It has the logo. It has the hashtags. It has Susie Wolff in a power blazer and a paddock full of professional smiles. On paper, the F1 Academy is exactly what the sport needed — a dedicated series for women, backed by teams, brands, and a media machine finally pretending to care.
But the question still echoes behind the sponsor walls and filtered TikToks:
Is this real change — or just great marketing?
Is F1 Academy a ladder to the top?
Or just a brightly painted cul-de-sac?
The Pitch Is Perfect
Let’s be clear — the idea is sound. F1 Academy was launched in 2023 to create a pathway for female drivers, a space to develop, compete, and be seen. The calendar travels with F1. Each team now backs a driver. The cars are fast enough to matter. The funding gap is covered. And there’s a legitimate attempt at infrastructure.
On the surface, this isn’t W Series 2.0 — it’s more thought-out, more sustainable, less of a one-hit PR wonder.
But dig deeper, and the complications start piling up.
The Branding Machine Rolls On
Every element of F1 Academy looks like progress — but sometimes, it acts like branding.
– Every driver is assigned to an F1 team, but the connection is mostly cosmetic. There’s no test program. No real sim work. No junior integration.
– Races are run on F1 weekends, but often outside the broadcast window. Live coverage has been inconsistent at best.
– Teams tweet out results like they’re fulfilling a contract — and let’s not pretend all ten are deeply invested in long-term development.
For all the talk of equity and opportunity, a lot of the Academy’s energy still feels… packaged. Like it exists more to look progressive than to be transformative.
Put it this way: if a driver wins the F1 Academy title, what happens next?
Does she get a proper F3 seat? A major junior program slot? A real plan to move up the ladder?
Or just a fresh photoshoot and a polite repost?
The Talent Is There — But the Path Is Foggy
Make no mistake: some of these women can drive. Léna Bühler. Marta García. Doriane Pin, who stormed into the 2024 season like she owned the damn calendar. They’re not diversity hires. They’re competitors. They’ve earned it.
But the real test isn’t winning F1 Academy. It’s escaping it.
Because that’s where the system still breaks down.
Even now, there’s no clear, consistent transition pipeline into F3 or F2. The best graduates need extra funding, extra visibility, extra luck. And there’s still a whisper campaign in the paddock that F1 Academy is “its own thing” — not part of the real ladder.
That’s the danger.
That it becomes a polished side series. A feel-good story. A PR-safe corner of the sport that never truly connects to the cutthroat world of the grid.
What Progress Really Looks Like
Real progress means integration. Not just visibility.
It means Academy drivers testing F3 cars. Being in team briefings. Sitting in the sim next to the hotshot 17-year-olds from Italy and Denmark.
It means seeing a woman in a junior seat not as a statement — but as a threat. Someone who might outqualify your favorite on a wet Saturday in Budapest.
It means F1 teams putting real skin in the game, not just logos on race suits.
And it means stop treating “marketable” as the main metric. Let them be quiet. Let them be angry. Let them crash. Let them learn. Let them be drivers — not avatars of progress.
Final Lap
F1 Academy is not nothing. It’s not fake. It’s not cynical. It’s a genuine step in the right direction, run by people who believe in it.
But for it to matter long-term, it can’t just be a celebration. It has to be a launchpad.
And right now?
It still feels like we’re clapping on the runway —
while the tower hasn’t cleared anyone for takeoff.
