Abbie Pulling is confident that there will eventually be a woman in Formula 1. Photo: Getty Images/Pauline Ballet
Abby Pulling sounds a little distracted. when I call to discuss her historic British Formula 4 win on Sunday. “Sorry,” says the 21-year-old, who became the first female driver to win a stage in the series, defeating 18 men and three other women to win the reverse grid race at Brands Indy. “That noise you hear is my dog Herbie. Someone just knocked on the door and he went crazy.”
“It's been a crazy couple of weeks,” she adds.
Pulling, who lives with her manager and fellow driver Alice Powell near Alpine's Enstone headquarters, has barely had time to collect her thoughts after what has been a whirlwind eight days.
Two wins in 24 hours in Miami, in on the Formula One Grand Prix undercard, took the driver from Gosberton in Lincolnshire to the top of the Formula One Women's Academy Series standings. And after flying home to England, Pulling made history by becoming the first woman to win a race in British Formula 4, breaking away from the first safety car, setting the fastest lap and winning by five seconds.
Not that she was keen. As one of the most experienced drivers in both series – Pulling competed in British Formula 4 back in 2020, finishing sixth as a 17-year-old rookie this year, and competed in the W Series for two seasons before the arrival of the Formula 1 Academy – she is counting on win these races.
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Indeed, Pulling says she should probably have “a few wins already” by now, citing , in particular the race at Thruxton in which she went from 11th to first place only to be recaptured.
“I always knew I was capable of it, and I know I'm fast, and I think you have to be your biggest supporter in that regard,” she says. “I’ve been beating boys and girls since I started karting, before I even got to single-seater racing. So I expect to win these races. However, the last two weeks have been special. It was nice to show what I can do.”
Pulling understands that some people will write off her victory on Sunday as simply a “reverse bracket triumph.” Having started from her qualifying position of ninth in the other two races at Brands Hatch, she finished seventh and sixth. She accepts it herself. “A reverse grid race is certainly not a race I want to win,” she says. “I want to win the main races.” But she feels she did enough over the weekend and in previous seasons to show she deserved it. “We showed that kind of speed in free practice,” she says. “And in that [second] race, I think I set the fastest lap by three-tenths around Brands Indy. That's a pretty good profit.”
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