Susie Wolff has had a brilliant career in motorsport and has become a pioneer for aspiring female drivers.
The 41-year-old, who is married to Mercedes F1 team principal and CEO Toto Wolff, began her racing career in 2002 in Formula Renault UK, achieving a higher finish of fifth in 2005, and went on to race in British Formula 3 before competing in DTM from 2006 to 2012.
In 2012, Wolff became a development driver for Williams in F1 and in 2014, she became the first woman to participate in an F1 weekend since 1992 as she drove two free practice sessions at the British and German Grand Prix.
Wolff stayed on as a Williams test driver until 2015 before she became an ambassador for Mercedes. In the present day, she is the managing director of the all-female racing series F1 Academy, with all 10 F1 teams supporting a driver as they hope to make their way up the motorsport ladder.
But before playing a huge role in setting up F1 Academy, Wolff had spent a few years in Formula E, and speaking on the Red Flags Podcast, she reminisced over the ‘incredible’ achievements she had there.
Susie Wolff took Venturi Racing from the back to runner-up in the Formula E Teams’ Championship
The 41-year-old joined Venturi Racing in 2018 as their team principal. Before her arrival, the Monegasque team had achieved a best finish of sixth in the 2015/16 season and had yet to win an ePrix as they struggled at the back of the grid.
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In Wolff’s first season in 2018/19, Venturi recorded their highest point tally with 88 and registered their first win through Edoardo Mortara at Hong Kong.
For the 2019/20 season, Venturi entered into a powertrain partnership with Mercedes-EQ and while that season was a struggle, the 2020/21 season would be their best to that point as Mortara scored one win and four podiums to finish second in the drivers’ standings, missing out on the title by seven points to Nyck de Vries.
The team went even better in the 2021/22 season. With Wolff becoming CEO and Jerome D’Ambrosio becoming team principal, Mortara and Lucas di Grassi grabbed five wins and 10 podiums between them to finish third and fifth respectively, while Venturi finished runner-up in the Teams’ Championship, missing out on the title to the factory Mercedes team by 24 points.
And Wolff looked back at her time in Formula E with pride as she transformed Venturi from a backmarker to a title contender.
“I joined Venturi, it was a team racing around at the back and within three and a half seasons we were fighting for the world championship, and we only lost the world championship to Mercedes-Benz, the factory team, to my husband!” she said.
“But that was a group that just shows when you get the right group together and get the right energy, we had an incredible season.”
Venturi became Maserati from the 2022/23 season
After their success in Season Eight, Wolff and D’Ambrosio left Venturi after it was announced that they would be rebranding to Maserati MSG Racing for 2022/23 as a factory team.
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Keeping Mortara on board and bringing in Maximilian Gunther alongside him, Maserati were unable to continue the momentum Venturi left behind, as they finished sixth in the standings in their debut season, with Gunther grabbing a win and three third place finishes.
As Mortara headed for Mahindra, the team signed Jehan Daruvala to partner Gunther for Season 10, but the team endured an even tougher season. While Gunther scored two podiums and a win, Daruvala scored points only twice as Maserati finished eighth in the standings with 81 points.
For the 2024/25 season, the team will field a new driver pairing, with Season Eight champion Stoffel Vandoorne and Jake Hughes joining the team from DS Penske and McLaren respectively. Gunther will replace Vandoorne at Penske, while Daruvala will leave FE entirely.