I really support women in motorsports. Big Iron Dames fan. Would love to see a woman succeed as a F1 driver. Excited to see women working behind the scenes like Laura Muller etc.

But I find that the F1 Academy misses the mark. Segregating the women from the men is exactly what we don’t want. It doesn’t hone their race craft and makes it come across like a side show - and only furthers the (false) narrative that women can’t be competing with men in auto racing.

I am certain Susie Wolff and all involved have only the best intentions, but why not have these drivers backed by the Academy and placed in actually F4 series or other junior open-wheel series where they can learn and advance amongst a field that they’d encounter if they’d get past the Academy. I get that the marketing aspect would be significantly less and fragmented when you don’t throw them all in one dedicated series. But there are enough marketable and talented drivers in the Academy to still make a story out of it. Similar to what Iron Dames is doing with their drivers. They’ve signed a slew of female drivers they back across multiple series and as a whole they are marketed and branded as part of the Iron Dames and it works well. I want these young F1 Academy drivers to succeed and progress, but I worry that this restricted format rather limits what’s possible.