Who is Abbi Pulling And How Did She Enter F1 Academy?
Source: www.f1academy.com
If you heard about F1 Academy, there is a high chance you’ve heard the name Abbi Pulling. The 21 year old Alpine academy British driver is currently leading in this year's championship after three rounds and recently became the first female driver to ever win a race in the British Formula 4 Championship.
So who is Abbi Pulling and how did she get here?
Abbi, like many professional drivers, started young. At the age of 9 she started karting competitively before jumping up to Ginetta Juniors in 2018, the British F4 and Formula Renault in 2020 before joining the W series - a racing series which like F1 Academy, was dedicated to providing more opportunities to female racing drivers. Having spoken with Abbi, it didn’t take long to realise just how mature a head she has on such young shoulders and how really down to earth and friendly despite holding the pressures, like her fellow F1Academy drivers, of being the role model and female representation and the future of motorsport.
One of the criticisms of the F1 Academy’s predecessor W Series, was that the sheer dominance of 3 time W Series champion Jamie Chadwick - this is no fault of the driver at all, however it meant the racing out front was somewhat non existent. To combat this, in F1 Academy, once a driver has won the championship they move on away from the series. This allows the series to continue to nurture and spotlight a diverse range of talents rather than the focus always being on one. This is relevant because at the time of writing, Abbi Pulling is in the lead after three rounds of this year's championship.
The support for Pulling is clear - with Rodin Motorsport championing her career but also through the backing of Alpine. When I met Abbi, I asked her if she’s already looking ahead to next year and she shared that some conversations are being had with her team at Rodin Motorsport but that the focus is fully on this year’s championship first.
Personally we agree - we look forward to the racing to come and look forward to seeing another fantastic race at Zandvoort where the smart money would be a bet on Abbi Pulling!
