This article is part of the “Beyond the Track” series, a dive into the surrounding scene, glamour and culture that makes a Grand Prix.
LAS VEGAS — “Beyoncé said it best: Who runs the world?”
The question from Jo Kinsella, global president and COO of XR Extreme Reach, hung in the air before a chorus of people met it with one word: “Girls.”
In front of Kinsella, who sat on stage on a panel of five people on Friday, Nov. 22 discussing “Champions of Change: Representation in Action,” was a room filled with people sitting on the floor and furniture. Others formed standing rows at the back and along the venue’s walls. The RSVP list exceeded capacity, and the line stretched down the hall outside Casa Playa at the Wynn’s Encore Las Vegas. It was all for one event: The Female Quotient’s ‘Equality Lounge @ Las Vegas Grand Prix.’
The FQ hosts panels at ‘Equality Lounges’ around the world to raise the visibility of women and spark conversations, striving to change “the equation of closing the gender gap.” The media and experience company is one of F1 Academy’s latest partnerships, joining a growing list of influential sponsors like Tommy Hilfiger, Amex and Charlotte Tilbury.
F1 Academy, the all-women racing series founded by F1, works to increase female participation in motorsport and help drivers advance up the motorsport ladder. For example, Abbi Pulling, the 2024 champion, will receive a fully funded seat in GB3 next season. The series is part of the Formula One ladder at a time when more than 40 percent of F1’s global fanbase is women, and the fastest-growing demographic is 18-24. But F1 Academy’s mission extends beyond the cockpit, showing how motorsports is not just a man’s world.
That moment at The FQ’s Equality Lounge, before one of F1’s biggest races of the year and in partnership with F1 Academy, is a snapshot of how this change within motorsport is more than a flash-in-the-pan moment.
“We wanted to be very intentional this race weekend. We’re coming to race here next year. We want to be bold. We want to be disruptive. So for me, if we were going to be in Vegas, we had to be on the Sphere, first and foremost,” Susie Wolff, F1 Academy’s managing director, said to The Athletic. Sat inside of F1’s hospitality suite in the Las Vegas paddock, she fielded questions about The FQ event, where F1 Academy is today and the importance of Las Vegas for the series — all while sporting a flashy, F1 Academy-emblazoned jacket that drew attention to the series’ intent to create change.
“And then, the glitter bomber jacket, we wanted to create a vibe around us returning here next year, and with The FQ event that the Wynn very graciously hosted for us, we wanted to show what we can bring to a race weekend. We’re not just here to be a ‘15 or more young women to go to a track.’ We are here to be a collective.
“We’re here to be a movement, not just a moment.”
Wolff has been consistent about how F1 Academy needed exposure outside the traditional F1 channels. She doesn’t want the series to just show up at the track. Instead, Wolff said, it wants to “also spark the conversation away from the racetrack.” This is why F1 Academy partnered with The FQ.
“It was quite clear early on that as much as it’s great when we come to a race track and (what we) are able to do at the race track, we have so much more that we can do on a race weekend,” Wolff told The Athletic. “And we want to be accessible. We want to spark interesting conversation. We want to have other industries being part of the movement.”
Logistically, it isn’t easy to do much at the track, and the schedule is rather busy on any given race weekend. Wolff was keen to host events away from the circuit and found “it’s not just women, it’s men and women that want to be associated with F1 Academy, but don’t particularly want to come to a race.”
The FQ’s Equality Lounge in Las Vegas. (via The Female Quotient and F1 Academy)
Doing events, though, isn’t her area of expertise. Wolff is a former racer and the last woman to participate in an F1 grand prix weekend, driving in practice sessions in 2014 and 2015 for Williams. She spent a few months searching for the right event partner, wanting authenticity, experience and someone “who stands for what we stand for, but also is able to bring us into the world of business, where we can have our voice heard and really not just exist in this small motorsport silo.”
Wolff attended a few The FQ events, one in a “low-key” manner, and she eventually met founder Shelley Zalis, who Wolff describes as “a force of nature.” Her initial reaction was that Zalis would be the right partner for F1 Academy, and this was further confirmed when Wolff heard how people they both knew spoke about Zalis during the Equality Lounges.
“So when you think about the power of FQ, it’s purchase power, power of voice, power of vote, power of wallet, or like I said power of purse, across every single industry,” Zalis said when asked by The Athletic to describe The FQ. “And when you look at purchase decisions, women have over 85 percent of purchase decisions in every category for the most part. So it is about the power of women, and women have power, and that’s what it takes. And for us, we want to make sure that women are visible in every single equation, and we want women to have access, and so we democratize the equation.
“A lot of women don’t have access to the paddock, and the tickets are quite expensive, and so we go outside the paddock, and that’s what our Equality Lounges are all about, is making sure that everyone has access and exposure.”
Zalis called it a “yes and hello” moment when Wolff asked for The FQ to partner with F1 Academy. The FQ and F1 Academy collaboration was announced in mid-August when the racing series and F1 competed during the Dutch Grand Prix weekend. The FQ branded a car for Nina Gademan, who became the first wild card entry to score points in F1 Academy. Zalis said, “We started getting letters from mothers, daughters, mechanics, female mechanics, girls in STEM, and the love was just remarkable, truly.”
In addition to Las Vegas, other Equality Lounges were held in Singapore and Qatar, and one is planned for Abu Dhabi this weekend. But the lounges will be at every F1 Academy race weekend in 2025.
“It’s not just about a dream. It’s about a decision. It’s intentional action for change. Equality is possible if you want it, and we want it,” Zalis said when talking about the Las Vegas event. “There’s no reason why women cannot be in the driver’s seat, literally. And that is what’s going to happen. We are going to get women in the driver’s seat. You’re going to see women in F1 on that track with men. We have the same strength.”
F1 Academy continued its presence throughout the Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend. Wolff sported that glittery bomber jacket with F1 Academy’s logo. Graphics of the 15 F1 Academy drivers rotated on the Sphere at different points, both during on-track F1 action and during the day. F1 Academy merchandise was available to the F1 hub and Jess Edgar was among the people representing the all-women racing series at the Las Vegas Grand Prix Fan Experience Zone.
It was intentional. Next year, F1 Academy will end its season in Las Vegas, remaining aligned with F1’s calendar for seven rounds.
“It was one of those questions of, ‘Where do we go racing?’ To put a season finale here, it’s kind of the dream for everyone. It gives us the chance to put her on the right pedestal, I think,” Emily Prazer, F1 chief commercial officer, said. “Obviously, we don’t have three or four different support races for F1 Academy to compete with. So, I think it will give it the exposure it deserves.
“The U.S. audience are really obsessed with women’s sport, and we love that, so we wanted to marry it together and own it. Obviously, they’ll be in Miami as well. So it gives a really nice narrative, May and November to start and close it out.”
Making our mark at the Las Vegas Grand Prix 👊#F1Academy #LasVegasGP pic.twitter.com/tPsQVBVRJI
— F1 Academy (@f1academy) November 23, 2024
According to Nielsen, fan interest in numerous women’s sports leagues grew year-over-year, such as how the NCAA women’s basketball tournament final game, featuring Iowa versus South Carolina, averaged nearly 19 million viewers, and overall interest in the WNBA increased 29 percent. It shows an audience there — and a growing one at that — for women’s sports.
Visibility, though, matters. Wolff and F1 Academy got the 10 F1 teams onboard, the crews supporting at least one driver on the grid in 2024. The racing series needed to align its calendar with F1 and truly be one of the support races, seizing an opportunity to expose the audience to the new category. Fans can now watch the sessions on X or ESPN+, to name a few platforms. “And then people said to me, ‘You should try and get some screentime on ‘Drive to Survive,’’” Wolff said as part of her opening remarks at the Equality Lounge. Laughter erupted from the audience.
“Try (to) get some screen time on ‘Drive to Survive?’ Ladies and gentlemen, we have our own docuseries.”
Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine is producing a docuseries on F1 Academy, which is expected to be on Netflix next spring.
And more brand partnership announcements are coming in the near future. Those partnerships aren’t a matter of the series needing money; Liberty Media has invested in the series, Wolff confirmed to The Athletic. “And for that, I’m very grateful because it’s not always the case in women’s sport.” The partnerships and docuseries allow F1 Academy to amplify its message and goals.
“A lot of our partnerships, it’s not just about putting a sticker on a car or a log on a car,” Wolff said. “It’s about what we’re actually doing away from the racetrack, what our narrative is, what our messaging is to the outside world, and those partnerships allow us to hit a completely new audience.”
F1 Academy, at its core, is a start-up.
Wolff counts 2024 as her Year 1, which doesn’t come as a complete surprise given how late she was brought onto the project. One of the big goals was to create a strong foundation, delivering on what was promised to the teams that came on board. She feels it’s safe to check that box.
But challenges remain, including getting eyes on the racing and proving to race promoters that people want to watch F1 Academy. Wolff feels the Netflix docuseries will help on that front. Even having at least a fraction of the impact that ‘Drive to Survive’ had on F1 would help F1 Academy, she added.
F1 Academy driver Bianca Bustamante interacts with fans during the Fan Experience during the F1 Grand Prix of Las Vegas on Nov. 23, 2024. (Mindy Small/Formula 1 via Getty Images)
Creating an ideal calendar that helps the women train and develop while also increasing audience exposure to F1 Academy is another aspect to consider. Wolff wanted the series to race on three continents, a mix of permanent and street circuits in 2025. However, they needed to find enough time for the category, given that two other junior series (Formula Two and Formula Three) also race on F1 weekends throughout the year. She said, “We don’t want to race (at) eight in the morning when nobody can see us.”
Then, it is a matter of which promoters want F1 Academy. There are race promoters who either don’t want the series on their dockets or aren’t as actively engaged as others, which is something Wolff says she understands.
“We need to be an asset, which is in addition to their race event. That means we need to have people wanting to come and watch F1 Academy,” she added. “So I don’t resent the fact that some promoters don’t want us. I see that as a challenge to say, ‘Okay, we need to create a race series and a product that people want to come and watch.”
It’ll take time before the impact can be seen. Wolff reckons it’ll be Year 2 (2025) and Year 3 (2026) before we can gauge F1 Academy’s momentum. But steps have been taken, like changing the series where the champion will compete with a fully funded seat from FRECA to GB3, and many entities are investing in the series in various forms.
Many people may still wonder whether F1 Academy will be a flash-in-the-pan type of moment rather than a real game-changer. But standing in the paddock at Zandvoort and sitting in the Equality Lounge at Las Vegas, you can feel a buzz of change internally.
“But there’s still days, and there’s still people I meet, and there’s still comments I hear where I think, ‘Oh, we still got a lot of work to do,’” Wolff told The Athletic, “but I feel the change is there. It’s like a wave.”
“I think we are perceived as a very male-dominated industry,” Wolff said in her opening remarks ahead of her panel with Naomi Schiff and Tommy Hilfiger, “but the truth is, there are no reasons why women cannot excel in motorsport.”
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Top photo: Song Haiyuan/MB Media, Mindy Small/ Formula 1 via Getty Images, Jim Watson/ Getty Images; Design: Kelsea Petersen/The Athletic
