“Susie Wolff has been coming to our lounges for quite some time, and it was that heartbeat moment where she looked at us and said, ‘Well, you have the largest global community of women in business,’” said Shelley Zalis, founder and CEO of The Female Quotient, which covers 5.5 million women in 30 industries across 100 countries. “We say a woman alone is power, but collectively we have impact, and it was that perfect moment to say, ‘Where do we make the invisible visible, and how do we really showcase this next generation?’”
The Female Quotient has already hosted Equality Lounges at an F1 Academy event in Singapore and just hosted another at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, with other events slated for Formula 1 races in Abu Dhabi and Qatar.
In addition to the lounges, The Female Quotient also sponsored F1 Academy wild-card entrant Nina Gademan’s ride during races in the Netherlands earlier this year. Gademan used her time in The Female Quotient’s rose gold car to earn a fourth-place finish in her first of two races and earn 13 points on the weekend—making her the first F1 Academy wild card driver to score points behind the wheel.
Reflecting on the partnership, Zalis took a moment to savor Gademan’s wild card showing, watching her rose gold car reflect the sunlight as race-day rain gave way to clearer skies.
“We say when you help other women rise, we all shine,” Zalis said. “And the sun came out, and the car sparkled.”
In Wolff’s view, FQ’s rose-gold livery is just a fraction of its contribution to F1 Academy’s mission. She noted that events like the Equality Lounges and panels taking place away from the track have been vital to bringing like-minded individuals from various industries into F1 Academy, helping the series embrace the “movement, not a moment” ethos often repeated within women’s sports and creating valuable networking opportunities.
“What we are trying to do in the world of motorsport—create opportunity and create more diversity—very much parallels what other industries are also trying to do,” Wolff said. “The world of finance, the world of tech [ask] how are we getting more young women into those industries? How are we allowing them to excel up the ladder?”
