Quote · Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Susie Wolff (Managing Director of F1 Academy)
Where this was said
Rebuilding F1 Academy: Empty Paddock, Calling Horner, and Making It Work
At 1:31:07 · chapter starts 1:24:20
The near-collapse story is vivid: Paul Ricard, no cars in sight, not even a security guard on the gate. She thought she had the wrong date. Drivers met her with bad news: no sponsors. Team managers were threatening to walk. She called Domenicali from the paddock: 'This is not working.' His response: 'What do we need to do?' Her answer: race with F1, get the teams on board, bring commercial partnerships in-house. She had to approach every F1 team principal, including Toto's great rival Christian Horner, who she notes was 'great and quick to commit.' The commercial partnerships — Charlotte Tilbury, now Sephora, American Express, Pepsi with Gatorade, LEGO — were strategically chosen to make young girls feel the sport was for them. She didn't lock teams into long-term commitments; within a year they were asking to sign up permanently.
F1 Academy originally split costs three ways: driver, team, Liberty Media. The driver third was €150,000 nobody could raise. Susie scrapped the model, brought all 10 F1 teams on board (including going to Christian Horner, Toto's rival, who came in quickly), got Sephora, American Express, LEGO and Pepsi as sponsors, and created the only race series in the world that funds over 80% of its drivers' costs.
