Reilly Sullivan is a Sydney-based journalist who got into Formula 1 the way a lot of good things happen — she decided to try, sent a cold email, and got a yes. The team that said yes was Haas.
Her first interview was with Nico Hulkenberg, at a point in the 2024 season when he was quietly starting to transcend the limitations of the car beneath him. She asked him what he still wanted to achieve in the sport. He said a win would be good. She tells the story well.
From that first piece, published in Maxim, she built enough of a portfolio to get to Singapore for her first race weekend. She interviewed Pierre Gasly at Alpine, who told her the Haas press team had already vouched for her. That is how small the paddock is: be professional with one team and the others hear about it before you have even introduced yourself.
The episode is a practical and honest account of how a journalist without a traditional sports background breaks into one of the most insular media environments in sport. Reilly talks about how Drive to Survive created opportunities that simply did not exist before — lifestyle magazines, women’s publications, mainstream outlets all wanting a piece of the sport — and how to position yourself to take advantage of that shift.
She also talks about what surprised her most once she was inside the paddock, how the press officers across teams socialise and communicate far more than you would expect, and why getting in early with smaller teams is smarter than chasing the big names.
Reilly is on Instagram at @reillyjosephsullivan.