F1 Academy Managing Director Susie Wolff | Driven

**Matthew** (0:07)
Welcome to the Talks at Google Podcast, Where Great Minds Meet. I'm Matthew, bringing you this episode with the F1 Academy's Managing Director, former professional racing driver, and one of the most respected women in motorsport, Susie Wolff. Talks at Google brings the world's most influential thinkers, creators, makers, and doers all to one place. You can watch every episode at youtube.com/talks at Google.
Today Susie joins us to discuss her book Driven, an inside look at the competitive world of Formula One and her trailblazing 20 year career, taking readers from the driver's seat and the F1 paddock all the way to the future of the sport.
After cutting her teeth in kart racing, Susie went on to make history at the 2014 British Grand Prix by becoming the first woman to take part in a Formula One race weekend in 22 years. Following her retirement from driving in 2015, Susie launched Dare To Be Different, a call to action aimed squarely at driving female talent by inspiring the next generation and increasing female participation in all levels and aspects of motorsport. Then, in March of 2023, Susie was appointed as the Managing Director of the F1 Academy, the all-female driver category that aims to develop and prepare young female drivers to progress to higher levels of competition. Now, please enjoy Susie Wolff, Driven.

**Susie Wolff** (1:48)
Thank you all for coming and thank you for having me.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:50)
No, so excited to get to have the discussion.
And so Susie, to start us off, you've described the sensation of driving an F1 car, and you did it so vividly in the book, and now meeting you in person, it just sounds so challenging physically, not even getting into the mental, but you said it felt like five times your body weight ricocheting your head around, your lungs are pushing against your rib cage. After that level of physical intensity, what do you miss most about that feeling, and what do you definitely not miss?

**Susie Wolff** (2:23)
Definitely don't miss all the training sessions.
My neck took a lot of strain because when you're driving an F1 car, you're strapped in so tightly, and the seat's obviously molded to you, but the only thing that isn't obviously fixed is your neck. And people don't realize that in F1 car, there's power steering, so it's not actually the force of turning the wheel, which is tough, which is difficult to comprehend, because when you see the size of the car and the tires, you think, well, it must be hard to turn. But because of the power steering, it's actually very light, and a driver can very much play with how much power steering they want in the car. So you get huge forces coming through your neck. And I remember in one of the test sessions I did at Barcelona, I was doing a race distance, and I came to the first braking zone, and you hit about 4.5 G and 1 G is your own body weight. And my head got thrown forward, and I thought, I got 74 laps of this.
But you get accustomed to it, but the training is really relentless. And I guess because I knew a lot of people questioned whether a woman would be physically fit enough to drive an F1 that I certainly didn't want that to be the barrier that stopped me. So I was very disciplined in the training, and that is one thing I don't miss at all. But when I was discussing with my brother how to open the book, I very much, because I love reading autobiographies regardless of whether it's sports or business because I love real life stories. And when I looked at the books which really drew me in, which I really enjoyed, it's when the author brought me into their world and took me on the journey. So when we were discussing how to open the book, we knew we didn't want it to just be a motorsport book but the chronicle, the kind of journey through racing. And my brother said, people, I would love people to know what it's actually like, because I would love to know what it's like to drive an F1 car. So we opened the book by really trying to bring you on that journey of what it's like sitting in an F1 car, driving for the first time. But certainly now when I wake up and decide whether to go to the gym or not, I love the fact that it's my choice, that I'm not forced to go and put huge weights through my neck.

**SPEAKER_3** (4:38)
No, that's great. And I remember in the book where you're trying to decide if you add the neck cushions or not add the neck cushions. I'm glad you joined and put in the neck cushions.