2025 was an unprecedented year in motorsport, featuring momentous title fights and many edge-of-your-seat on-track battles. It wasn’t just the racing that was groundbreaking, however — for the first time in Formula 1’s 76 year history, the sport experienced a massive boom in engagement from female fans. In their joint survey, F1 and Motorsport Network found that 42 per cent of new fans were female, and intended to still be watching the sport in five years’ time. This shift in demographic is incredibly important: it is a line in the sand that marks a larger movement — women have always been interested and involved in sport, and we do not plan on going anywhere.
Despite this extraordinary increase in engagement, the motorsport world has historically been dominated by men, with a largely male fanbase and entirely male Formula 1 grid — the last woman to race in a Grand Prix was Lella Lombardi in 1976. Female drivers face misogyny at every turn as they are labelled unskilled and uninteresting. Many female fans are accused of only having an interest in the sport because they find the drivers attractive, or because they enjoyed the hit Netflix series Drive to Survive. This does not mean, however, that we have been unable to find community and strength in one another.
The presence of F1 Academy, a women’s racing series which allows female drivers, engineers and leading figures to shine, is incredibly valuable to female fans globally, and is revolutionising the future of the motorsport world right before our eyes. The series is undoubtedly a platform for female excellence; the 2025 title fight between now-champion Doriane Pin and Maya Weug went down to the wire in Las Vegas, providing a racing spectacle at higher stakes than ever seen before. After her championship win, Pin was congratulated by Mercedes-AMG drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli, as well as team principal Toto Wolff. This, along with Sir Lewis Hamilton’s appearances at a variety of F1 Academy events, is symbolic of a strong future for women in motorsport.
All ten Formula 1 teams have recommitted to sponsoring an F1 Academy driver and livery for the 2026 season—with new kid on the block, Cadillac joining the effort in 2027. Susie Wolff, F1 Academy Managing Director, former Williams F1 test driver, DTM driver and, yes, the wife of Mercedes-AMG boss Toto Wolff, was delighted by this eventuality. Following this announcement, she said: “We’re not just providing a platform for the current generation of female drivers; together, we’re building a pathway to support generations of talent to come.” Though motorsport may seem like a man’s world, even the most dedicated of misogynists cannot deny the presence and resilience of the women working diligently in the field despite the consistent barriers to their success. The visibility F1 Academy provides—as well as its lower cost and vested interest in discovering new talent—ensures that motorsport is steaming towards a more inclusive future.
With every race, F1 Academy is changing the game — I, for one, cannot wait to see what the series’ very promising future holds.
“2024-08-25 Motorsport, Großer Preis der Niederlande 2024, F1 Academy STP 3543 by Stepro” by Steffen Prößdorf is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.