Abbi Pulling: ‘This is what it will take for a woman to race in Formula One’

As has often been the case in the Formula One paddock throughout 2024, Abbi Pulling is in a buoyant mood. Reflecting on a historic season of success, the 21-year-old from Gosberton in Lincolnshire ponders where her expectations were at the start of the year, ahead of a competition in the all-female F1 Academy series she now says was a “must-win”.

“I had to get that prize,” she tells The Independent, at an end-of-season event at F1 Drive in Tottenham celebrating her achievements this year. That prize is now a fully funded 2025 seat in the British-based GB3 Championship, a rung below Formula 3.

“There was a lot of pressure in that regard. I wanted to leave the year feeling like I’d left no stone unturned, leaving the track every day having done everything I could. And I wasn’t far off that.”

Nine race victories out of 14 and a championship-winning margin of 121 points speak to that. The Alpine junior driver was so dominant, in fact, that there was no need for outrage and disapproval when her title triumph at the penultimate round in Qatar was suddenly taken away from her, owing to the organisers adding an extra race at the final round in Abu Dhabi.

Pulling simply sealed her crown once again, with the extra point for pole position. She actually recorded the first, second and third-fastest laps of qualifying at the Yas Marina Circuit.

Having finished fifth in her first F1 Academy season, what does she put her change in form down to?

“In 2023, I didn’t have the best reaction to things not going my way,” she says.

“I felt like I was chasing my tail the whole of last year, which was a really bad mentality. This year, whenever I left the track, I reset. I had a lot of self-reflection last winter, so this year I was really deliberate in applying everything I needed to. It’s all about the process.”

And it’s not just been in F1 Academy where Pulling has made history. In May, Pulling became the first woman to win a race in British F4, claiming victory in the reverse grid race at Brands Hatch by a margin of 6 seconds. But she’s beaten boys before, in a career which started with karting at the age of 10.

“I was a big tomboy growing up so it didn’t bother me that I was the only girl,” Pulling says, reflecting on a childhood nurtured at the racetrack, with her father Andy competing in motorbike endurance events.

“I was so naive that I was just enjoying myself. I always say I matured quite early. The thing that sticks out to me was actually the dads – they would get annoyed if I beat their kid. They would tell their son ‘you can’t let a girl beat you.’ That was really frustrating and upsetting. But I used that as fuel and motivation.”

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It’s been a cloud nine year for Pulling but all eyes are on the future. Time – and more importantly, funding – are in her back pocket. But at 21, she’s still behind the wave as she enters the highly competitive GB3 Championship next year. The 2024 champion, Louis Sharp of New Zealand, is 17 as he progresses to F3 in 2025. Even so, Pulling acknowledges that a championship victory would be a “really hard feat”.

Yet her aspirations go beyond GB3. In 2026, it will be 50 years since Lella Lombardi competed in an F1 race, the last female to do so. F1 Academy managing director Susie Wolff – wife of Mercedes boss Toto – was the last woman to drive on a race weekend, in practice for Williams at the 2015 British Grand Prix. Wolff said ahead of the inaugural season of F1 Academy last year that it would take “eight to 10 years” for a woman to be on the starting grid in F1.

Does Pulling believe she could be the driver to break down that five-decade barrier?

“I’d be up for the challenge and would love to be that woman,” she says. ‘Even if it takes longer, I don’t think that’s a negative. When a woman gets there, they need to be able to take the challenge and deserve to be there. Not because they’re female... but because they’re a fast racing driver.

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But with her optimism comes a dose of reality – and an indication of her biggest obstacle ahead in the next few years.

“If we do see a woman in F1, it won’t be a 17-year-old Max Verstappen,” Pulling predicts. “An 18-year-old woman is not going to be able to drive a Formula One car, that’s the reality. We’ll see a woman in F1 in their mid-twenties, that’s when they’re at their peak fitness.

“F3 is realistic for a female to be at the front in. But I’ve never driven in F2 [which has no power steering] and I’ve heard it’s very hard. The physicality will be challenging but the big thing is also seat time. That’s what you’re up against: drivers who don’t have to worry about money and can test every week.

“You now have 14-year-olds doing testing and then, when they’re old enough, competing in Italian, German and UAE F4. But if you can show you’re on a par with someone with that much seat time, then it’s a pretty good showing.”

Pulling’s F1 Academy triumph has given her that essential financial stability for the next 12 months. It’s now about using those funds and resources – with a support team which includes former W Series race winner Alice Powell as her manager – to her advantage ahead of her debut GB3 year.

“This is the most comfortable I’ve ever felt in a winter, but motorsport is really unpredictable,” she says. “Of course, I want to win the championship; you’re not a racing driver if you don’t want to win.

“But I have to be realistic. I’m not putting that pressure on myself.”