The beginning of a collaboration between F1 Academy and the Charlotte Tilbury make-up brand resulted in backlash, with Susie Wolff since reacting to that criticism.

In February, F1 Academy announced a partnership with UK-based beauty brand Charlotte Tilbury, with the skincare and make-up brand becoming an official partner of the all-female racing series for 2024.

Susie Wolff: A lot of criticism came in over Charlotte Tilbury deal

The arrival of the Charlotte Tilbury brand, which also resulted in the female-focused company sponsoring the Rodin Motorsport entry of Lola Lovinfosse, resulted in criticism from some corners of the motorsport fandom.

The promotion of femininity in a male-dominated sport resulted in plenty of social commentary ridiculing the deal as being indicative of the ongoing perception that the F1-backed Academy is a less serious rung on the motorsport ladder.

But these attitudes couldn’t be further from the truth, says F1 Academy managing director Susie Wolff, who addressed the criticism during an interview with Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport.

“I’ve always set myself the goal to shock and be bold – if you do that, it’s easy to divide public opinion,” she said when asked about whether any criticism during her tenure has hurt her.

“When we announced the collaboration with the make-up brand Charlotte Tilbury a lot of criticism came in because people said, ‘What does this have to do with you?’

“But they didn’t understand that it wasn’t just about make-up. Empowering a woman means above all giving her the possibility to decide. If a girl wants to wear make-up under her helmet she can feel free to do so, just as if she doesn’t want to. That’s fine too.”

Wolff revealed that, during her time as a racing driver – including her tenure as a reserve and test driver for Williams a decade ago – she purposely would go without make-up and being ‘done up’ in order to ensure she was taken as seriously as male rivals.

“For a long time, I felt obliged to enter the paddock without taking care of my appearance, without putting on make-up or arranging myself as well as I would perhaps have liked,” she said.

“Because I thought that at that point if the other drivers or, more generally, all the people in the circus saw me, I would not be taken seriously in comparison with the men. Being the only woman this comparison was always strong for me. But I think those times are long gone, thankfully.”

The F1 Academy 2024 season ended with the UK’s Abbi Pulling defeating France’s Doriane Pin to win the title, with Pulling now stepping up to race in GB3 with Rodin Motorsport as she takes the next step in her career.

Having succeeded in the all-women’s championship, a major criticism of both the F1 Academy and its trail-blazing predecessor W Series was in the gender separation – meaning Pulling will now have to step back into the much wider world of an unsegregated championship.

Wolff said there’s no intention of giving the competitors in F1 Academy a false idea of their talents and its purpose is to allow women to showcase their abilities behind the wheel.

“In this sport, we compete against men, we don’t want the opposite,” he said.

“With a women’s category, we are creating a fictitious environment in which we give girls time and opportunity to show us what they can do. We are not here to build a sport whose ambition is to relegate women, nor are we here to give all young girls a chance. You have to be the best, otherwise, you don’t get ahead.”

Wolff, who also served as team boss and CEO of the Venturi team in Formula E before taking up her F1 Academy role, said motorsport will continue to be a meritocracy – only the very best will thrive and succeed, but F1 Academy gives young women that initial helping hand to generate some momentum.

“I’ve been on the other side of the pit, in the role of team principal in Formula E, and I’ve never brought a female driver behind the wheel even though I wanted to,” she said.

“Because, in the end, no one gives you points for putting a woman in the car, it was about having the best performance and no one at that time could give me the results I was looking for. The goal is to find these talents and make them grow”.

Will there be another female F1 driver?

With the likes of Alpine-backed Pulling and Mercedes-backed Pin at the forefront of the female driver push, initiatives like the female racing team Iron Dames also go alongside other F1 team-backed drivers like Maya Weug (Ferrari) and Alisha Palmowski (Red Bull) – all of whom have high hopes of climbing the ladder further.

While Wolff has said she believes it’s still a few years before F1 might be able to uncover a female talent worthy of a seat, she clarified her comments further.

“Sometimes I regret saying that, because it makes people think I don’t have confidence in the girls racing now, and in reality there are exceptional female drivers who are growing with us,” she said.

“For example, Luna Fluxa is a promising 14-year-old who has already been part of the Mercedes Academy for two years with excellent results. We cannot know if this talent will be the one to make it to F1, but we have to work as if it is.”

Is F1 ready for a female driver to step up into the sport? Wolff believes it’s possible.

“Today, if an F1 team was sure it had a female talent on its hands to bet on, it would have no doubts about doing so, because it would have the interest of everyone, including sponsors,” she said.

“But history alone is not enough, you need a driver good enough to sustain a presence in F1, and I think this is the right approach to take. It’s not just a marketing idea: ‘Let’s put a girl in the car to get people talking about us’. It has to be something credible and real’.”

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