Formula Journal

What is Formula 1:

Formula 1 is the highest ranked international, single-seat racing series. 20 drivers compete in 24 races for the World Drivers Championship. There are 10 teams (2 drivers each team) which compete against each other for the Constructor’s Championship. Day or night, rain or dry the high-speed and high powered cars will drive on tracks across the world, from Abu Dhabi to Australia to the UK. The drivers drive at speeds up to 233mph in the pouring rain or sweltering heat all for the maximum amount of money for their team, in order to improve their car. F1 is a male dominated sport with very little women behind the scenes and no female racing drivers. 

Sexism in Formula 1

Formula 1 is seriously lacking in female talent on and off the track, 2025 is the year F1 welcomes the first female engineer, Laura Muller. Women are seriously over looked in the majority male sport. Christian Horner former Red Bull Team Principal, made all the important decision for the team. Christian Horners’ comment on girls having an interest in F1 was, ‘F1 is bringing in a lot of young girls because of all these great looking young drivers.’  Quite rightly he received a lot of backlash from this comment and has now contradicted himself in multiple interviews. Last year Christian Horner had allegations made against him by a female colleague, this will be taken to a civil court later this year.

Formula 1 Academy

F1 Academy is a championship founded by the Formula One Group solely for women. The purpose is to introduce young women to Formula 1. Women from 16-25 race in 18 identical single-seat cars across 7 countries around the world. In 2024, an additional Wild Card entry was introduced at select rounds to help strengthen the talent pool in the regions where F1 Academy races. It prioritises talented young drivers from each race region. 2025 is the 3^rd season of Formula 1 Academy, each race weekend includes 1 qualifying session and 2 races, one with a reverse order so teams and drivers can pick up maximum points. So far the previous F1 Academy champions have been Martia Garcia and Abbi Pulling. All the Formula 1 teams have supported a F1 Academy driver, therefore the driver is introduced to the teams driver programme, wears a race suit and drives a car with that teams design/sponsoring. On May 28th a Netflix series on last years season was released. The 7 part series called F1: The Academy is produced by Reese Witherspoon and it follows all the women battling it out on track.

Laura Muller

Laura Muller is the first female race engineer for Haas driver Esteban Ocon. Race engineer is a key role as the person who works closest to the drivers on the performance, set up and running of their car. It is their voice that you can hear talking to the drivers on TV.

Susie Wolff

Susie Wolff is a former Scottish racing driver and managing director of F1 Academy. At the 2014 British Grand Prix Susie became one of the first female drivers to race in a grand prix, one year later she retired from racing and in 2016 she launched a programme to include more women in motorsport. In 2017 she was awarded a MBE for her contribution to women in motorsport. In March 2023 Susie was appointed managing director of F1 Academy.

Naomi Schiff

Naomi Schiff is a Rwandan and Belgium TV presenter and former racing driver.  She has raced in Formula Volkswagen, Rally cars and Supercars. Also she has competed in endurance races where the car is driven for 24 hours. She put her helmet down in 2021 and since then she has become an F1 Sky Sports presenter where she regularly interviews drivers and commentates on races.

Bernie Collins

Bernie Collins is an accomplished race strategist. She was responsible for the preparation, implantation and analysis of race strategies. During her time at Queen’s University, in Ireland she took part in a competition building an F1 car. That and her degree in Engineering helped her land a job at McLaren. After McLaren she went to Force India which later became, Aston Martin F1 team, where she was Head of Race Strategy. After retiring from race strategy she became a Sky Sports F1 presenter too and she’s commonly seen at the races and on TV talking through the different race strategies.

Thank you for reading the many different career paths there are in Formula 1 for women. I, myself am very interested in F1 journalism/presenting and I look up to all of these women.

Image: F1 Academy