F1 Academy - Support For Female Drivers To Enter Motorosport

[s130]

So this has has been announced: F1 Academy

Formula 1 launches all-female championship

Formula 1 launches an all-female championship aimed at helping women drivers progress through the motorsport ranks.

www.bbc.co.uk

This next bit hurts!

"F1 will subsidise each car with a budget of €150,000 (£131,000). Drivers will need to add the same amount again to compete."

So just to enter / be considered you need £131K in you back pocket.

So sponsorship is required for most hopefuls. But £131K is a large wad on money and sponsors want some return on their investment. This means you have to "proven" before you start. And there lies the problem. We already have successful talented female drivers, none in F1. I'm not sure I see how the F1 Academy is really going to change things.

All the F1 teams have their Driver Academy programs for talented drivers etc. so I would have thought it better for the F1 teams to take some talented females in addition to their current male dominated clutch of hopefuls? Fund and develop them all. Give them all that equal chance to learn whilst still able to compete in the lower less expensive motorsport series at the same time.

 

[varesecrazy]

Background to this seems to be that 'Formula W', (a female only single seater series) has been woundup a few rounds early

Much was made that the star of the series..a runaway leader.. was offered very little in Professional motorsport

If the top Female driver of the previous decade couldnt start an F1 race despite driving in an F1 race weekend... ( and being married to a team owner..)

Then what chance has 'an outsider' got


Of course historically the lower teams always had 'paid for' drivers... who basically kept the Minardi's of this world financially viable


Surely a Smaller..lighter .. 'Pilot' is a big plus in the packaging of a racecar

Even if there is no specific weight advantage.. you can park mass somewhere around the car where it is of benefit.

 

[Barchetta Bloke 440]

This new series is using Formula 4 cars , so below the level the W series used .
Jamie Chadwick has won all 3 years of W but is still no closer to a F1 drive .
She has a foot in the door at Williams but when are they going to let her drive in the free practice of a GP weekend ?...assuming she has the licence needed for that .

 

[StevenRB45]

This new series is using Formula 4 cars , so below the level the W series used .
Jamie Chadwick has won all 3 years of W but is still no closer to a F1 drive .
She has a foot in the door at Williams but when are they going to let her drive in the free practice of a GP weekend ?...assuming she has the licence needed for that .

Bizarre when you think Kimi Raikonen turned up without a super licence at all and only 23 races experience.

There should be no need for womens only series it feels like a relic of a different time...but here we are with no female drivers in pretty much any world championship other than indy car so clearly something isn't working somewhere.

 

[s130]

Bizarre when you think Kimi Raikonen turned up without a super licence at all and only 23 races experience.

There should be no need for womens only series it feels like a relic of a different time...but here we are with no female drivers in pretty much any world championship other than indy car so clearly something isn't working somewhere.

Which makes this F1 idea even more stupid.

Yes Jamie Chadwick has far surpassed Formula 4 category. She and other like here should be in the F1 Team's academy. able to learn and play with F1 level cars, G forces, etc. and learn, be analysed etc. without fear or favour.

 

[StevenRB45]

Which makes this F1 idea even more stupid.

Yes Jamie Chadwick has far surpassed Formula 4 category. She and other like here should be in the F1 Team's academy. able to learn and play with F1 level cars, G forces, etc. and learn, be analysed etc. without fear or favour.

To go back to Kimi..he literally was only able to do 4 laps at a time when he first turned up.

Literally didn't have the physical fitness to manage more and yet they persevered. Obviously he had natural talent and same for Max Verstappen when he got parachuted into a car at 17.

If anything it just seems like these series take women drivers out of the traditional championships that feed into F1 and put them into an environment that ensures you can't fully judge them against their peers. They may be world class or they could just be the best of a bad bunch but if you aren't in the general cut and thrust coming through you'll never know.

 

[Barchetta Bloke 440]

A female driver that could possibly be considered better than W series level is Sophia Florsch ,she criticised the need for a female only series and went her own way .
I reckon if she had entered W ,she'd win every race !
A talented driver and she is still not quite 21 years old yet .

I just checked her Wiki ,she didn't have a very good 2022 with only a few points in the DTM and some decent results in random other drives .

 

[LostintheCity]

Signed up to support this but they should give more money. Cheers everyone!

 

[vexorg]

In my view, there is no reason that a woman cannot drive an F1 car as good as anyone else. It's a skill thing over pure brawn. Same with snooker, darts or any other skill thing, they shouldn't need their own league.

True equality is to compete as equals (the clue is in the name!)

 

[varesecrazy]

Well 3 seasons in the W series ..

J.Chadwick is off to Race Indy series for Andretti

Sounds promising

 

[s130]

May not be Chadwick's ideal drive, but I'm sure she will make very good money for future endeavours, pick up some super license credits etc. and with all of that more exposure. All in all should be very good for her.