Women in F1

As the whole world is big on diversity recently it made me question even more why is there no female F1 drivers currently? The last time a women raced in Formula One was back in the 1970’s which was over 40 years ago…

I know there is the W series which got launched back in 2018… however in over the 70 years Formula One has been running there has been over 1000 grand prix’s, about 900 drivers who have raced in them. All but two were female (there was a few more female drivers but they did not complete the full grand prix weekend)

In 2014 Susie Wolff (Toto Wolff’s wife) took part in the 2014 British Grand Prix for Williams in FP1 she made history that year to be the first women to take part in F1 in over 20 years. In 2015 she retired from driving. Following this Susie went on to set up ‘ Dare to be different’ which launched in 2016. It is aimed specifically at female talent hoping to inspire the next generation and also to increase female participation throughout motorsport. In late 2018 ‘Dare to be different’ united with the FIA’s initiative ‘Girls on track’ this is to globally ensure that girls and also women of all ages are aware what opportunities are out there for them.

Ferrari Drivers Academy has recently signed up Maya Weug, this is a new turn for the Italian based team by signing their first ever female member. The 16 year old beat four other finalists to land the FDA spot.

She won the FIA Girls on Track in 2020, and is now going on to Formula Four this is the first step to the road to Formula One and hopefully there will be many girls who follow her and get inspired.

Here is a link for the girls on track to find out more about it: https://www.fia.com/thegirlsontrack

Personally I think this is such good news to hear, obviously this is a step in the right direction, as the world is forever adapting and sports are changing to be more diverse. Hopefully one day in the near future we will see more women in the sport.