Name: Behind the scenes of an F1 Academy race with Susie Wolff
Uploaded: 2024-06-20
Duration: 5 min 40 s
Description: Susie Wolff shared her daily routine for grand prix weekends with Fortune, including how she dodges jet lag across 12-hour time zone differences.

Susie Wolff shared her daily routine for grand prix weekends with Fortune, including how she dodges jet lag across 12-hour time zone differences.

Behind the scenes of an F1 Academy race with Susie Wolff

Susie Wolff is the managing director of F1 Academy.

Features

I fell in love with motor sport from a very young age. I had a motorbike from the age of two. I started racing cars at the age of eight and I simply had a huge passion for the competition speed and the adrenaline there was so much noise around my gender. Me being always the only one, but actually it doesn't matter, motor sport, what your gender is because you're wearing a helmet, all that matters is you are on track and you perform. There are currently zero female formula one drivers. I certainly used to get really frustrated, always being asked about being a woman in motor sports. Joining all the panel discussions. I feel like I was saying the same thing over and over again and diversity was something people loved talk about, but very few people actually did anything about. But when the opportunity of formula one academy came up and I could see that this was once in a lifetime chance to actually drive positive impactful change in sport. It really felt like a moment where we stopped talking and we're actually taking action. My name is Susie Boss. I'm the managing director of the Formula one academy and this is my daily routine. So, on a typical race day, I'll get up anywhere between six and seven o'clock. Getting ready is pretty easy because I have team kit to wear for Tommy Hilfiger. So I don't need to think twice about what to wear. I don't spend that long getting ready. I always have a quick shower, put on a little bit of makeup. I then grab a coffee. That's generally all I have in the morning. I'm not a, someone that likes breakfast and then I jump in my car and head to the racetrack. Normally at a racetrack up to 5 to 6 hours before our race will happen. I most normally go straight to my office and dump my bag, get myself settled and then I always like to go down and see the cars go into the garage. You see all the teams and just make sure that everything feels like it's in a good place. I always watch the races because I always want to know every detail of how the race is panned out whose performance has been outstanding, who hasn't? So I always watch the race from the pit lane. I love to see all the background information. So I normally stand next to one of the teams so I can hear more detailed information on how the race is going. And then obviously at the end of the race, I stay for the podium ceremony to celebrate who has made it onto the podium and won the race that day. Generally, that's one of the best parts of the day because obviously the brutality of sport is only ever one winner. But that winner and that team are normally very, very happy and it's nice to be around them and feel their enthusiasm and positivity after the race after the F One Academy race. Normally I go back to our hospitality again, cram in more meetings or interviews or meeting with our guests. And then normally I try to sit down and watch the Formula One race with the rest of my brilliant Formula One Academy team who have normally by that time had four days of nonstop action. So by the time the Formula One race starts, we all try and sit together, have a team lunch or at least something to eat. It's normally never on set dinner time. I think like everybody, I try to eat a very balanced diet. I try not to eat too many sugars, too many carbs. But if we go out for a lovely dinner, I don't hold myself too strict a regime. I believe that eating together and eating out is something that should definitely be a pleasure. So, sport for me is certainly an important part of my daily routine, but I'm not as disciplined or rigorous as I used to be. I simply try and do what I can when I can and don't beat myself up. Even if I can squeeze in 10 minutes in the morning or I can at least try and get 10,000 steps a day. I just try and do something on those very busy days. I do a lot of Pilates, but very tough Pilates on a reformer. I do quite a lot of weight training. I'm not a big runner. I play paddle. Not very well, which means become a good workout for me. But to be honest, it can all be quite varied. I can go for a long walk. I could go for a swim. I could go for a hike for a mountain bike, a game of paddles, lots of variation. And I make sure that I enjoy it. I normally stop working really when the formula one race is finished because that's at the point where we start packing everything up. And I normally jump in the car and head to the airport. I always try and get out that evening with my husband because I have a little son that I want to get home to as soon as I can. The minute I leave the racetrack and my adrenaline levels drop. That's when I realize just how exhausted I am. And quite often we jump in the plane and I immediately just start to decompress and take any notes from the day. I'm someone that's very structured. So I like to write down everything to make sure that I know exactly what I have to do in the week ahead and take down any notes from the good, the bad and the ugly from the race weekend. What we've done well, what we need to improve what really and didn't go well. And then I can quite often have a fight to eat and really relax and look forward to getting home. I love to read at the end of every day. So I try and be in bed on a good day. 10, bad day, 1030 quarter to 11 and not much reading gets done. But I try to fall asleep by 11 running at an academy. It's, it's super important that I learn from those that tried and failed in the past also from other women's sports because we're seeing women's sport building huge momentum, getting a lot more interest and I certainly feel very grateful that we don't have a stadium to fill. We don't have a fan base to build because we're joining one of the biggest and most popular sporting platforms in the world. But I always like to watch and learn what others have done to make sure that we can either do it better or we can at least not make the same mistakes.