F1 Academy in the starting blocks

ALONGSIDE THE SAUDI ARABIAN GP IN JEDDAH, THIS WEEKEND ALSO SEES THE START OF THE SEASON FOR THE ALL-FEMALE SERIES. THE TWO SCUDERIA FERRARI DRIVER ACADEMY STUDENTS, MAYA WEUG AND AURELIA NOBELS ARE TAKING PART

This weekend marks the start of what is a significant step on the road to inclusivity in motorsport. The F1 Academy was created with the aim of providing a female-only stepping stone for young women in the world of motorsport. Now in its second season, it takes an important step in that all seven rounds run alongside Formula 1 Grands Prix. Following the opening round in Jeddah, they race in Miami, Barcelona, Zandvoort, Singapore, Lusail and Yas Marina.

Goals. The F1 Academy is not just a championship, in itself no mean feat, because its end game is to create a road to F1, by providing young women with a platform from which to progress their motorsport careers, supporting the most successful among them on the next steps of the ladder to Formula 1. Five teams each enter three cars, with a further 16th car for wildcard entries. The Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy is entering Maya Weug, who is racing in the Scuderia colours for the Prema team, with support from Santander, Puma and Richard Mille and Aurelia Nobels, who is racing in Puma colours with ART Grand Prix. The series uses cars based on Formula 4, a series which both girls raced in last year and so they have high hopes of doing well. However, Maya and Aurelia will have to deal with a new format and race on some tracks they’ve never seen before, but pre-season testing went well.

Programme. The fastest time in qualifying secures pole position for Race-1, while each driver’s second best time is used to set the grid for Race-2. The two races each last 30 minutes and points are allocated as per the Formula 1 system. In addition, two points are given for each pole position and one for the fastest race lap.

Thursday
14.05 local (12.05 CET) 40 minutes free practice
21.30 (19.30 CET) qualifying

Friday
15.10 (13.10 CET) Race-1

Saturday
15.05 (13.05 CET) Race-2

Fred Vasseur
Team Principal, Scuderia Ferrari

The F1 Academy was set up with the important aim of making motorsport more attractive to girls with its ultimate goal to have a woman racing in Formula 1 and I believe this project can incentivise more very young girls to start out racing in karts, changing the current imbalance between the number of boys and girls who take up the sport. Ferrari is therefore pleased to support this initiative that Liberty Media and Susie Wolff have put together and we are enthusiastic about our own involvement in this series, with the SF-24 livery replicated on Maya’s car, which also has support from our long time partners, Santander, Richard Mille and Puma. We are firm believers in the F1 Academy to the extent that our other female Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy student, Aurelia Nobels, is also competing as the standard bearer for Puma. This category is an invaluable stepping stone, with a very able and visionary promoter, a strong organisational structure and a very dynamic communications team, all key elements for a successful operation. On behalf of myself and everyone at Ferrari I wish everyone involved in the F1 Academy the best of luck for the start of the season and I look forward to celebrating great results from our girls.

Jock Clear
Head of Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy

Scuderia Ferrari is getting involved for the first time with the F1 Academy and we are very pleased to be able to do so with two girls from our Driver Academy. Maya Weug will be in the #64 car, running Ferrari livery while Aurelia Nobels is driving the number 22 car in the colours of our partner, Puma. The F1 Academy series will, this season for the first time, feature drivers from each of the F1 teams, sporting their team’s F1 livery. This represents a first in the junior formulae and suitably reflects the desire at Ferrari to promote female talent and nurture it as an integral part of the F1 team. The F1 Academy calendar offers both our girls an invaluable opportunity to race on Grand Prix circuits alongside the F1 schedule in a highly competitive and high profile series. This generation of girls has a huge responsibility to pave the way for future generations, as such they are truly pioneers, having to establish a pathway, create opportunity and raise awareness. The F1 Academy series offers them the unique platform from which to do that and we at the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy are thrilled to be part of it. Maya and Aurelia are fully committed and determined to win. Our job is to teach them to manage their expectations, to work well with their teams and to remain objective. The key to success for any athlete is to learn every day and to strive to improve all the time.