new kind of woman in the driver’s seat. “Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are,” wrote Machiavelli. In this sport, money wins races but appearance gets you on the track. For the ones coming up, maybe the spectacle—makeup sponsors, TV deals, women’s coverage—is how belief begins. And where belief goes, investment follows. Because sometimes smoke and mirrors (and a little purple carpet magic) are the only way in.
Some light fare at F1: The Academy’s UK Premiere. @F1academy on Instagram.
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