F1 Academy

F1 Academy is the latest in a long line of female-only development championships, launched in 2023. 

It was brought forward by the FIA after the demise of W Series and unlike W Series, has the support of the FIA and its Women in Motorsport Commission.

The championship uses F4 cars with an uprated aero package. There are five independent teams, each running three drivers each. All five are major players in global junior single-seater competition. Drivers must have an appropriate license and be aged between 16 and 25 at the start of the year. They are recruited by the teams privately. Each driver has to bring about £150k in funds to compete, but this is considerably less than it costs to take part in the equivalent mixed F4 championship in their region. Each race seat is subsidised by the teams and the FIA. The championship's CEO is Susie Wolff.

As well as seven meetings with three races (reduced to two in 2024)  at each, F1 Academy drivers have access to 15 official test days throughout the year, giving them a large amount of track time for their investment. 

The aim of the championship is progression, so the winner each year has to move on. No-one may spend more than two seasons in the series.

Prema, one of the Academy teams, offered a Formula Regional Europe (FRECA) race seat to 2023 winner Marta Garcia. Teams who sign any F1 Academy driver finishing first, second or third into FRECA are allowed to run a fourth car for that driver.

2023 Results

1. Marta Garcia (Prema)

2. Lena Buhler (ART Grand Prix)

3. Hamda al-Qubaisi (MP Motorsport)

4. Nerea Marti (Campos)

5. Abbi Pulling (Rodin Carlin)

6. Amna al-Qubaisi (MP Motorsport)

7. Bianca Bustamante (Prema)

8. Jessica Edgar (Rodin Carlin)

9. Emely de Heus (MP Motorsport)

10. Lola Lovinfosse (Campos)

11. Carrie Schreiner (ART Grand Prix)

12. Chloe Grant (ART Grand Prix)

13. Megan Gilkes (Rodin Carlin)

14. Chloe Chong (Prema)

15. Maite Caceres (Campos)

2024

The second F1 Academy season increased its links with Formula 1. Each F1 team chose an Academy driver to support, meaning that two-thirds of the grid ran with F1-related liveries. The race weekends were run alongside seven F1 rounds. Instead of three races, two would be held.

An extra car for a wildcard driver from the country the race is held in was provided for some rounds.

The non-F1 affiliated cars attracted some high-profile sponsors, including Tommy Hilfiger and Charlotte Tilbury cosmetics.

There were six new full-time drivers, after Marta Garcia and Lena Buhler moved into FRECA, with Buhler ageing out of the competition. Megan Gilkes retired from racing and Chloe Chong, Maite Caceres and Chloe Grant went to race elsewhere.

2024 Results

1. Abbi Pulling (Rodin/Alpine) 

2. Doriane Pin (Prema/Mercedes)

3. Maya Weug (Prema/Ferrari)

4. Nerea Marti (Campos)

5. Hamda al-Qubaisi (MP Motorsport/Red Bull)

6. Chloe Chambers (Campos/Haas)

7. Bianca Bustamante (ART Grand Prix)

8. Lia Block (ART Grand Prix/Williams)

9. Carrie Schreiner (Campos/Sauber)

10. Tina Hausmann (Prema/Aston Martin)

11. Emely de Heus (MP Motorsport)

12. Aurelia Nobels (ART Grand Prix)

13. Jessica Edgar (Rodin)

14. Lola Lovinfosse (Rodin)

15. Amna al-Qubaisi (MP Motorsport/Racing Bulls)

Chloe Chambers

 

Chloe Chambers is a Chinese-born American single-seater driver who became the first woman to win a round of the Formula Regional Oceania series (formerly the Toyota Racing Series).

She started her senior career aged 16 in 2021, after eight years of karting, during which she won several regional titles. She joined the US F4 Championship having won the inaugural PMH “Powering Diversity” scholarship, driving for the Future Star team. Her best finish in F4 was a seventh place at Brainerd, although this was only her second top ten of the year. The first was a tenth place at Mid-Ohio in June. She was 26th in the championship. 

Using the same Ligier F4 car, she entered two rounds of the Eastern Pro 4 Challenge at Autobahn, finishing fourth and third. 

She was selected for the 2022 W Series championship, racing for the Jenner team. Her best circuit was Miami, where she was tenth, and she was 16th in the championship. On the track, she had managed a seventh place in the first Miami race of the season, but a penalty for overtaking during a safety car period dropped her to seventh. Her W Series connections led to an FIA F3 test organised by Bruno Michel, but nothing seems to have come of it and no times were published.

Using the same car as she had used for part of the W season, she entered the 2023 Formula Regional Oceania championship, driving for Giles Motorsport. It was not the most consistent of seasons, but she took advantage of a reversed grid at Taupo to secure her win, leading the entire race and only challenged by Kaleb Ngatoa. Her previous best result had been a fifth place at Highlands and she was usually in the lower reaches of the top ten. She was ninth in the championship. 

During the summer season, she moved into sportscars and raced in the Porsche Sprint Challenge in the USA. She did most of the season and was a front-runner in the Cayman class, finishing sixth in Pro-Am.

She was selected for the second season of the all-female F1 Academy in 2024, driving for the Campos team. From the beginning, she was among the leading drivers, and she won her first race at Barcelona after her first podium at the preceding round at Miami. She was sixth overall.

Sportscars were still part of her plans; she did some rounds of the Porsche Sprint Challenge in the States, winning the Pro-Am class in two of her four races. She also made a couple of guest appearances in the IMSA Mustang Challenge, with a best finish of seventh at Mid-Ohio.

In addition to this, she holds a world record for auto slalom, driving a production Porsche 718 Spyder. She is an ambassador for the Gift of Adoption Fund, being an adoptee herself.

(Image copyright Chloe Chambers)

Lena Buhler

 

Lena Buhler is a Swiss driver who races single-seaters, mainly in Europe.

She moved into cars from karting in 2020. Her first experience in senior motorsport was racing in Spanish Formula 4 for the Drivex School team. She was fifteenth in the championship and her best finishes were two fifth places at Aragon and Barcelona. These fifth places were among six top-ten finishes she achieved from 20 starts. She could be quick but was quite inconsistent at times. 

In 2021, she raced in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine, as part of the R-ace team. It was a tough year for her and she earned her best finish of the year, a 23rd place, in the last round at Monza.

During the off-season, she travelled to Arizona in the USA to take part in the W Series F4 tests and was invited back for its Barcelona F3 tests, but she was not offered a seat.

The R-ace connection continued in 2022, with three more FREC races and one finish, a 26th place in Monte Carlo. This followed a part-season in the FR Asian championship, which gave her a best finish of twelfth at Yas Marina. 

She stepped back down to F4 for 2023, entering the UAE championship. Not long after, she was the first driver announced for the FIA’s F1 Academy, an F4-level women-only series, driving for the ART GP team. Lena was one of the oldest drivers in the series, having only started karting at 17 and competing seriously in 2017. She was second in F1 Academy with two wins at Catalunya and Monza. As she was already 25, this would be her only F1 Academy season.

Her 2024 plans were initially unclear, although she became an affiliated driver with the Sauber F1 team as a result of her F1 Academy performances. Later, it was announced that she would be racing in FRECA alongside F1 Academy champion Marta Garcia, although driving for ART again. It was a challenging year and her best finish was 22nd at Paul Ricard. She pulled out of the championship after that.

(Image copyright formula1.com)