F1 Academy - to attract younger female drivers than W series
Discussion
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.formula...
And it's to run by Susie Wolff - who has a lot of very realistic and level headed things to say about it here: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.formula...
What do we think? Can this new approach actually yield results?
I like that the teams are to be operated by current F2/F3 team outfits, so there is a genuine connection and relationship potentially built between the drivers and the teams that could perhaps one day give them a seat.
I also like that each seat is subbed by F1 money to the tune of £150k, which removes the impossible cost barrier for most people that are already good enough to get a seat - they've clearly already self funded upto that point and if they're good enough, they'll find the extra £££ to make the next step happen.
I'm a bit confused that the minimum age is 16 years old, for W series it's 17 years old so it's hard to see how this can be a meaningful, additional step on the ladder ahead of W series or F3 from that perspective. This is supposed to be about getting very young girls to start kart racing early on in their life, are they really going to care or relate to seeing a bunch of 16 year olds on TV? I can't help but think part of this spectacle should be the televisation of junior age karting in addition to the older girls - have a ten minute kart race ahead of the main event or whatever, it would just seem to make more sense to show that young girls can drive competitively, have fun and then show in the main race that some such girls kept at it and are now in 'proper' race cars.
But overall Susie seems to have a better grasp and is more realistic about this needs to play out than W series has managed to date.
Your thoughts, gentlemen? (and ladies..
)
And it's to run by Susie Wolff - who has a lot of very realistic and level headed things to say about it here: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.formula...
What do we think? Can this new approach actually yield results?
I like that the teams are to be operated by current F2/F3 team outfits, so there is a genuine connection and relationship potentially built between the drivers and the teams that could perhaps one day give them a seat.
I also like that each seat is subbed by F1 money to the tune of £150k, which removes the impossible cost barrier for most people that are already good enough to get a seat - they've clearly already self funded upto that point and if they're good enough, they'll find the extra £££ to make the next step happen.
I'm a bit confused that the minimum age is 16 years old, for W series it's 17 years old so it's hard to see how this can be a meaningful, additional step on the ladder ahead of W series or F3 from that perspective. This is supposed to be about getting very young girls to start kart racing early on in their life, are they really going to care or relate to seeing a bunch of 16 year olds on TV? I can't help but think part of this spectacle should be the televisation of junior age karting in addition to the older girls - have a ten minute kart race ahead of the main event or whatever, it would just seem to make more sense to show that young girls can drive competitively, have fun and then show in the main race that some such girls kept at it and are now in 'proper' race cars.
But overall Susie seems to have a better grasp and is more realistic about this needs to play out than W series has managed to date.
Your thoughts, gentlemen? (and ladies..
)I think we are still in the early days of getting more girls into top level motorsport.
It’s easy to be a critic, but I am actually quite encouraged. There seem to be positive things happening, and there is definitely interest and support from the sport, media and sponsors.
W Series got the ball rolling and, I understand, may be down but not out.
The new F1 Academy, and Susie Wolff’s involvement, will maintain the momentum.
Jamie Chadwick seems to have a good deal, Stateside, but will have a tough first year.
Sophia Floersch is in F3, although not sure in how good a team.
And plenty of other females are putting in highly respectable performances elsewhere.
What all this does is give to young girls, their parents, and potential supporters, greater incentive to try and pursue a career, with realistic, reachable targets.
F1 may be the ultimate dream, but that’s an almost impossibly difficult and costly expectation for any driver - male or female.
But, getting into the preliminary formulae, is now much more realistic and can provide the platform to launch a meaningful career.
There are hurdles, and some outdated attitudes, that will need to be overcome, but other sports have faced these as they have sought to diversify.
It’s easy to be a critic, but I am actually quite encouraged. There seem to be positive things happening, and there is definitely interest and support from the sport, media and sponsors.
W Series got the ball rolling and, I understand, may be down but not out.
The new F1 Academy, and Susie Wolff’s involvement, will maintain the momentum.
Jamie Chadwick seems to have a good deal, Stateside, but will have a tough first year.
Sophia Floersch is in F3, although not sure in how good a team.
And plenty of other females are putting in highly respectable performances elsewhere.
What all this does is give to young girls, their parents, and potential supporters, greater incentive to try and pursue a career, with realistic, reachable targets.
F1 may be the ultimate dream, but that’s an almost impossibly difficult and costly expectation for any driver - male or female.
But, getting into the preliminary formulae, is now much more realistic and can provide the platform to launch a meaningful career.
There are hurdles, and some outdated attitudes, that will need to be overcome, but other sports have faced these as they have sought to diversify.
Castellet said:
I think we are still in the early days of getting more girls into top level motorsport.
It’s easy to be a critic, but I am actually quite encouraged. There seem to be positive things happening, and there is definitely interest and support from the sport, media and sponsors.
W Series got the ball rolling and, I understand, may be down but not out.
The new F1 Academy, and Susie Wolff’s involvement, will maintain the momentum.
Jamie Chadwick seems to have a good deal, Stateside, but will have a tough first year.
Sophia Floersch is in F3, although not sure in how good a team.
And plenty of other females are putting in highly respectable performances elsewhere.
What all this does is give to young girls, their parents, and potential supporters, greater incentive to try and pursue a career, with realistic, reachable targets.
F1 may be the ultimate dream, but that’s an almost impossibly difficult and costly expectation for any driver - male or female.
But, getting into the preliminary formulae, is now much more realistic and can provide the platform to launch a meaningful career.
There are hurdles, and some outdated attitudes, that will need to be overcome, but other sports have faced these as they have sought to diversify.
I agree with most of that. Especially the bit about bringing down the cost barrier, which is great - that in itself will open up the potential talent pool to a far greater extent than anything else could do.It’s easy to be a critic, but I am actually quite encouraged. There seem to be positive things happening, and there is definitely interest and support from the sport, media and sponsors.
W Series got the ball rolling and, I understand, may be down but not out.
The new F1 Academy, and Susie Wolff’s involvement, will maintain the momentum.
Jamie Chadwick seems to have a good deal, Stateside, but will have a tough first year.
Sophia Floersch is in F3, although not sure in how good a team.
And plenty of other females are putting in highly respectable performances elsewhere.
What all this does is give to young girls, their parents, and potential supporters, greater incentive to try and pursue a career, with realistic, reachable targets.
F1 may be the ultimate dream, but that’s an almost impossibly difficult and costly expectation for any driver - male or female.
But, getting into the preliminary formulae, is now much more realistic and can provide the platform to launch a meaningful career.
There are hurdles, and some outdated attitudes, that will need to be overcome, but other sports have faced these as they have sought to diversify.
I'm not so sure on the future of W Series and if anything, this new series - with more direct F1 attachment (the name and the fact the drivers will be under active F2/3 teams) might well make a sustained return of W series less likely. I'm also confused by the fact you need to be just one year younger than WS to enter the academy - if you have proven talent, why wait? And assuming you have not waited, why then sidestep to WS? The goal should be F3 and of course, having won races in the academy you will already have the attention of the F2/3 teams as you have just raced for one of them.
I'd also question, cautiously, the outdated attitudes bit. I'm sure there are people in F1 with very outdated attitudes - but as a sport, it's had female drivers since before the term 'sexism' was even established. I've always found that slightly bizarre, that in a sport that was truly built by men for men, in a time when there was no pressure or encouragement whatsoever to be more inclusive and diversify ideas, there were female racers and no one apparently batted an eyelid. The sport went to the place it's now criticised for not going to soon enough, and it did it with no PR goals or boxes to tick, it just happened and was accepted and didn't cause any significant media reaction or 'milestone moments' when it did. I suspect that even back then, when it was acceptable to have very frank and dismissive views about the likely abilities of each gender, the interest in seeing a woman race in F1 probably exceeded the shock of it.
I can see this series being a success in terms of viewer interest and of course I hope also, longer term, in getting women higher up the ladder in motorsport. The structure seems well thought through and the attachment of female talent to the feeder series teams could pay dividends - because they will all be taking a serious interest in identifying any female driver that could make a decent fist of F2/3 down the line - they will really pay proper attention and give them time because of course, these days fielding a very competitive female driver in F2/3 really would be great PR and would attract uniques sponsors and the media would be all over it. This series at very least puts potential female talent under the best industry eyes to be picked up and supported if they're good enough.
Girls generally arn't interested in motorsports.
If they are interested that requires 8 or so years of development before going "pro" and have money behind them and want to sacrifice almost every weekend and be competative then they get into gymnastics, or horse riding or skiing
Infact in a little perplexed as to why woman don't rule horseracing seeing as smaller and lighter is better.
In motorsport with a helmet and race suit on no-one cares if you have balls or boobs.
If they are interested that requires 8 or so years of development before going "pro" and have money behind them and want to sacrifice almost every weekend and be competative then they get into gymnastics, or horse riding or skiing
Infact in a little perplexed as to why woman don't rule horseracing seeing as smaller and lighter is better.
In motorsport with a helmet and race suit on no-one cares if you have balls or boobs.
vulture1 said:
Girls generally arn't interested in motorsports.
If they are interested that requires 8 or so years of development before going "pro" and have money behind them and want to sacrifice almost every weekend and be competative then they get into gymnastics, or horse riding or skiing
Infact in a little perplexed as to why woman don't rule horseracing seeing as smaller and lighter is better.
In motorsport with a helmet and race suit on no-one cares if you have balls or boobs.
Your closing sentiment is blunt but accurate. Show any F1 TP a female that is a better proposition for the team than any available male driver, and they would take the female driver. Even if the TP happened to secretly be a raving sexist, given the choice of a competitive advantage, they would take that advantage regardless. This is why the claims of a sexist stance in F1 irritate me - there is only one stance, performance - that trumps everything else. I was particularly disappointed in a BBC article I read earlier titled as "is F1 is 'finally' taking female drivers seriously".. When clearly the problem is not enough feed in females taking motorsport seriously enough to begin with. The truth is that many in F1 have shown keen interest in female drivers, or at least female racer attachment to their teams, because it's exciting and great PR because they know the world wants it to happen. there is no F1 resistance to female talent that I can see.If they are interested that requires 8 or so years of development before going "pro" and have money behind them and want to sacrifice almost every weekend and be competative then they get into gymnastics, or horse riding or skiing
Infact in a little perplexed as to why woman don't rule horseracing seeing as smaller and lighter is better.
In motorsport with a helmet and race suit on no-one cares if you have balls or boobs.
As for the 8 years of commitment to even get as far as this series, you're right. That obviously can't happen overnight but at least this new series is placing the women within the F1 feeder series scope of influence directly. That to me seems far more powerful than W series which bangs on about why/how it's helping but actually stands apart from the traditional route to F1. It's going to be very interesting to see how beneficial it is for this years female racers to be working with real F3 and F2 team outfits, these are teams that are obviously far more used to working with male drivers and I suspect that the female drivers with the potential will detect and rise to what the typical expectations from everyone in those teams are. That experience could be powerful - even if it's as simple as having one to one time with the teams TP and understanding how they select drivers, what they look for, what they expect. If any of them shine, the TP fielding them in this series will give them all the time in the world and the very best of advice and motivation.
Terminator X said:
It's a physical sport though so I doubt that the elite women can compete with the elite men or is that not the idea?
TX.
There are two theories. One is that they simply, generally at least, cannot develop the same core and key strengths to manage a car for upto two hours that is basically designed to be just about on the limit of what a male driver can sustain. The second is that they could but we don't see that because without themselves and others having a genuine 'gonna make it' belief in their ability to progress that far, they don't undergo the training or commitment in the various ways that are required.TX.
It's always next to impossible to identify if a current limitation is cause or effect based.
My personal suspicion is that women probably are back footed physically when it comes to the very, very top level of motorsport performance in F1. That is not to say that some women don't exist that could and probably already do have the physical strength to drive an F1 car competitively, but probably will at some point find their limit ahead of the very, very top level of male drivers in F1. It seems likely to me that a male driver will find it easier in less time to improve physically at that level than a female driver, and in doing so, will press home that advantage.
But I simply don't believe that there are no women on this this planet that could achieve the physical and talent levels of quite a few current male F1 drivers. It's just a bugger to find them if 99.999999% of them which could make the grade, have no interest in motorsport to start with!
Castellet said:
What are they supposed to do? All the key figures in F1 are male, that's not something an observational series like DTS can fix so why is DTS being criticised - although it's a BBC article and I just know that if they were making DTS, they would 'balance' it for the sake of balance, and the program would be compromised as a result. But they'd have balance at least. Forced balance...vulture1 said:
Terminator X said:
It's a physical sport though so I doubt that the elite women can compete with the elite men or is that not the idea?
TX.
I recon venus and Serena would be fine. But as pointed out below 99.999% of woman that could be physically able arnt interested.TX.
Men and women are built differently. But maybe a woman can have equivalent neck muscles, endurance, and appropriate strength in areas needed to be equal in motorsport. I'm all for it IF it is fair to women.
targarama said:
vulture1 said:
Terminator X said:
It's a physical sport though so I doubt that the elite women can compete with the elite men or is that not the idea?
TX.
I recon venus and Serena would be fine. But as pointed out below 99.999% of woman that could be physically able arnt interested.TX.
Men and women are built differently. But maybe a woman can have equivalent neck muscles, endurance, and appropriate strength in areas needed to be equal in motorsport. I'm all for it IF it is fair to women.
vulture1 said:
I recon venus and Serena would be fine. But as pointed out below 99.999% of woman that could be physically able arnt interested.
Trying not to sound rude with this but would they even fit? Venus is George Russel height and heavier, Serena is a more normal height for F1 but same weight as Venus so quite well built.
Simoncelli58 said:
Slightly tongue in cheek .
In this all inclusive time , what an opportunity for a enterprising 16 year old boy racer that now identifies as a girl .
That could cause some head spinning for the organisers
As we do live in a time where gender self identification is taken seriously... that kinda shows just how inappropriate it is on certain levels to introduce any new sporting series that segregates the sexes.In this all inclusive time , what an opportunity for a enterprising 16 year old boy racer that now identifies as a girl .
That could cause some head spinning for the organisers
I'm aware there are good reasons for F1 Academy and W Series choosing to do so - and it might even make a positive difference down the line. But the idea of segregation itself, whatever the justifications, simply isn't in-line with modern thinking and sentiments. So at some point it probably will bite the organisers and leave them in a slightly awkward/conflicting position.
It's arguably worse to create these new female only series' in the world of motorsport because traditionally there has never been segregation, even when sexism and segregation was commonplace in the world at large. In a way it's like spoiling a long standing unblemished record.
It's a tricky one!
TheDeuce said:
Simoncelli58 said:
Slightly tongue in cheek .
In this all inclusive time , what an opportunity for a enterprising 16 year old boy racer that now identifies as a girl .
That could cause some head spinning for the organisers
As we do live in a time where gender self identification is taken seriously... that kinda shows just how inappropriate it is on certain levels to introduce any new sporting series that segregates the sexes.In this all inclusive time , what an opportunity for a enterprising 16 year old boy racer that now identifies as a girl .
That could cause some head spinning for the organisers
I'm aware there are good reasons for F1 Academy and W Series choosing to do so - and it might even make a positive difference down the line. But the idea of segregation itself, whatever the justifications, simply isn't in-line with modern thinking and sentiments. So at some point it probably will bite the organisers and leave them in a slightly awkward/conflicting position.
It's arguably worse to create these new female only series' in the world of motorsport because traditionally there has never been segregation, even when sexism and segregation was commonplace in the world at large. In a way it's like spoiling a long standing unblemished record.
It's a tricky one!
A global sport that has no discrimination but wants to be seen as more inclusive , sets up a new series that specifically segregates . Tough message to send out to a modern all inclusive world .
Gassing Station | Formula 1 | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff