What is the F1 Academy?
F1 academy is the new pioneering project by Formula One to help develop and prepare female drivers in progressing to higher levels of competition and hopefully one day into Formula One.
The purpose of the category is to give female drivers more access to track time, racing and testing, as well as support with the technical, physical, and mental preparations needed to become a racing driver in the higher categories.
The first season of the sport will feature 21 races that will be held across seven rounds and has been designed to include as many Formula One Grand Prix tracks as possible, to allow the drivers the opportunity to compete on a diversity of challenging circuits and develop their technical skills.
Each race weekend will feature two Qualifying sessions and three Races, which means the drivers will have to push themselves to try and maximise points in a race weekend.
The format for a race weekend would be two Free Practice sessions of 40 minutes followed by two Qualifying sessions of 15 minutes. The first race will be 30 minutes + one lap whereas the second will be 20 minutes + one lap. The weekend concludes with the third and final race which would consist of 30 minutes + one lap.
The driver who secures pole position in the first Qualifying session will start the first race from P1, and the driver who achieves pole position in the second Qualifying session will begin in first place for the final race.
The second race will consist of the top eight drivers from Qualifying session 1 starting in reverse order, so the driver that achieved Pole will start from eighth and vice versa. Cars from ninth and below will start both the first two races in the same position they qualified in.
The points that are allocated throughout the race weekend are similar to the point system used in Formula Two and Formula Three. In the first and last race, the top 10 drivers will be awarded 25, 18, 15, 10, eight, six, four, two and one points respectively, while in the second race, the top eight drivers score points of 10, eight, six, five, four, three, two and one.
Any driver within the top 10 that secures the fastest lap by the end of the race will be allocated one additional point.
For the first season, there will be five teams who have branches in other categories, such as Formula Two and Three. Each team will have three drivers, totalling 15 across the grid. As the teams are involved with other junior categories, they will have the necessary tools and knowledge to help the young talents nurture and develop the skills to take the next step on their journey in competitive motorsport.
The teams and their drivers are as follows:
· Art Grand Prix- Léna Bühler, Carrie Schreiner, and Chloe Grant.
· Campos Racing – Nerea Martí, Lola Lovinfosse, and Maite Càceres.
· MP Motorsports- Amna Al Qubaisi, Hamda Al Quibaisi, and Emely De Hues.
· Prema Racing- Bianca Bustamante, Chole Chong, and Marta García.
· Rodin Carlin- Jessica Edgar, Abbi Pulling, and Megan Gilkes.
Susie Wolff will be the Managing Director of the F1 Acadamy in the hope of helping in the development of young women drivers and finding a route for them through the junior categories in the Formula One pyramid. Wolff will report directly to Formula One CEO, Stefano Domenicali.
The season kicks off on 28-29 April at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. This is then followed by traveling to Spain for two back-to-back race weekends in Valencia and Barcelona. The category then continues to Zandvoort, Netherlands, Monza, Italy and Le Castellet, France before finishing at Austin, Texas from 20-22 October 2023.