Hamilton on new racing class for young women: 'More inclusion needed'

Formula 1 announced a new racing class for young women during the Grand Prix weekend in Abu Dhabi. The F1 Academy aims to prepare young female drivers for other competitions in the motorsport world. Lewis Hamilton thinks more research needs to be done on women's inclusivity.

It had been in the air for a while that F1 would announce a new racing class for women. The class is specifically aimed at women in their teens, distinguishing F1 Academy from W Series. Fifteen drivers will compete, spread across five teams. The calendar will consist of seven race weekends. The class aims to get women through to Formula 3, something W Series has not really succeeded in so far.

In Abu Dhabi, Hamilton reacted to the news to, among others GPblog. "I want to say that I have not dived deep into F1 Academy. On the one hand, I have to acknowledge that something is being done, but if there was a real investigation into why there is such a small group of women coming through and getting the opportunity, you would probably go all the way back to karting. It's not equal in go-karts."

Inclusiveness an issue from an early age

Hamilton himself is a big proponent of inclusivity in sport. The Briton himself set up an organisation, Mission 44, to promote diversity in motorsport. The Mercedes driver therefore believes that more should be done to create an inclusive environment in the motorsport world.

"From my own experience, there were only two or three girls in my entire karting career from eight to 16 years old. There was a class of forty kids. Forty boys, one girl. We need to create a more inclusive environment, because inclusivity is already an issue in karting. This way we create a bigger pipeline of young women trying to move on," said the seven-time world champion.

Editor-in-chief Tim Kraaij reported from Abu Dhabi for this article