'The dream is back': Can F1 Academy help women join GP grid?

Just turned 17, Grant passed her driving test (at the first attempt) only a couple of weeks ago, but has 10 solid years of racing experience behind her, having followed her older sister Lucy into karting at seven years old. Just consider that for a moment. Racers start so young, yet have such a wealth of knowledge before they are even officially classed as an adult.

Ninth in Britain’s GB4 series last year, Grant has now signed for ART Grand Prix, the team originally created by Nicolas Todt and current Ferrari F1 team principal Frédéric Vasseur. She will combine racing in F1 Academy with her studies at Loughborugh College, where she is completing a two-year Enhanced Diploma in Sporting Excellence (DiSE), a course provided by the Motorsport UK Academy. “Racing is genuinely all my life now and the only thing I can see myself doing,” she says with sincerity.

Grant joined the rest of her rivals in Paul Ricard for a couple of days’ testing last week, prior to which they had also logged kilometres in Barcelona. She held her own at Ricard, lapping mid-table, despite lacking experience at this level compared to some of her rivals. They include W Series veterans Marta Garcia at Prema and Nerea Marti at Campos. “I’m quite close to Jessica Edgar and Megan Gilkes at Rodin Carlin,” says Grant – both were rivals in GB4 last year. “I also know Chloe Chong from Prema, plus Abi Pulling.” The last named is an Alpine Academy member with W Series experience. Grant reports that all the racers have bonded, much as the W Series competitors did in previous seasons.

“It is learning for me, but I want good results to show what I’m capable of,” says Grant of her expectations. She is joined at ART by German Carrie Schreiner and Léna Bühler, the Swiss who was second fastest to Garcia on the second day at Ricard. Like Pulling, she’s affiliated to an F1 team: in her case, Sauber. “It’s really good to have Léna in the team, I can really look up to her, she’s really helpful and really good,” says Grant.

The big question, as always when it comes to promising women racers, is whether there is one out there yet who has the chops to make it to F1. Grant is sensible when she answers the obvious question on her ultimate ambition. “When I was younger, oh my goodness, I would have said Formula 1 to you every single day,” she says. “As you grow up in this sport and realise the true financials of it you begin to think F1 really is impossible for you. Now F1 has created this Academy, the dream has definitely come back. It’s giving us that financial opportunity now and hopefully I can get the backing to make it. I’ve just got to prove my talent. But the ultimate goal is to become a professional racing driver and make a living out of it.”

So is the climate improving for women who want to make their way in motor sport? We’re back to those trolls – although she stresses that within the sport acceptance from most men has improved. It’s some of those looking in from the outside that are the problem.

“When you are really young you don’t really notice much and I wasn’t really on social media then,” she says. “When it comes to other drivers you race against I’ve never had any issues with the guys, apart from one in kart racing. They don’t care what gender you are, once you put a helmet on you are just another driver.

“The people in the sport are used to it and have respect for you, they’re good. The only people who aren’t good are not involved. They are possibly jealous. They are either six or 60! Often really young boys who have not been educated or really old men who didn’t get the opportunity you have.”

What she says next is really disheartening. “Social media-wise, I actually think it has got worse from people who are not involved, who might be F1 fans, don’t know the other aspects of motor sport and the other routes you can go down. They don’t fully understand and haven’t been educated. I do feel for younger girls who are starting karting at the age that I did, because that horrible man Andrew Tate” – the notorious ‘influencer’ and misogynist much in the news at the moment – “has had a really big influence on the younger generation of the male population, unfortunately. There are lots of good younger boys out there, but I do think he’s had a massive negative influence that has made even some young kart drivers a bit sexist now, which is not great.

Her response? “You just have to get your head down, get the results, beat them and show them what you are capable of. Then they will shut up.”

For Grant, opportunity knocks. No more chatter – results are all that count as her F1 Academy adventure begins.