Formula One teams are to enter a direct partnership with the sport’s all-female feeder series, the F1 Academy, from next season, when they will each have one nominated driver competing under their team name and using their livery. The decision was described as a “landmark moment’ by the series’ managing director, Susie Wolff.
The F1 Academy was established this year by the sport to address the paucity of women drivers in motor racing and to help build a pathway for a woman to reach F1. The sport has not had a woman start a grand prix since Lella Lombardi raced in Austria in 1976. She and Maria Teresa de Filippis are the only two women to have raced in F1 since the championship began in 1950.
The academy has five teams with 15 drivers competing for five experienced teams who already race in F3 and F2. From next season 10 of those drivers will represent F1 teams, still using the same single-specification cars but each one bearing the colours of their counterparts in F1.
Wolff welcomed the move as a strong gesture from across the F1 teams toward the aims of the academy. “This landmark moment not only demonstrates the depth of support for F1 Academy from across the F1 community but will inspire a whole generation of young girls to realise the opportunities both on and off track in motorsport,” she said.
How each team will choose their nominated driver has yet to be revealed, while the remaining five drivers will be “supported by other partners”, F1 said in a statement. After the demise of the all-female W Series last season, which foundered when it ran out of backing, the academy has continued its pioneering efforts to increase female participation and exposure in motor sport.
This year has been a low-key opening for the series with no television or live coverage, but in 2024 it will join the meetings on the F1 calendar as a support race and live TV coverage is expected to be part of that expansion. The championship is led by Spain’s Marta García with six races remaining and the season finale set to take place as three support races at the US Grand Prix in Austin.
F1’s intention is to offer more young women access to track time and racing to help them develop their skills with professional teams who are used to nurturing talent as part of the racing ladder toward F1. The hope is this will make the route into F3 more accessible. The lack of funding available to back young women entering motor sport has been a real hurdle in the past and F1 is looking to go some way to overcome this. It subsidises each car with a budget of €150,000 (£130,000) while the drivers match that total with their own backing. There is no indication yet as to whether F1 teams will also be making any financial contribution toward drivers’ costs.
The F1 chief executive, Stefano Domenicali, also praised the move as a forward step for the nascent series. “We created F1 Academy to bring about real and lasting change to ensure young female talent have the right system in place to follow and achieve their dreams,” he said. “Today is a very important moment as it shows the impact the project is having and the support it is receiving from across the F1 community.”
Wolff warned in April, in an interview with the Guardian, that returning a female driver to F1 would be a long process, with no quick fix expected. “I believe it’s eight to 10 years away from happening,” she said. “That’s not just because we are lacking the female talent pool and lacking those who progress through the sport but also because of the realisation that getting to F1 is incredibly tough. It’s tough for all of the male drivers.”
