As the all-women racing league debuts on streaming, Boardroom breaks down F1 Academy’s business model, Red Bull’s team strategy, and what’s next for motorsport’s boldest experiment.
At first glance, the high-octane world of Formula 1 might seem like a boys’ club. But just below the surface, a growing revolution is unfolding, and its name is F1 Academy.
Launched in 2023, this all-women, single-seater racing series has quickly become one of the most strategic moves in the motorsport industry to create lasting gender equity on the track. Backed by F1 and helmed by former F2 and F3 team principal Susie Wolff, F1 Academy is more than a racing league — it’s a business accelerator, talent pipeline, and cultural force rolled into one.
Let’s break down F1 Academy’s business model, dive into the race weekend format, share insights from a Red Bull executive, and explore my early reactions to the new Netflix series.
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Netflix Gets on Track
Premiering this week, Netflix’s new docuseries F1: The Academy takes viewers behind the wheel of the 2024 season of the all-women racing series. The show captures the intensity of competition, the disparity in partnership opportunities, and the strategic complexity of building a women’s motorsport league from scratch. The series features in-depth profiles of drivers like Bianca Bustamante and Abbi Pulling, candid moments from team principals and league executives, and a broader examination of how F1 Academy is challenging the norms of a traditionally male-dominated sport.
The series came to life through a collaboration between Formula 1 and Reese Witherspoon’s media company, Hello Sunshine, with Netflix on board to bring it to a global audience. Following the massive success of Drive to Survive, the goal was clear: create something just as compelling that could help shape the narrative around women in motorsport, not as a sideshow, but as serious competitors. The docuseries is produced, shot, and edited by Hello Sunshine.
To celebrate the launch, Netflix and American Express hosted a high-end premiere night at The Fillmore Miami Beach during the Miami GP weekend. The event featured a screening of the first episode, a Q&A with key cast and creators, and a special live performance by Puerto Rican rapper Young Miko, whose energy perfectly matched the night’s vibe. I was lucky enough to attend the premiere in Miami, and I was hooked almost immediately. The show launches straight into race-day stakes, the pressure, and raw personalities, starting at the 2024 Miami Grand Prix. I think viewers will share the same sentiment I did, so fingers crossed we get an early season two order soon.
Before starting your Netflix binge, here’s a breakdown of how F1 Academy works.
The Business Model
F1 Academy is more than a racing series — it’s a fast-tracked development platform designed to propel young women into elite motorsport. Now in its third season, the grid has expanded from 15 to 17 full-time drivers plus a wild card, spread across six teams with deep roots in junior racing: ART Grand Prix, Campos Racing, MP Motorsport, PREMA Racing, Rodin Motorsport, and new entrant Hitech TGR. Each team fields three identical Formula 4-level cars, and all drivers must be women between the ages of 16 and 25 during their first season and may only compete in the series for a maximum of two seasons.
This structure is strategic. By limiting the age and duration of eligibility, F1 Academy encourages rapid development and upward mobility — a stark contrast to the often stagnant progress available to women in the broader motorsports ladder. It also creates a regular influx of new talent for brands, sponsors, and team partners to invest in.
Every Formula 1 team now supports a nominated driver, giving these rising stars a direct connection to the top of the sport. Additional sponsorship comes from lifestyle and consumer brands, including Puma, Charlotte Tilbury, Tommy Hilfiger, and new official partner TAG Heuer, as well as companies such as American Express. These partnerships are crucial in scaling the league’s visibility and funding while signaling broader industry investment in gender equity and youth development.
F1 Academy’s calendar is also a key part of its growth strategy. Each of its seven rounds takes place during an official F1 Grand Prix weekend, leveraging the energy, media infrastructure, and audience of motorsport’s biggest events. By aligning its calendar with F1, F1 Academy positions itself as a brand with momentum. Additionally, it provides a legitimacy boost that early women’s leagues in other sports often lacked.
The Race Weekend Breakdown
For these women drivers, many of whom are teenagers carving their path toward F3 and beyond, every lap counts. Track time isn’t just about race results — it’s about data, development, and building trust with engineers, sponsors, and future teams.
Each round unfolds across a typical Friday-to-Sunday format, according to the league’s official 2025 rules and regulations, starting with up to two free practice sessions (40 minutes each), followed by a 30-minute qualifying session. This results in two official races per weekend, each lasting up to 30 minutes.
Race 1 follows a reverse-grid format — back by popular demand this season — where the top eight drivers from qualifying start in reverse order. Drivers who qualified 9th through 18th keep their original spots. This format encourages overtaking and rewards racecraft under pressure. The top eight finishers score points on a sliding scale from 10 to 1, with a bonus point for the fastest lap (if within the top eight).
Race 2 uses each driver’s fastest lap from qualifying to set the grid. It follows a traditional F1-style points distribution, with 25 points awarded to the winner, 18 to second place, and so on, down to one point for 10th place. Pole position earns two points, and one point is awarded for fastest lap, provided the driver finishes in the top 10.
New to 2025, the wild card driver fielded by Hitech TGR rotates each session, giving promising regional talent a one-time shot to compete on their home turf. These drivers are eligible to earn points for both the Drivers’ and Teams’ Championships, which is another change from last season’s restrictions. Several drivers who debuted as wild cards last season, including Courtney Crone and Ella Lloyd, have now earned full-time seats, proving the initiative’s impact.
During the F1 Miami Grand Prix weekend, F1 Academy hosted its first U.S. race of the season, but the weather wasn’t on the league’s side. Severe weather led to the cancellation of the second race, resulting in the loss of valuable track time. Instead of accepting the loss, the league advocated for a solution. In a rare win for developmental racing, F1 Academy secured approval for an extra race during next month’s Canadian Grand Prix. Moves like this — demanding parity in opportunity and track exposure — are what truly push the needle forward in a sport where seat time often translates directly to career momentum.
Behind the scenes, these race weekends are a whirlwind of technical briefings, media appearances, and one-on-one development with engineers. The league’s infrastructure mirrors that of F1, providing drivers with a crash course in the lifestyle and pressure of elite motorsport. It’s not just about finding the next champion — it’s about preparing young women to succeed once they get there.
Inside Red Bull’s Strategy
For Red Bull, involvement in the F1 Academy isn’t just about ticking a diversity box; it’s about building infrastructure, long-term visibility, and a competitive edge from the ground up. Julia George, Red Bull’s Director of Partnerships, explained to Boardroom that as soon as the league launched, the company understood it couldn’t treat F1 Academy as a side project. It required a dedicated team, a clear strategy, and a long-term vision, just like any other major racing initiative.
George leads that vision behind the scenes, aligning the Red Bull brand with both short-term performance and long-term progress in women’s motorsport. That commitment means Red Bull isn’t simply sponsoring a driver or slapping a logo on a car; they’re treating F1 Academy like a core part of their motorsports program, with training, management, and integration into the broader Red Bull Racing ecosystem.
“They’re important to our team,” George said about Red Bull’s F1 Academy drivers. “We care, and we’re integrating them into what we do, and we’re valuing them just as we are with our [F1] team.”
Part of the strategy is about reshaping how brands approach investment in early-stage women’s sports. The traditional metrics — viewership, ROI, and direct conversions — may not always be applicable when the ecosystem is still in its infancy. George emphasized that companies need to take a broader, more meaningful approach when backing a league like F1 Academy.
“You can’t look at it and go, ‘Right, I’m in this for a huge ROI, and that’s why I’m doing it.’ It’s not [that]. You’re in it for the storytelling,” she said. “You can tell amazing stories that are potentially a lot stronger than what you could do with male counterparts.”
George pointed to the trajectory of women’s soccer as a model for what’s possible, noting how brands like Barclays transformed the commercial landscape for the sport with long-term, high-value partnerships.
“We’re only in Year 3,” she said of F1 Academy. “It’s a new sport. It’s super new. But we’re doing all the right things to get there.”
Looking ahead, Red Bull is pushing for increased visibility, better race scheduling, broader broadcast deals, and deeper investment in grassroots motorsport programs to sustain the talent pipeline. George pointed out that progress won’t come from a single solution; it requires multiple efforts working in tandem to create real change.
The Finish Line Is Just the Start
F1 Academy is still in its early laps, but it’s already redefining what the future of motorsport can — and should — look like. From the structure of its race weekends to its growing list of brand partners, and now with a Netflix spotlight pulling back the curtain for global audiences, the momentum is undeniable. F1 Academy isn’t just about representation; it’s about rewriting the rules to elevate women and expand what’s possible in motorsport.
There’s still a long way to go — more investment, more visibility, more grassroots development — but the groundwork is being laid with intention. And if the energy behind the league, its partners, and its drivers is any indication, F1 Academy isn’t just here to stay; it’s here to lead.
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