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F1 launches new all-female racing series
It comes after a cash crunch forced the existing W Series to cancel the last three races of its season last month
Formula One has announced the creation of a new, all-female driver academy intended to help prepare women for motorsport’s top categories.
It has been 45 years since a female driver, the Italian Lella Lombardi, last competed in a F1 race. And for all the talk of accelerated change, F1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali said earlier this season it was “very unlikely” there would be a female driver in F1 in the next five years.
The creation of the all-female W Series in 2019 has helped to grow the profile of women in motorsport, with drivers such as Briton Jamie Chadwick, who has won the first three seasons, becoming a household name.
But with the 24-year-old struggling to advance to the next rung, and W Series struggling for funding and not 100 per cent confirmed for next season, more clearly needs to be done.
In a press conference at Yas Marina Circuit yesterday, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said the creation of the F1 Academy was not intended to supplant the W Series, so much as to help “prepare young female drivers to progress to higher levels of competition including W Series, Formula 3, Formula 2 and Formula 1”.
F1 Academy will consist of five teams, which will be run by “strong and experienced” current F2 and F3 teams, each entering three cars to make up a 15-car grid.
The inaugural season will comprise seven events of three races each, amounting to a total of 21 races, plus 15 days of official testing.
The 2023 calendar will be revealed in due course and is likely to include one Formula 1 event weekend.
F1 will contribute 150,000 euros to each entry, with the driver expected to cover the same amount. The teams will provide the rest of the budget.
Series manager Bruno Michel said he felt that was fair, adding he did “not think there would be a problem” filling the seats, given that is a fraction of the usual costs in a comparable series. “Plus F1 team academies will start to fund drives,” he predicted.
In a statement, W Series CEO, Catherine Bond Muir, said she welcomed the initiative.
“W Series welcomes any initiative which shares our ambition to provide more opportunities for women in motorsport,” she said.
“Our objective from the start has always been to increase the talent pool of women racing drivers, and the addition of the F1 Academy as a feeder to W Series and other series is a further step in inspiring the next generation to progress up the motorsport ladder.
“We are looking forward to finalising W Series’ plans for 2023 and beyond, providing exciting racing and entertaining our fans around the world.
"Our mission is still clear: to offer women racing drivers a platform to race globally at the pinnacle of women’s motorsport, and in doing so continue to spread our message further and wider.”