F1 Academy: What is it?

One of the most prevalent examples of women's representation in Motorsports, is the introduction of the F1 Academy, the first all-female racing category of its kind. Here's everything you need to know about F1 Academy:

F1 Academy isn't just a racing series, it's a project to inspire and support young girls to pursue careers in motorsports, on and off track. It's goal is to ultimately, strengthen and expand it's female pool of talent, to make the dreams of elite level racing a reality. Additionally, it runs activities filled with varieties of workshops and information sessions for ages 8-18, for girls interested in all areas of the sport. if your interested, this can be found on the F1 Academy page in the section "Discover your Drive".

Now, how does it work? The weekend format differs to it's junior counterparts, holding 2 races each weekend with equal gravity (aka they are both feature races, as opposed to one sprint race). The weekend begins with two forty-minute practise sessions. Then, one thirty-minute qualifying session, where each drivers fastest lap will determine the grid for race 1, and their second fastest lap for race 2.

Should there be a feature race and a sprint race?

• No 2 features are way more interesting for the championship
• Yes! Get those stakes higher!

Points are in abudance in this category. Firstly, the drivers who achieve pole position for races 1 and 2 respectively, earn an additional two points. Racers in the top ten tally their points as follows: 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1 points respectively. Additionally, the driver who achieves the fastest lap of the race, provided they finish in the top ten will receive an additional point.

Perhaps one of the most exciting aspects of this series, is the fact all 25 racers are in identical cars. Each team is an already well-established team in other junior series' and it is up to them to optimise the car for the driver. The F1 academy drivers use Pirelli tyres, and are allocated three and a half sets of dry weather tyres and two sets of wets per race weekend.

So, there's a brief overview of F1 Academy! If you want to go more into detail, all the information is sourced from the F1 Academy website. Keep an eye out for more posts on the F1 Academy!