Latest news with #womeninracing
New York Times
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
F1 Academy's Netflix debut opens doors, but struggles to tell the series' full story
Cheers filled The Fillmore Miami Beach during the Miami Grand Prix weekend at different moments as the opening scenes of 'F1: The Academy' played on a large screen. Susie Wolff, the all-women racing series' managing director, is the first voice viewers hear in the docuseries produced by Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine company. 'Formula One is dominated by men, but that is about to change,' Wolff said. Advertisement F1 Academy's inaugural season took place in 2023, and as the years passed, the series began aligning more with F1 and the other junior categories. Since 2024, all 10 F1 teams have supported a driver, with their liveries painted across cars similar to those used in Formula Four. That year, the F1 Academy's updated calendar landed the series on F1 weekends, competing in places such as Miami, Singapore, and Abu Dhabi. Heading into this year, the rules changed, bringing back reversed grids (which are also used in Formula Two and Formula Three sprint races). But F1 Academy's connection to the pinnacle of motorsport ventured outside of the racing spectacle. Netflix's docuseries 'Drive to Survive' opened up F1 to a wider audience, offering a behind-the-scenes look at what was once considered an exclusive sport. When Wolff stepped up to helm F1 Academy, she was told by many people to try to find time in the Box to Box product, a different way to promote the all-women category to an F1 audience. Instead, she set out to find her own docuseries to promote F1 Academy alone. In came Hello Sunshine. The production company took the behind-the-scenes concept a step further with how 'F1: The Academy' was edited, the season tracking multiple storylines from various drivers over the course of seven episodes. As expected, Abbi Pulling is one of the main focuses, as she won the championship last season, and the likes of Lia Block and Bianca Bustamante took center stage too. Here are a few standout moments from the latest motorsport docuseries to hit Netflix's platform and a few tidbits we learned across the seven-episode season. 'We were not trying to create drama where there was no drama, and some drivers complained that they didn't have much screen time,' Wolff told The Athletic. 'But we only picked the best stories because we couldn't cover everyone. We just had to pick the stories that we felt would resonate the most with people.' Advertisement 'F1: The Academy' gives a similar feel to the early 'Drive to Survive' days, though the newer show leans even more into showing raw, emotional moments and including multiple outside perspectives. One of the strengths of 'F1: The Academy' was the behind-the-scenes content, whether it be on-camera interviews with key people connected to a driver and captured conversations or emotional moments in driver rooms, makeshift garages or away from the track. You're able to see friendships develop and the camaraderie among the competitors. It provides a more human element to the competitive category. One of the early stars of the first episode is Warren Hughes, McLaren's head of driver development. Concerns are highlighted early on about Bustamante's performance and striking the right balance between the marketing and media side of the motorsport, and the competition. Hughes doesn't censor his opinions despite the camera being nearby. And there was significant family involvement in this first season. Block's mother, Lucy, is featured in numerous interviews, and both Lucy and Lia open up about the late Ken Block. Chloe Chambers' family is also featured, with a bulk of the filming taking place during the 2024 Spanish Grand Prix weekend, where the American driver won the second race. Hello Sunshine spent a portion of the episode talking about the family's story, as all three children are adopted. And Pulling's father and grandfather are brought in later on, with Hello Sunshine capturing Pulling and her father visiting her grandfather, then following her father during the Qatar Grand Prix weekend when she won the title. Near the end of episode six, 'The Hardest Race Of My Life,' Pulling's interview aired on track television screens as she spoke about her father's sacrifices, and Hello Sunshine's cameras captured him watching, as tears glistened in his eyes. Her father narrated a montage of clips capturing Pulling's journey to this moment, including winning the championship and securing a fully funded seat for the GB3 championship for 2025. Advertisement While Hello Sunshine brought in more supporting characters and behind-the-scenes footage, it nailed the emotional aspect that can make 'Drive to Survive' powerful. These drivers are athletes, but it sometimes feels as if the human aspect of sport can become lost when the competition is on the line. Wolff more than delivered when she was told to try to get screentime on F1's docuseries path. There's room for improvement for Hello Sunshine's project, like any in the early stages, but it nailed what's expected in the documentary world — capturing the behind-the-scenes moments and the emotions. As 'F1: The Academy' progresses through each episode, the audience meets different drivers and sees how their seasons unfold. They learn early on that Pulling is a force to be reckoned with, and they watch how Block's confidence grows — how she's forming her own legacy while also being Ken Block's daughter. Bustamante's story, though, hit a different note. Her engagement with fans and social media became a focal point, framing it as a distraction from her job as a driver. As of June 17, the Filipino driver has 1.7 million followers on Instagram and 1.4 million on TikTok. Bustamante explained how these opportunities help fund her racing, a notoriously expensive sport. Hughes was incredibly blunt throughout the season, claiming that with the external stuff, 'it is quite clear there is an element of distraction.' 'I think some of what Bianca did off track (was) arranged herself. It was a lot,' Wolff said. 'Was it all necessary? I can't judge, (but) she has to fund the next stage of her racing, because she knew she wasn't going to win the championship. In the end, they're all individuals. And you could see Lia hated all that stuff. She was all about the racing. But for Bianca, she got energy from that, and that's okay, but we also couldn't shy away from the fact that she didn't perform on track. 'She made rookie errors that she shouldn't have done at her stage of her career. So I do think it was a quite honest portrayal of each driver. There wasn't, I felt, anything edited to make a driver look different to how they were in reality.' Bustamante's mistakes were put under a microscope throughout this season. She stalled at the start of a race during the Miami GP weekend, then crashed during practice on the Dutch GP weekend and damaged her chassis and was unable to participate in one of the races. She was also out of position on the starting grid for a race during the Singapore GP weekend (missing her grid box entirely), resulting in a stop-and-go penalty. She endured a few collisions during the season and made driver errors. Wolff described the missed box moment episode as 'a beginner's mistake,' and Hughes said to Wolff, 'I know. It's really disappointing. It's a psychological thing more than anything.' Wolff responded,' Oh, listen, I feel for her, but I also just get to the point where…' and shakes her head. It's not that mistakes are rare in F1 Academy. Numerous drivers are still early in their respective careers. But, to Wolff's point, Bustamante has been competing in single-seaters since 2022 — including in the W Series and the UAE F4 championships. She joined F1 Academy in 2023 and scored podium finishes and won two races that year, finishing seventh with 116 points in the inaugural season. But her performances didn't progress, as she finished 2024 with no wins and was seventh again with 73 points. Advertisement 'I love Bianca for the character she is,' Wolff said. 'Was the on-track performance good enough? No. And as much as I can sometimes come across as quite brutal, I need to be, because if I'm going to keep the respect of this paddock and the people who know how tough the sport is, I can't be pretending that all of these girls are good enough to go on to a career. And the truth is, if you're not racing at the front in F1 Academy, which is a segregated series, yeah, it will be tough to make your way in a sport. This sport is tough regardless of your gender. 'So it was trying to create an environment where we're giving the drivers the best chance of success, but not shy them away from just how tough motorsport is.' Bustamante discussed in the fifth episode how she was distracted during what is the closest to a home race, in Singapore, the pressure mounting. A few scenes later, as night fell on the city state, she was scrolling through comments on social media, snippets popping up. She opened up about how vulnerable she felt after a bad race and, reading those comments, how she wanted to 'disappear from the world.' 'I don't think people see quite how much you have to deal with,' Hughes said to her. 'There's a lot of attention on you.' 'All these F1 drivers, they didn't have this amount of spotlight,' Bustamante responded. 'No one knew who they were until they made it and broke through. And it really has taken a toll on my performance. I think massively. It's the biggest factor.' While the docuseries introduces viewers to a few of the F1 Academy drivers and how its racing format worked in 2024, there are glaring omissions, such as acknowledging the first season in 2023 and where the championship fits in the motorsports ladder. The title alone suggests that the category is closer to the pinnacle of motorsport than it actually is. F1 Academy began in 2023 with a fairly different schedule and promotional position from what we see today. Marta García won the inaugural championship after securing seven victories, 12 podium finishes, and five pole positions. During that first season, the all-women junior series did race at numerous F1 circuits, such as Monza and Circuit of the Americas, but also competed at tracks currently not on the calendar, like Valencia or Le Castellet. And the coverage was hardly as visible as it is today. The races weren't broadcast, but fans could follow along on social media or monitor the live timing on F1 Academy's website. Then on Mondays, a highlights video was published, and a 15-minute program came midweek. Now, it's a night-and-day difference, with investment from the F1 teams, broadcasters airing coverage in over 160 territories, and the Netflix cameras in tow. And with all the eyes now on this series, it's worth highlighting where it sits. F1 Academy competes in a car similar to an F4 car, and that is around where the series sits in the motorsport ladder. Formula Regional and GB3 are in-between steps en route to F3, and F1 Academy is above karting, sometimes being someone's first introduction to a clutch. Advertisement The junior category, though, faces intense pressure. 'It's going to sound very brutal,' Wolff said in the fourth episode, 'but if you can't cut it in F1 Academy, there's not going to be much of a career left in motorsport for you.' Pulling revealed during one episode that without the championship, she likely wouldn't have been able to continue her career. Amna Al Qubaisi opened up when she realized her single-seater career was over after being unable to perform in 2024. And Bustamante came under scrutiny as she navigated the media and the sport. As Wolff said at one point, 'If you can't get the basics right…' F1 Academy is a racing series. Full stop. It's not a vanity project; for some drivers, it's how they've saved and advanced their careers. However, that doesn't mean F1 Academy doesn't face its questions and criticisms, such as whether the car is the right vehicle to help prepare these women for subsequent championships. It's a project still in its early stages, and it has marketing around it that's akin to F1. Whether it'll be successful in the other half of its purpose — training these rising drivers so they can progress in their careers — will be determined in the next couple of years. F1 Academy is about giving the drivers 'the environment where we can really nurture their talent,' as Wolff said in the docuseries, and inspiring the next generation of women. 'Eventually, I want to see a female driver in Formula One.' 'F1: The Academy' had the ingredients, but it felt as if it was missing components to fully tell the complete story of the all-women racing series. The explanatory component, such as the framework of its racing, is missing and the early barriers to entry for female drivers are left largely untouched. Challenges do exist within motorsport, and it's more than just a lack of representation and visibility for women, which F1 Academy and this docuseries do help address by giving these drivers a platform. In a way, the Hello Sunshine production is a success from that standpoint. Advertisement Looking at it from a filming standpoint, the footage is clear and crisp, and the emotional moments captured make the audience buy into the series. Different elements could resonate with both casual and motorsport audiences, and the series has an inspirational and empowering feel. But for it to be the movement that Wolff wants, we need to start unpacking the complicated state of women in motorsport. Times are changing, and progress is being made. It does feel like positive change is happening, and I do feel this docuseries is successful from an exposure and storytelling standpoint. Top photo: Tim Whitby – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images)
CTV News
15-06-2025
- Automotive
- CTV News
All-female F1 Academy series hits the track in Montreal
The all-female racing series hit the track in Montreal for the first time, aiming to grow the sport and pave the way for women in Formula One.
BBC News
28-05-2025
- Automotive
- BBC News
Bath student racing driver aims for F1 Academy after spine injury
A university student is aiming to continue making progress in motorsport after returning to action just months after fracturing her of Bath student Stephanie Hobeika enjoyed a podium finish in her car-racing debut at Brands Hatch in April after making the step up from 22-year-old, who suffered the serious injury during a karting race in January, now has her sights set on competing in the global F1 Academy Championship, which aims to get more women into the top level of motorsport, next year."I think in a few years time I can see girls going much further in the sport," added Ms Hobeika. Ms Hobeika, who has been racing competitively since the age of 15, started karting as a child in Lebanon and Dubai."I think motorsport for women has come so far," she said. "When I started I was the only girl."A friend's dad knew I loved motorsport and that I also did painting as a hobby, so I did a painting for him in exchange for his old kart. I haven't stopped since."Before coming to the UK I had never driven in the wet before but now I've got used to it," she added. In January, she took part in the karting O-Plate race in Dubai where a kart behind her crashed and landed on top of her, fracturing her spine."I couldn't do a lot, I had to rest and go to the gym. It was really boring," she said."I went from going to the gym in the week, driving the track on Thursday and racing the rest of the week, to nothing."I was so bored and missed it so much I just wanted to back to racing so badly."When she had fully recovered Ms Hobeika moved from karting to car racing and secured third place in the Class C category of the 750 Motor Club Radical Club Challenge at Brands Hatch."I've been karting competitively for a few years now, including representing Bath in the British Universities Karting Championship, but I felt it was time to take the next step," said Ms Hobeika."The big goal for next year would be to race in F1 Academy, which is the all-female championship and raced on the same weekend as F1," she added. 'Perfect fit' Ms Hobeika is also programme manager for Team Bath Racing Electric, the Formula Student racing team based out of the university's faculty of engineering and design."It was Formula Student that brought me to Bath. I loved Bath and the university, so getting to work in motorsport with Formula Student too was the perfect fit."I want to go into motorsport management at some point and it has given me a different profile as I know what it is like to be a driver and run a team," she said.
Associated Press
28-05-2025
- Automotive
- Associated Press
Female drivers from F1 Academy hoping to reach a new audience with Netflix series
LONDON (AP) — Abbi Pulling never thought so many people would want to watch her chase her Formula 1 dream. Following on from 'Drive To Survive,' which sparked a boom in F1's audience through its mix of on-track action and behind-the-scenes insight, 'F1: The Academy' debuts on Netflix on Wednesday. It's set to bring unprecedented attention to a women's-only racing series. The documentary is 'a huge opportunity,' said Pulling, a 22-year-old British driver whose run to the 2024 title forms the backbone of the series. The series follows F1 Academy, a competition which can make or break careers and runs as a support series to F1 Grand Prix races. 'It's definitely changed my life and helped my career progress,' Pulling told The Associated Press. 'Little 8-year-old me that started karting definitely would never have imagined how it's all exploded and become so big.' A culture shift in auto racing Operating a women-only racing series has been controversial among some F1 fans. Mocking, even abusive, social media comments are part of the scenery for the series and its drivers. For the drivers, it offers funding and an opportunity to build a brand. Pulling, who's shown sharing a house with her manager, says she couldn't have afforded to keep racing if not for F1 Academy, or to continue for 2025 if not for winning the title. There are also subtle ways the atmosphere in F1 Academy is different. 'No friends on track' is the title of the opening episode of the docuseries, but the drivers are a close-knit group off the circuit. To an audience accustomed to the F1 feuds of 'Drive To Survive,' seeing drivers consoling each other after mistakes and organizing birthday parties is a little different. 'As a woman, it's like you go in there, you have your own safe space,' said Bianca Bustamante, a driver from the Philippines. F1 Academy is part of a wider culture shift in auto racing. In 2018, F1 abolished the role of 'grid girls' — models paid to stand in front of drivers' cars — and while auto racing remains male-dominated, teams increasingly employ more women in engineering and strategy roles. 'Five, 10 years ago ... the motorsport world, community, was very, very different,' Bustamante told AP. 'The only time girls were ever on the grid was if they were grid girls, or umbrella girls, or podium girls. All these things that we don't see nowadays because of the representation.' Aiming to make history No female driver has started an F1 world championship race for 49 years, or even entered qualifying since 1992, and the last woman to take part in an official F1 session was Susie Wolff in British Grand Prix practice in 2015. Wolff is now the managing director of F1 Academy. 'I've lived it. I know how tough it is,' Wolff told the AP. 'It's my job to set something up which gives young female drivers opportunity for the future, and from start to end I think we've made a huge amount of progress so far in a very short space of time.' F1 Academy uses modified Formula 4 cars, meaning that even the series' best drivers have multiple more steps to reach the F1 grid. While it may take years to develop a female driver through F1's ultra-competitive feeder series, Wolff says that's not the only goal. Helping a driver launch a sustainable long-term racing career in any series is a win for F1 Academy, Wolff argues, and so is encouraging more girls to start out in go-kart events or join the increasing numbers of female engineers in F1. 'It's much more welcoming now, compared to how it was when I started back in 2001,' says Alice Powell, who mentors girls in karting series, alongside being Pulling's manager and a development driver in the Formula E all-electric series. She says she's seeing more girls starting out at the grassroots in Britain, and they're having more success too. 'Female drivers are much more accepted. There are a lot more female drivers in the karting paddock, which is really nice to see. A lot more female mechanics are getting involved and helping the younger drivers as well.' The journey, not the destination It's not always easy to follow what F1 Academy winners do next. The unprecedented attention on F1 Academy compared to other development series means that moving up means leaving the spotlight — at least for now. Pulling's reward for winning the title was a fully-funded seat in the British-based GB3 series this year. That costs far more than Pulling could have paid and gives her a much faster car, but has a fraction of F1 Academy's audience. Bustamante, who uses her social media influencer skills to keep her career moving, has also raised the funds to join Pulling in GB3, while other ex-F1 Academy drivers like 2023 champion Marta Garcia have moved into sportscar racing. Drivers get a maximum two years in F1 Academy, with their costs heavily subsidized by F1. The vast costs of auto racing — which only increase as the cars get more expensive and powerful — mean that failure in F1 Academy could easily end a career. 'I don't shy away from the harsh realities of sport,' Wolff said. 'So failure will become part of the journey for many drivers who are not racing at the front.' ___ AP auto racing:
The Guardian
25-05-2025
- Automotive
- The Guardian
‘I lived my passion': how Christine Beckers and a group of intrepid female drivers blazed a trail in 1970s Monaco
Monaco's place in Formula One history has long since been established but two little-known races from the principality 51 years ago remain etched in the memory of those who took part, when women blazing a trail in the male-dominated motor racing world took to the track in Monte Carlo. Christine Beckers competed in the first Grand Prix Monte-Carlo Féminin on 26 May 1974 and now, at 81 is as irrepressibly enthused about racing as she was when she fell in love with the sport as a teenager. 'I lived my passion,' she says. 'There's no better way to live. Driving, I always felt that's what I like the most in life. That's where I'm happy. That's where I forget everything else. Only having the best time.' It is a philosophy she has long followed, determined not to be constrained by the attitude toward her gender of the time. 'I have to admit that I think it helped me,' she says. 'Because I was quite a nice girl, good looking, smiling, a bit crazy. So everybody was laughing at me but saying: 'Why not? Why not? She's so crazy, she could do something.'' She did. The Belgian has embraced the sport her entire life. Last year she became the oldest driver to have taken to the wheel of an F1 car, the 1985 Arrows A8 lent to her by her compatriot Thierry Boutsen, which she drove at Zolder. She also raced competitively at Spa-Francorchamps in the same model of Alfa Romeo she had previously driven 50 years before. After all this time she still vividly remembers the moment the sport captured her. 'I was 14 and in 1958 my father took my brother and me to Francorchamps to see the Formula One Grand Prix I have a picture of me in a racing car that day and you can see in my eyes that I really decided I want to do that,' she says. 'So I told everybody I was going to be a Formula One driver. I was just looking at the car and the sound of the motors and the atmosphere. I even liked the special oil they were using at that time and later on I wanted to do a perfume with it.' But she also admits it was far from straightforward to even begin to achieve the dream. 'I was very bad at learning to drive. Nobody wants to believe that, but I was very bad. All the family had to try together because there were no lessons at that time,' she recalls, with a hearty chuckle. 'Then at 18 I quit school because at mathematics I was awful. So my father was very angry with me. He was crazy about a girl saying she wanted to be a racing driver and not having good results at school. But I never doubted, I really was sure I was going to be a very good racing driver.' Her conversation as we discuss race in Monaco is peppered with the enthusiastic laughter of a competitor never happier than when discussing the sport they love. While the races she competed in at Monaco have previously been barely a footnote in racing history, the story of the 1974 and 1975 Ladies' Monte-Carlo Grands Prix are among those collected in a new book, 100 Years of Women: Motorsport & Monaco. The only women-specific support races at the Monaco GP were held before the main event and run over 15 laps. Being the 1970s the principality's paper ran a picture of the drivers with the headline 'Ces jolies filles demain sur le circuit pour le Premier Grand Prix Monte-Carlo Prix féminin' which roughly translates as 'These pretty girls will be on the circuit tomorrow for the First Ladies' Monte Carlo Grand Prix'. For the participants, who were racers as opposed to jolie filles, it was an important moment. 'All the girls were invited from everywhere in the world,' says Beckers. 'Monaco is always very special, it's like a dream. I knew that somebody who wins at Monaco is somebody very special. It was fantastic for me, even if it was a very small car and not many horsepower, I didn't mind, because not many people can say: 'I've been racing in Monaco.'' The car was but a moderately souped-up version of the road-going Renault 5 and, as the press noted at the time, it was 'comical' to have drivers at the top of their game in a ride designed for tootling around town. Beckers was a five-time Belgian women's national champion at this point and that year she would also set a record alongside her teammate Yvette Fontaine as the first all-women team to win their class at the Le Mans 24 Hours. At the time she was also racing under the mononym 'Christine' – a rather amateur attempt to avoid her parents finding out– and while she cared little for the cars, she loved the chance to race on the streets of Monte Carlo. 'When you are racing, you are not really interested in the others. You are interested in who you can beat,' she says. 'When you have your helmet on, you don't know if it's a girl or a man. You want to be first. So you are in a sort of other world. I knew the track, I've been walking on it; I was not afraid at all because the car was very slow. I was used to driving faster cars. But as it was in Monaco, it was not important.' Beckers attended the traditional pre-race reception with Prince Rainier and Princess Grace and notes, with no little glee, the actor Elizabeth Taylor, too. However, in terms of the race she remains aggrieved that her 'sort of friend' Marie-Claude Beaumont, with whom she had raced in rallies, proved ruthless. The pair were on the front row of the grid in 1974. Beckers believed they had made an agreement to enter the first corner together but says Beaumont cut across her and took the lead, from which there was no chance of a comeback. 'I had to follow her during the whole race and I finished second and that was awful,' she says. The American driver Paula Murphy was also somewhat disarmed but in her case by the formal reception. 'I kind of walk around the fringe of the room, and I'm gawking, and finally I sit down in a chair,' Murphy recalled in 1976. 'The butler came over with a big silver tray. So, I had a champagne and smoked a cigarette. I thought: 'Well, I've had my glass of champagne, and I've met them all.'' So she left. 'The next day Jackie Stewart got into the car and said: 'Princess Grace was worried about you last night and she wanted to know what happened to you.' Well, I thought it was a cocktail party – at least that's what the man at the hotel desk had interpreted to me – and it turned out it was a dinner, and I had left before dinner.' Beckers was invited to the race again in 1975 but was unable to compete because her car rolled in a pre-race practice. She went on to drive the Le Mans 24 four times, including in 1976 alongside Henri Pescarolo and Jean-Pierre Beltoise for the highly respected Inaltéra team and a year later for the same team she partnered with Lella Lombardi, still the only woman to score an F1 championship point, to take 11th in the vingt-quatre, which remains the highest finishing position for a female driver squad. She was the first woman to compete in the Paris-Dakar rally, drove the Daytona 24 Hours twice and competed at Daytona in Nascar. It has been an extraordinary journey and one she has no intention of ending any time soon. 'I'm so happy to live my dream. In Monaco I was realising every minute of it.I was saying to myself: 'Here I am.' The people who were saying I could never do it, well, you see, here I am.'
