Plans to help the leading drivers in this year’s championship progress to the next level on the ladder to F1 will be unveiled in the coming days.
Wolff would not reveal what they were, but said: “We are not just going to make sure that our winner progresses, I want my winner to progress with the best chance of success.”
Wolff said that she was already seeing progress as a result of the exposure F1 Academy and its various recruitment programmes were giving to the concept of women becoming racing drivers.
She said a new programme at karting tracks in the UK this year had “seen an increase from 2.5% to 9% – went from 18 girls to 65 girls – trying to qualify for the British indoor karting championship”.
The programme, called Next Generation, started this year at just six tracks but will be expanded across the country and beyond next year.
The 10 F1 teams will all sponsor a driver in the Academy next year and drive cars painted in the colours of that team.
Wolff said: “They’ve all taken a leap of faith to join us on this on this mission and we need to make sure that we’re delivering a strong package.
“One team principal in particular said to me: ‘You are just putting a plaster on the problem. Are you actually going to try and fix the problem?’
“I said: ‘Yes, we’re not here as a flashy series that is trying to gain exposure and give 15 young drivers the lime light. Because I’ve been there. I know how tough it is and I know how few women are participating in all the different levels.
“So we need to figure out how we’re going to change long term and that comes down to increasing that talent pool and that comes on to making the sport more accessible and inspiring the next generation to enter the sport.
“We’re going to show this huge global fanbase of Formula 1, that this sport actually wants to become more diverse. The sport wants to give opportunities to women and if I think of a 19-year-old girl zipping up the Ferrari race suit next year, that’s a powerful image that I can’t quantify in numbers.
“By the end of 2025 after two seasons of my vision of what F1 Academy, we will be able to have a very clear idea whether this is moving in the right direction or not.”