What is F1 Academy?
Founded by Formula One in 2022, it is a pathway series exclusive for female drivers competing at the equivalent of Formula 4 level. As the first female-only, international, single-seater category it has already found plenty of success financing nine female drivers through the Discover Your Drive programme. It aims to promote female representation in motorsport, recognising the challenges women face throughout a consistently male industry. Though still in its infancy, F1 Academy manages to take a global stage sometimes acting as a pre-race event for official F1 weekends, racing across three different continents and showcasing the skill of these rising talents, Abbi Pulling, Doraine Pin and Maya Weug currently leading the championship standings.
Key differences to F1
Whilst both being a part of the larger global motorsport circuit, there are many differences across the championships. Firstly, being a feeder series means F1 Academy has a smaller budget and simpler technology, F1 teams can decide their chassis and engines based on cost and performance however across the grid at F1 Academy drivers all use a chassis designed by Tatuus Automobili and a 1.4L Autotecnica engine. There are fewer engineering variables, excluding set-up changes, making F1 Academy a much more level playing field, primarily based on driving skills to climb the rankings compared to the versatility of F1 which is as much about the engineering of the car as the driver’s talent.
Although women have previously competed in F1, the last being Giovanna Amati in Brazil ’92 for Brabham, many factors limit their ability to compete at top level motorsport. This is the principle differentiating factor of F1 Academy is its exclusivity for women and minimising these factors to support the advancement of their careers and hopefully brining wider representation into the sport. One example is the championship being financially supported by Formula One, each team subsidising costs of one car who carries their livery and the remaining five are supported by the series partners, this means the significant factor of costs and funding, that is commonly a dealbreaker for drivers, is covered encouraging further participation in the sport.
The last important difference between Formula One and Formula One Academy is the layout of race weekends. The main series, ignoring sprint weekends, start on Thursdays with media duties, free practice (FP) one and two on a Friday, the last FP on a Saturday morning before Qualifying in the afternoon and the main race on Sundays. Whereas Formula One Academy features five sessions on the track, two FP before Qualifying later that day, where the drivers fastest lap will set the grid for Race one, and their second fastest lap setting the grid for Race two. Both Races are 30 minutes and happen the day after Qualifying, two points are awarded for pole position, but the race point scores are the same as Formula One for both races (25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1).
As motor racing continues to grow in popularity Formula One Academy is becoming an essential pathway for women to enter high levels of the sport gaining indispensable time on track and support both physically and mentally in order to achieve results and career development.
