Photo: ADAC
F1 Academy, the new all-female Formula 4 series that has been launched by Formula 1 and will race for the first time next month, will run all its 2024 rounds on grands prix support bill.
The inaugural season consists of seven rounds, with only the Circuit of the Americas season finale running on the F1 support bill. Every other event supports a different series, and television coverage of F1 Academy has yet to be announced as there would be at least five different championships throughout the year responsible for producing live feeds.
The continuity of supporting F1, with the exact length of the calendar yet to be announced, should make TV production an easier task by working with the world championship.
“We haven’t yet started the [2023 F1 Academy] season on the track but I can confirm with you that next year, F1 Academy will be on the racing weekend with Formula 1,” said Stefano Domenicali, the CEO of F1, at this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix.
“Of course, not everywhere, but that will be part of the plan to promote F1 Academy… that’s something we are really keen [on], that hopefully that will be the right boost for the season to grow; of course we have just started.
“F1 took the leadership on that to try to do something, investing, believing that by creating attention to that project we can have hopefully as soon as we can, a girl, a woman, in F1. That’s our hope and that’s why we are really investing a lot.
“Susie Wolff will lead this plan, this programme and in the next couple of weeks we will announce the details of what is more than [on] the track because we need to start to create awareness.”
In a later statement, Domenicali affirmed that “next year, all F1 Academy races will be on the racing weekend with F1. That will be part of the plan to promote F1 Academy.”
F1 Academy’s managing director Susie Wolff said “there is lots of work to do” to get the series operating, with the first official pre-season test scheduled for April 11/12 at Barcelona and the first races at the Red Bull Ring on April 28/29.
By appearing more frequently on the F1 support bill, F1 Academy effectively takes the place of W Series, a Formula Regional championship that ran exclusively for female drivers and was an F1 support series in 2021 and ’22. Financial collapse led to not all of last year’s W Series races being run, and there has been no word since on if the series will race again in the future.