Rodin Carlin: The women set to make Formula 1 history

“Females nowadays have to see it to believe it, and I never really had that. There wasn’t much female representation and now that’s improving - it’s such a positive time to be in motorsport.”

You may not see women on the track racing in Formula 1 right now, but that’s all set to change. F1 Academy is a brand new all-female series which is helping women progress to new levels of competition. And in this episode we meet one of the women likely to make history.

Abbi Pulling is racing in the F1 Academy for Rodin Carlin, and Paul Haimes - not one to miss an opportunity to visit ‘The Home of British Motor Racing’ - meets her on test day in the heritage pitlane at Silverstone. We also meet Rodin Carlin’s F1 academy team manager Kenny Kirwan, who tells us more about the new Series and how it’ll work. He even takes us for a tour around the garage where we fire up the car the women will be racing in the Series, and find out just how powerful it is.

Rodin Carlin is a long-time customer of PTC’s computer-aided design software CREO. Find out more about CREO here.

Find out more about Rodin Carlin here.

Your host is Paul Haimes from industrial software company PTC.

Episodes are released bi-weekly. Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter for updates.

This is an 18Sixty production for PTC. Executive producer is Jacqui Cook. Sound design and editing by Ollie Guillou. Location recording by Will Chalk. Music by Rowan Bishop.

Transcript

Welcome to this special episode of Third Angle, where the latest generation of female racers set their sights on Formula 1.

I’m your host, Paul Haimes from industrial software company PTC. In this podcast, we share the moments where digital transforms physical, and we meet the brilliant minds behind some of the most innovative products around the world, each powered by PTC technology. 

Two years before most people can even attempt to get their car licence, Formula 1 drivers in the making are already taking to the track to race in some of the world’s fastest cars. At just 15 years old, training begins in the Formula 4 division. And for the young aspiring female drivers flying up the ranks, something exciting is coming this year: F1 Academy, an all-female driver category. While there are no women competing in F1 right now, this academy is set to change everything. And in this special episode of the podcast, I’m excited to introduce you to championship favourite, a woman to watch, 19-year-old Abbi Pulling. Abbi’s racing for Rodin Carlin, and we’ll meet her in a bit. But first, we’re going to hear from Kenny Kirwan, Rodin Carlin’s F1 Academy team manager.

Rodin Carlin has used PTC’s computer aided design software Creo for many years now to develop the race cars and give the drivers the tools to win. So I was eager to get down to meet the team in person. Plus, with my background and love of motorsport, I really couldn’t pass up a trip to Silverstone, the home of British motorsport, even if it was snowing. Kenny starts by taking us into Rodin Carlin’s garage in the pit lane.

Hi, my name is Kenny Kirwan, and I am the F1 Academy team manager for Rodin Cardin in 2023. We’re here at snowy Silverstone. Let me take you inside our garage. We’re on the heritage pit lane in Silverstone, which is where all of the cars are based during private testing. We have three garages here, so it’s quite spacious, for three cars. So the cars are laid out. It looks like a Formula 1 team would have, its cars facing the garage doors. Behind us here we also have an engineering area. And this is where the drivers and engineers will tend to debrief during the runs, they will quickly look at onboard video footage and data which has been generated internally.

And we also have a lot of wet weather tyres here today. More wets than slicks. Not many snow tyres, unfortunately! We also have plenty of unused fuel at the minute, so we’re doing our part for the environment.

So the F1 Academy is a new format which is designed to help encourage and support female drivers who ordinarily would struggle to find a position within motorsports. The drivers have varying backgrounds; some of them have experience, and many of them, it’s envisaged, will step up from a karting background and use the F1 Academy to launch their career moving forwards, hopefully into either other variations of F4, but particularly I think the ultimate aim is to move into FIA Formula 3, then progressing into FIA Formula 2 with the ultimate goal of a female driver hitting the highest echelons of our sport. 

The championship is based on seven rounds, with at least 15 testing days attached as part of the format. Testing really is key, which is why we are here today at Silverstone in preparation for this. Some of the venues are really high end, so although we won’t be coming to Silverstone, which unfortunately for a British team like Rodin Carlin is unfortunate, but we will get to go to iconic places like Monza, Zandvoort, Barcelona. I think the highlight for everybody will be Austin in Texas as part of the Formula 1 package itself. So we’re really looking forward to racing this year.

Can you tell me a little bit about the car that the girls are going to be driving this year? 

Yes, sure, we’ll head over. So the car is based on a Tatuus FIA F4 platform, so would share many of the common components. So the car would have a 1.4 turbocharged Arbarth power unit, supplied by Autotecnica in Italy. The gearbox is French, so we’re quite European. Six-speed sequential Sadev gearbox. The chassis itself is Tatuus, which also originates from Italy. The car generates 160 brake horsepower with a top speed of 240 kilometres an hour. But the difference is that the weight of the car is roughly around about 600 kilogrammes. So approximately a third of the weight of a high-performing sports car, so we have a lot of torque. The car has front and rear wings much like a regular F1 car with the latest safety specification. So it also comes with the Halo, the survival cell, which is the headrest and the carbon fibre monocoque, everything is FIA crash tested. As a car, it’s a very high level entry.

Can we just fire it up? See what it sounds like?

Yes, absolutely. So I’m, just going to plug it in through here, crank for some oil pressure. Because although it’s a real car engine, it’s been modified. So it does have a dry sump system. So we will pump oil around the engine, and then we will make some noise.

The car is the same for all the drivers, so it really puts the emphasis on the skill of the driver, but also the team who set the car up to get the best out of it for the track they’re on. Absolutely. It’s what we call a spec formula, where all cars are supplied by Tatuus and controlled by the promoter and the scrutineering teams, that do a very good job of checking that the teams are in line. We don’t take any unfair advantages. But you are correct, the team have a marginal set of changes. And really, it’s about squeezing the maximum performance and gains that we can from the driver, from the mechanics, from the engineers. Ultimately, it’s a package. And everything in that package needs to work correctly in order for us to come out with podiums at the end of it. Which is what everybody’s aiming for. 

Well, I hope it’s a fantastic season for you and Rodin Carlin in Formula 1 Academy transport. 

Thank you. 

Hi, I’m Abbi Pulling. I’m racing in the F1 Academy this year with Rodin Carlin, and I’ll be supported by the F1 Academy.

Abbi, let’s start with a little bit about your early career and your route to where we are today here at F1 Academy. 

I started racing at the age of eight, but before even before then I was at a racetrack from probably the age of two or three to be honest, with my dad, who did long circuit endurance motorbike racing. That’s how I’m here today, because of him. I started with go-karts at the age of eight, got my own kart, went to do some low-level stuff, and then got a bit more serious as the years went on, and progressed quite nicely. 

Who were your inspirations? 

I obviously grew up watching two wheels, so Motorsport GP, and I was a big Valentino Rossi fan. Me and my dad would scream at the TV on the weekends. He’s just someone that I’ve watched since a very young age, and still today I follow him and see what he’s doing, so he’s gone to do GPs now in the Bathurst and things like that, DTM. So his morals and his view on motorsports is the same as me. Just make sure you’re enjoying it. He’s done MotoGP, he’s done rallycross, and so many different things. And it’s something that I’d like to do, you know, I’d like to try my hand at every bit of everything, when I get to that point in my career where I can get away with it. And just make sure that I’m enjoying it. The last thing that my dad would always say to me in karting, when you could get beside me on the grid, was to go out and have fun. So that stuck with me.

Let’s talk a little bit about F1 Academy. Why is that important to you as a female racer to have that option?

I think it’s huge. Women nowadays have to see it to believe it, and I never really had that when I was getting into karts at the age of eight. My role model was a male, it was Valentino Rossi. So there wasn’t much female representation. And now I think that is improving, and it’s such a positive time to be in motorsport. It’s just constantly getting better and better. The championship itself is helping with my development and seat time and things like that. But it’s also showing the younger people that if it’s not me that breaks the barriers, it will be that 10-year-old watching, hopefully.

You’ve worked with Carlin for many, many years, but just talk to me about how they’re helping with your development and your tutoring in the car. 

We’re doing a lot behind the scenes, so it’s actually probably more at the factory and at the workshop than actually on track. We’re doing a lot on the simulator, practising for today, although the conditions are a bit sketchier than what we could simulate. It was all productive and just running through the season. At this point, I’ve almost done the whole season race calendar before I’ve actually gone there. 

So you’ve been on all the tracks on the simulator. 

Exactly. And obviously, my engineer, Mark, he will be there with me. And it’s nice to have that person you can keep going to, and I have him for the year basically, to pick his brains.

I hear some people get a little bit of motion sickness in the simulator. You’re all okay with that?

I’ve known a few people that have thrown up. One of my friends from the W series, she threw up a few times, but no, I’ve never had that problem. So I’m okay with it.

Tell me, what’s the end game? Is it to get all the way to Formula 1? Does something like sports cars, or even Formula E, Extremely E? Does all of that hold interest for you?

I’m interested in all the different aspects. I think any young racing driver of my age in a category like this would say that their aim is to be in Formula 1. And I’d say mine is pretty similar. I want to get to Formula 1, or as close as I can, but my options are open, you know, so I’ll probably take an opportunity in something like Formula E. I’ve got quite a big interest in that. I follow it quite religiously nowadays. It’s a lot more complicated than people probably think. And other things like rallycross, I love rallycross. Probably not two wheels. Even endurance racing. Something that I really want to do in my career is drive an LMP2 car or a hypercar. So anything really.

All your options open.

Yes, a thousand percent. but at the moment, the sole focus is single seaters and F1, but it leads to so many different avenues. Because you learn the fundamentals in the F1 Academy that you need in any other category. 

Thanks very much, Abbi. Have a great season.

Thank you very much. 

Thanks to Abbi and Kenny for showing us around Rodin Carlin’s garage at Silverstone and for giving us an insight into the exciting F1 Academy.