When it comes to women in motorsport, Abbi Pulling has become one of the most well known across the entire racing world. From karting to W Series to F1 Academy and GB3, the British racing driver has been both one of the sport’s most dominant forces and biggest underdogs as she does all she can to forge a lasting career in motorsport.
Pulling began karting in 2013 before making the switch over to Ginetta Juniors in 2018 and then into single seaters in 2020 when she entered the British F4 Championship. What has followed has been a remarkable story of a driver who won’t let her background or financial struggles prevent her from going racing and continuously proving that she’s got what it takes to make it all the way to the top of the motorsport ladder.
She famously came onto many people’s radars in the final round of the 2021 Season of W Series where she claimed Pole Position which she followed up in the next race with a podium finish, coming across the line in second place with only the illustrious Jamie Chadwick ahead of her.
Pulling joined F1 Academy in 2023 and collected seven podiums in her maiden season. Supported by the Alpine F1 Team in 2024, Pulling then went on to dominate the series, winning nine of the thirteen races that season and having a lowest finishing position of third.
In 2025, Pulling entered the GB3 Championship, finishing in tenth place overall, finishing all but four races inside the top ten and with a debut podium to her name when she finished in third place in Brands Hatch. She returned to the series this year and currently sits in eighth place overall with two rounds left. She’s added a further three podiums to her tally this year too, including a maiden win in Spa.
All of this would be more than enough to keep Pulling busy, especially with training, sourcing sponsorship and everything else that comes with building a long-term presence in motorsport.
But, naturally, this is not all that is on Abbi Pulling’s docket in 2026. Alongside her racing duties, Abbi was signed by the Nissan Formula E Team for the 2024/2025 season which has continued into the 2025/2026 season and again looks set to continue into the Gen 4 Era of the electric racing series too. Her role with the team is that of a rookie and simulator driver and consequently, has resulted in Pulling taking part in the all women’s Formula E tests as well as the rookie Formula E test that took place in Miami earlier this year. But her role goes beyond the track too as she beds herself in with the Japanese team and the automotive brand itself.
It’s Race Week! sat down with Abbi at the Formula E Season 12 Finale in London in August to discuss her work with the team, all that it entails and why the pairing are such a good fit for one another.
What is your role for the weekend and what does that entail?
I am the Rookie and Simulator Driver and to be honest, my weekend’s fairly relaxed. I was here yesterday doing some stuff with Nissan UK, they’ve obviously got their new Nissan Leaf out, and it’s literally just hit the showroom, so doing some work with them and that was a bit different, but of course, I’m here with the Formula E team.
I’m not actually able to go into the debrief room, because there’s a limit on numbers, so I’ve been watching the sessions, supporting from afar, and talking to people like you and doing different activities, like engaging with the fans. I was over yesterday at the fan grandstand, the Nissan grandstand, so shooting some shirts into the sea of people was quite fun! And then, of course, Nissan have their Nissan Suite. So I was over there talking to the guests and helping them enjoy their experience of the E-Prix a little bit more.
You were in the safety car yesterday too, I heard.
Actually, yeah, that’s a really good point. I mean, it’s not a Nissan, but I did some promotion yesterday with one of Formula E’s partners, and I got to drive the safety car around the track for like six, seven laps…I had to back off because the tyres got too hot! So the last few laps I went steady.
It was so funny because the track is like the width of the car, so it’s like you’re threading the needle the whole way. But this track is always so fun to come to. It’s a cool event. It’s an event like no other, obviously, because it’s in the Excel. And catching up with the team, of course, I’m normally the SIM driver and doing the Ops room, but of course, this is my home race, so it made sense to come here.
But yeah, normally in Paris on the simulator, I’m helping them and giving support from Paris to the guys and girls track side.
You’ve been in this role with this team for a couple of years, what’s it been like?
I mean it feels like forever. I mean it feels like I’ve been with them forever because they’re so lovely and everyone’s always so smiley with me and it’s so nice to chat to them and have a laugh. But also the team as well, they’re so focused and committed on what they do and there’s no better place for me to learn, I don’t think.
So what’s it been like being part of that, you say with the sim work and obviously the women’s test and helping develop these cars in particular, what’s that been like for, not just to help the team but for your own racecraft?
Well, yeah, I mean, yeah, in a selfish way, it’s been incredible for my development because going to the simulator and doing all the procedures and so on and so forth, you know, it’s a lot to take in with these cars. And when I first jumped into it, I did one day on the simulator and then jumped straight into the car and it was a lot to process. That was obviously in 2024 in the first women’s test. And now after working with the team for, like I say, about two years, this whole year, doing race ops, bar one or two events that clash, it’s, I feel like I can jump in the car and feel at home and nothing’s overwhelming and I know what everything is.
All the procedures and so on are pretty normal for me now and I can, like I say, focus on the driving and focus on other things. I think you have to have such a big capacity in this car and I quite enjoy that and quite enjoy that challenge. But yeah, I’ve learned so much and all the different things that this car can do, it’s unlimited, you know, what this car can do.
Have you noticed from the experience you’ve had in the sim here and the test sessions as well, obviously different cars to what you would be driving in normally, but have you noticed that you get advantages from the knowledge and the experience when you’ve then gone and you’re racing in your own series?
I really wish in GB3, yeah, I really wish in GB3 I had GPS where my break bias and migration and so on would change however I wanted, but I don’t have that unfortunately. It’s a bit more raw in that sense that your biggest tool is yourself, basically. But regardless of that, the thing that correlates the most, I think, is more the capacity and it’s like a skill and the skill of increasing your capacity in the car. When I’m in the Formula E car, then you go back to what I race where, like I say, the biggest tool is yourself and everything becomes easier. I don’t know how to explain it, that’s the most simplest way I can explain it. I suppose more track time, more seat time, regardless, it just helps make it a bit more round and over. There’s so much that I can learn and take forward. The car itself is obviously very different, but the environment and so on I can take things from it.
I was going to ask, because obviously Alice is in Envision, what’s that like?
You can’t compare notes?
Well, you can’t compare notes because I’d get sacked! But I’m very fortunate that she’s kind of what got me into Formula E and got me watching it because she was obviously doing development work with Envision well before I was involved with Nissan, so I would follow Formula E and I was actually really interested in watching the races on the TV, I would ask questions and so on, and I got to understand it a little bit better before I even entered the world of Formula E. And then when obviously I did the women’s test and did get involved with Nissan, I could pick her brain a little bit and in a sense share notes, but not with sensitive stuff, more in the driving style and so on. And yeah, I’m super fortunate to have that and now be so ingrained with a Formula E team and have such a great relationship with Nissan.
And when you’re at those tests with the other women over there, obviously I’m guessing sometimes it’s the only time you’ll see them over the course of a year. Do you have any particularly strong ties with any of the women in part of that test, or is it all just very much competitive, even though it’s a testing session?
Yeah, I think for me, of course I want to be fastest, I’m a racing driver, so you do look at the timesheets and so on, but at the end of the day I’m always there for Nissan and for what they need to test. They normally have a few test items, I’m very fortunate that they also do things specifically for me. So we did a few races, a lot of, you can either just constantly do performance runs and qualifying runs, which is what puts you at the top of the times and so on.
But we actually did quite a lot with the, I don’t want to call it race mode, I don’t know what to call it, in the race scenario. Yeah, the 100km race scenario. I would just say race scenario. So the race scenario is such a different way to drive, and I’m very fortunate that we don’t just focus on being fast on the timesheets, we’re focussing on how I can be better as a driver and well-rounded.
They’ve put me to do quite a lot of race laps to better my technique, because it’s so one-for-one, there’s nowhere else that you drive like it really. So it was fun to get my head around that at Valencia and get more competitive in 300kW in the race scenario, and be more efficient.
The most important thing in this game, in Formula E, is to be fast and efficient. You can be fast, but being efficient as well helps so much. And the team know that, and they see that, and yeah, it’s fun to be a part of, and so on and so forth.
Your biggest standout moment from this season with Nissan?
I think going to Miami. Although I was competitive at the start, and then I obviously had a bit of a moment at the end and didn’t get a full quali run for a 350 lap. It was so great to be in the car on a race weekend for FP0. We struggled a bit that weekend, and there was a few things that me and Gabriele, who was at the test as well at the FP0, we picked up on and said to the team, hey, we were struggling with this, just be wary of this, try and get ahead of the curve of it.
It was nice that we could have that input, but not only that, that we were trusted as well in what we were saying.
But the thing that caught us off guard, was the track surface. I wouldn’t say what it would do and so on and so forth. It was mainly just down to how it reacted with the tyres and so on and the temperatures, it becomes different and it was fun for us to be like, oh yeah, we need to do a few more things to get it more in the window going forward.
And then I guess when those changes get implemented and you see it works in the right way, that gives you a bit of a confidence boost?
Yeah, I mean that weekend ended up being weird because it was wet in the end and so on. A bit less comparable than yesterday. The weekend could have gone a completely different way for the team, so it was nice to be able to try and help them get a step ahead.
Of course, all the other teams had experienced rookies in as well and they were probably saying similar stuff that we were, but yeah, that was a standout moment. But then again, also a standout moment for me was jumping in at Jarama for the rookie test, because for me that was a really successful day in the car. You know, being in both sessions in the top ten against, you know, people that have won F2. I think that’s like, for me, that meant a lot for myself.
It’s a series that in theory there is, like at one point, there’s nothing in theory stopping a woman from being in there full time.
Exactly. Like, Jarama was... I was so, yeah, really, really happy with the performance there. And the main thing really that I was struggling with for more performance and speed in myself was a little bit of strength. You know, unfortunately, the cars, it’s no secret, they are quite physical. So that last little bit to, I think it was Victor then, who was my teammate, was just trusting myself and my strength a little bit.
And, you know, when you get a snap in a car that’s heavy in the steering, it’s quite, in the high speed stuff, it’s... You’ve got to trust yourself that you can catch it, and when you’re physically struggling, it can be hard. So that was like, knowing the performance was there, and I was just as fast in most of the corners other than the ones that I was like hanging on for dear life! You know, it was all there. We could see it, the team could see it, I could see it, and that was so, so positive for myself. It was one of my more competitive sessions for the team, so I was very happy with that.
Obviously, we’ve seen some women compete in Formula E in the past. We’ve got, obviously, the all-women tests, and we’ve had some in the rookies. When do you think we’re going to get a full-time female driver? Because obviously there’s still a few seats, in theory, available for next year.
Unfortunately, no female has an e-licence, so it’s a super-licence thing there. So it feels like there’s nothing, again, in theory, to prevent it now, you know, you’ve got the talent there, you’re getting the opportunity, you’re showing what you’re capable of. It’s just that super-licence thing. I think within all the world championships, I think there’s five, five world championships, the first world championship that will have a female full-time driver will be Formula E. I’ve got no doubt about that, because they’re giving opportunities. It’s not just the championship, but all the teams across the grid have to also agree to putting females in the car for these tests. Even just, in general, agreeing to do an all-female test is such a big thing for them.
You can just see it’s so important for everyone in the paddock, and it’s going to happen eventually. Like anything, it’s going to take time. I think the big sticking point is, you know, I’m trying to get enough super-licence points to qualify for an E-licence. That’s the big thing for myself. If my season went a bit better this year, I would have managed to have done it, but unfortunately I’ve had a bad year. For me, that’s my goal. The next step for me is trying to compete in whatever series will give me the opportunity to get an E-licence. Because I see myself continuing up the electric pathway.
Formula E is the most welcoming paddock, and it’s the paddock that I feel wants me in it the most, in that sense. You go to F1 and everyone’s out for themselves. Whether it’s... In any sense, it’s quite...
Piranha Club.
Piranha Club. It’s very Piranha Club, and it’s completely opposite here. Although there’s rivalries… Everyone’s willing to help out a little bit more and be welcoming. Everyone helps each other out a bit more in this sense. Even if one of the garages next door ran out of water or something. Simple stuff like that, we would help them out and stuff.
It’s very sociable. We make similar things a lot. We discuss a lot. We communicate, like, oh, do you have a spare of these? Can you help me out with that? We share the same catering, which already... It means that you mix with people more than, my garage, my motorhome, and I don’t look on the side kind of thing. It’s very collaborative. It’s in everyone’s best interest to help this paddock to excel. It’s so early doors for Formula E. They’re only in their 12th season.
But you look at the progress that’s been made already.
Exactly. And the progress in 12 years from Gen 1 to Gen 4. It’s insane.
You don’t have to pit cars to swap them mid race anymore!
Exactly. That alone was a massive innovation. Of course, still more to do, still more to go. But they do keep doing it. They do keep investing. And it’s great to see. And I’m excited to see where it continues to go. And hopefully I am a part of that. I’m very, very fortunate. My relationship with Nissan. They love me and I love them.
Very nice liveries on the car as well.
Yeah. The blossoms are in the Japanese style and my Nissan helmet is one of my favourites. The cherry blossoms helmet. Can’t get enough of that!
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Abbi Pulling can next be seen racing in the final two rounds of the 2026 GB3 Season held in Brands Hatch from September 25th-27th and at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya from November 5th-8th.