Lights go out on F1 Academy’s second season

Miami International Autodrome, Miami, Florida, May 3-5

Momentum for the all-female F1 Academy picked up the minute Susie Wolff took the helm as managing director. Being the last female driver to take part in a Formula 1 race weekend – in 2014, in practice at the British Grand Prix – she’s now implemented structural developments to prevent the budding feeder championship from falling to the same fate as W Series.

Increasing direct involvement with Formula 1 this year, each F1 team will support a driver in 2024’s F1 Academy and have its livery on that driver’s car.

In a recent milestone, it was announced that the top five of 2024 will earn superlicence points. Ten points will be awarded to the champion, seven to the runner-up, five to third, three for fourth and one for fifth. They have also introduced wild card entries with race promoters working with the series to identify young female drivers and offer them a wild card entry into a fourth Prema car for a race weekend.

Bianca Bustamante moved from Prema to ART Grand Prix and gained a whopping 300,000 social media followers as she became the first female to join McLaren’s Driver Development programme. Both Al Qubaisi sisters have scored drives under Red Bull Racing and Lia Block, daughter of late rally icon Ken Block, signed with the Williams driver programme. The inaugural champion Marta Garcia, who won seven out of 21 races in 2023, has graduated to Formula Regional European Championship for ’24 with Prema.

Starting and ending in the Middle East, the single-seater series will span three continents in its second season while the regulations state that drivers will now have a two-season limit.

With all these updates, F1 Academy is shaping up to be the promising feeder series that it was hoped to be. F1 fans could do worse than picking an Academy driver supported by their team and following the 2024 series.

MotoGP – Grand Prix of The Americas

Circuit of The Americas, Austin, Texas, April 13-14

In the third round, MotoGP travels back to fan-favourite COTA after last year’s action saw the championship leader Francesco Bagnaia DNF less than halfway into the race. Bagnaia will be searching for points to snag his third championship as a Ducati rider.

British Kart Championships – PFI

PF International, Brandon, Lincolnshire, April 19-21

PFI hosts the first event of the 2024 British Kart Championships calendar as the junior series aims to propel more talented young hopefuls further into motor sport. More than 500 drivers compete each year.

DTM – Motorsport Arena Oschersleben

Motorsport Arena Oschersleben, Börde, Germany, April 26-28

DTM is in the process of a rebuild with a firm focus on German fans. The series returns to its six standard German circuits, opening at this Saxony-Anhalt track – only venturing away from home twice in ’24: Austria and Netherlands.

Formula E – Monaco ePrix

Monaco, April 27

Nelson Piquet once said that racing at Monte Carlo was like riding a bike in your living room. The Gen3 car will power through the full length of the GP circuit – and sorry Nelson, in FE there’s plenty of overtaking here. Jaguar’s Nick Cassidy has made a solid start, as the electric series starts to heat up.

BTCC – Brands Hatch

Brands Hatch Indy, Kent, May 11-12

BTCC returns to Britain’s best-loved racing amphitheatre for Rounds 4, 5, and 6. Four-time champion Ashley Sutton sticks with NAPA Racing UK and its Ford Focus ST to defend his title. The series is back in Kent in October for the final three rounds of the season.

More events

Apr 18-21 WRC – Croatia Rally
Apr 26-28 British GT – Silverstone 500
May 3-5 Formula 1 – Miami Grand Prix