New female racing series F1 Academy is not the right answer

Formula 1 has announced a new racing class for young female drivers. The new series should prepare them for other competitions such as Formula 3 and Formula 2, but it remains to be seen whether F1 Academy will provide opportunities for young women.

F1 Academy is explicitly aimed at young women in their teens, so the series will look different from W Series. The competition will consist of 15 drivers across five teams. There will be a total of seven race weekends. The series aims to ensure that young women can progress into Formula 3 to advance in motorsport.

It is a fact that young female drivers face more obstacles than male drivers of the same age. Lewis Hamilton, for example, has told how in his karting years he was in a class with 40 boys and one girl. It is therefore certainly good to see Formula 1 taking serious steps to promote more women in motorsport, but the question is whether F1 Academy can achieve that goal.

W Series drivers stuck at the same level

Looking at W Series, it is clear that the series has not yet achieved what it should. Jamie Chadwick, meanwhile, has won the championship three seasons in a row, but further strides are not being made. The British ace keeps returning to the W Series because she is not being offered other opportunities. Chadwick still has not secured a seat in F2 or F3, for instance, and she will leave for Indy NXT next year for lack of better. Yes, the series gives female drivers the chance to keep racing, but what is the point if there is no progress? The only W Series champion is stuck at that level and that shouldn't be the case.

It can be argued that there are simply no female drivers good enough for Formula 1 at the moment, which I can certainly agree with. Look at Sophia Floersch, for example. The German driver drove one season in Formula 3, but only finished 29th in the championship. Instead, she found her niche in Endurance Racing. Tatiana Calderon also got chances in F3 and F2, but her results were not very convincing.

Female talent pool is too small

But then why are there no women who are actually good enough? That problem already arises in karting, where young women simply do not get the same opportunities as boys. It would be better if Formula 1 does targeted research into this to see how women can be helped from a young age, from the moment they take a seat in a kart. Alpine, for example, has launched an eight-year programme that helps young girls in their karting years with the goal of reaching Formula 1. Such an initiative, in my opinion, will be much more successful.

Will F1 Academy really cause us to see more women in F2 and F3, and eventually even F1? I doubt it. It is good to see F1 investing in more diversity, but the problem will remain until there is an investment in women under 14. The talent pool is simply too small, as there are not enough girls to progress from a young age because they do not get the same support.

If a female driver wants to be good enough for F1, she will have to compete against men right from the start of her career. F1 driver Lella Lombardi, who was the only woman to score points, was also not separated from the men. The drivers in F1 Academy will eventually not be compared to each other when they advance to F3 or F2, but rather to their male counterparts.

An F2 or F3 team will only take on a driver if it has enough money and performs well enough during test days. I think F1 would achieve even more by investing in a female team itself in the two-feeder series. Who knows, F1 Academy might prove me wrong, but for now, I don't think the new racing class is going to ensure that we will see a woman in Formula 1 in the future.