How Charlotte Tilbury Unlocked F1 Academy's Commercial Revolution

F1 Academy managing director Susie Wolff has opened up about one of the pivotal moments in the series' short but significant history — a phone call with makeup giant Charlotte Tilbury that lasted just four minutes and changed everything.

Six Empty Liveries and a January Deadline

Speaking during an interview with Talks at Google, Wolff recalled the weight of that task as the new year began. "Obviously, with the F1 teams on board, I had 10 cars covered, but I still had six liveries, so I needed to find six commercial partners. And I remember I woke up on 1 January and thought, 'How am I going to get six sponsors on board by March?'"

The Four-Minute Call That Started It All

The breakthrough came through an unlikely route. "I very famously got through a contact, a friend of a friend, to Charlotte Tilbury, the makeup brand. Within four minutes of the first conversation, I knew we were going to do something, and it became the biggest sports partnership announcement of that year."

The signing of Charlotte Tilbury as the first non-F1 team commercial partner to back an F1 Academy car and driver sent an immediate signal to the wider market. What followed was a cascade of major names, each deal feeding momentum into the next.

"Suddenly, the momentum came," Wolff explained. "Everyone talked about that partnership. Tommy Hilfiger, someone who had been in the sport a long time. I called him, and he said, 'I'm with you'. Then suddenly, American Express and then we had Puma, and it was just a momentum. The wheels started turning and suddenly it all came together."

But Wolff was careful not to romanticise the journey. "There were still moments of being a team that has to come up with new solutions. It has to find a way. It was tough at times because I was navigating something completely new, and it's all very nice to now sit on a stage and say, 'Well, look where we are now'. But there were days at the very beginning where it was tough, and it didn't look like we were going to turn it around in such a short space of time. So thankful that we got there in the end."

A Partnership Portfolio That Speaks for Itself

F1 Academy now carries one of the most impressive commercial rosters in junior motorsport, with TAG Heuer, American Express, Gatorade, The LEGO Group, Puma, Sephora, Standard Chartered, Salesforce, TeamViewer, Wella Professionals, Pirelli, Aramco, Tatuus, and ATM (Autotecnica Motori) all on board as partners.

The depth of that partner list is already yielding tangible results on-track. Standard Chartered, for instance, is backing talent directly in the paddock — 18-year-old Autumn Fisher will race as the brand's Wild Card entry at F1 Academy Round 2 in Montreal, a direct example of how commercial partnerships are translating into genuine opportunities for young drivers.

Femininity and Racing: Breaking the Mould

Beyond the balance sheet, Wolff has been deliberate about the cultural message F1 Academy sends through its choice of partners — specifically, that femininity and motorsport are not mutually exclusive.

"We did a Hello Kitty collab at the Las Vegas Grand Prix last year," she said. "It sold out really well and beat some other collaborations. We're now with Disney. And it's about bringing this whole femininity, and it's OK to like pink but still love racing."

For Wolff, this is more than a marketing strategy. It is a statement about inclusion and representation for the next generation of fans and competitors. "I think that's something which is important because if I go back to my childhood, I was lucky to have that environment, but not everybody does. And we as a sport need to make sure that we speak to that new, young next generation."

From a four-minute phone call to a series with global fashion, beauty, and technology brands on its cars, F1 Academy's commercial story is, in many ways, as compelling as the racing itself.