Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix 2024 Propelled Women in Motorsports to the Forefront
MIAMI — The 2024 Miami Grand Prix hit its stride and, in its third year, was its biggest yet. But this year, F1 Academy, an all-women single-seater racing championship with seven races coinciding with the Formula 1 World Champion calendar, was at the forefront of the race weekend at the only U.S. race in Miami for the second stop of its racing championship.
This year’s race in Miami showcased how the series has rapidly evolved compared to last year’s inaugural season. Notably, the 10 Formula 1 teams have all committed to the developmental series and each selected a woman from the ages 16 to 25 with karting and other junior racing experience to represent them.
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Another significant change for this year is F1 Academy races are now available to watch in the U.S. on ESPN+ and Formula 1’s TV channel, just like Formula 1.
F1 Academy operates differently than Formula 1 does — 15 of the drivers have all been given an identical F4 car. Other overall F1 Academy partners account for the other five cars with Tommy Hilfiger, Charlotte Tilbury, Puma, Red Bull and American Express. To give drivers as much experience as possible, two 30-minute races are held over the seven race weekends. The goal is to aid the young women as they progress to higher levels of competitive racing such as Formula 3 and Formula 2 — and eventually Formula 1.
The top five winners from this year onward will receive FIA super license points — a critical step in becoming a Formula 1 driver.
But the program is overall looking to pique interest on and off the track, offer more career opportunities and guide young women to enter into the sport as race engineers, strategists, team principals and other traditionally men-filled positions. All of the F1 Academy team principals are women — Formula 1 itself has only had two in its nearly 75-year storied history, Monisha Kaltenborn and Claire Williams.
If there’s anyone who knows about being a woman in a very traditionally and exclusively male-dominated field, it’s celebrated former Scottish race driver and now F1 Academy’s managing director, Susie Wolff.
Abby Rakshit, a strategy consultant at McKinsey specializing in analyzing the business of tech and sports and founder of Racing Forces Media, has seen the evolution of F1 Academy races and its boom in popularity in person — having attended F1 Academy’s race in Austin, Texas, last year and this year’s Miami race.
“The F1 Academy’s team knows what is needed to rally support for the series among fans and sponsors,” explains Rakshit. “The palpable excitement among fans, including younger fans of the sport, was real. The series is making clear incremental step-ups every race in terms of excitement from fans and sponsors. Charlotte Tilbury’s make-up station inside F1 Academy hospitality brings goodwill from guests, athletes and fans for having the ingenuity of putting a hyper-feminine activation in an otherwise hyper-masculine heavy environment on race tracks.”
Abbi Pulling, BWT Alpine’s F1 Academy driver and member of Alpine’s academy program, was at the center of attention. Pulling returned to F1 Academy for her second year and has been on a dominating winning streak — she currently leads the championship, having won both the Miami races and the second race in Saudi Arabia. Pulling also has continued to make strides in motorsport as the first woman to win the British Formula 4 race.
“There were so many young fans coming to watch us and be in the paddock,” Pulling told WWD. “The important thing is that F1 Academy is normalizing [women drivers] and making it so that we’re all just racers and we’re all there to compete.”
Bianca Bustamante, McLaren’s F1 Academy driver and the first women driver for McLaren’s development program, is another rising star popular on social media with 1 million followers on Instagram and 1.4 million followers on TikTok. Bustamante placed second on the podium for Miami’s second race. Notably, she is the only driver on the grid from Asia, hailing from the Philippines.
Speaking to WWD in an interview in the McLaren paddock about the yet-to-change perceptions of being a woman athlete today, Bustamante said, “I’m very passionate about fashion and lifestyle and makeup. Before I get into the car, I always put on my lip gloss to feel empowered and feel good. It helps with my confidence.”
The road to success hasn’t always been easy for Bustamante and Pulling — one of the major barriers to getting into motor racing, regardless of gender, is a lack of funding. Both of the drivers cited the financial hardships that budding hopefuls face, no matter their skill set.
“I didn’t come from a wealthy family,” Bustamante said. “My upbringing was really tough and that itself made it astronomically difficult for me to get into the sport. And when I did get into it, I realized it was dominated by mostly by men. It is a fact that is harder for women drivers to get the support, to get the [financial] backing and get a chance to race in Europe and America.”
But with F1 Academy, the financial barriers are significantly lowered — especially when 10 Formula 1 teams and other sponsors pull their weight to help continue women in racing. This makes the involvement of Tommy Hilfiger, Charlotte Tilbury, Puma, Red Bull and American Express all the more crucial.
While Puma, Tommy Hilfiger and Charlotte Tilbury are the major fashion and beauty names that have given both money and support to the series, Amex similarly joined as a partner ahead of Miami — the move is a continuation of Amex’s dedicated partnership with Formula 1. The Wednesday before the Grand Prix weekend, Amex held an event with Wolff and Sky Sport’s Formula 1 reporter Natalie Pinkham in a panel to discuss women in sports and businesses.
“To kick off our global partnership with F1 Academy, we knew we wanted to show up powerfully to celebrate women on and off the track during Miami Race Week,” said Shiz Suzuki, vice president of global brand sponsorships and experiential marketing at American Express. “Our ‘A Celebration of Women with Drive’ event in Miami not only casted a spotlight on how we hope to inspire future generations of women in sport and business, but it also gave our card members an opportunity to experience our brand in a memorable way.”
Beyond the official F1 Academy partners, other brands with Formula 1 such as Liquid I.V., who announced their multiyear hydration partnership with the Miami Grand Prix, saw the opportunity to get involved with the sport because of Formula 1’s changing demographic and continue the company’s continued support of uplifting of women in sports — Liquid I.V. also partners with professional golfer Lily “Muni” He and Indy Nxt motorsports driver, Lindsay Brewer.
“We are a huge advocate of supporting female athletes,” Stacey Andrade-Wells, vice president of marketing at Liquid I.V., told WWD at the race. “[Formula 1] got on our radar especially because we noticed that the fandom of Formula 1 is growing amongst female audiences. We have a very big female consumer base today so it was a great opportunity for us to lean into that and bring Liquid I.V. to life to an audience that is becoming more and more female by the day.”
The race weekend was filled with much excitement to see the drivers. In-person and at the Miami International Autodrome, the F1 Academy garages were open to the public — unlike the Formula 1 paddock, which is restricted to team personnel, accredited media and other VIPs.
The area was swarmed by fans of all ages, genders and ethnicities — many parents took their younger children to see the F1 Academy garages. And overwhelmingly, the amount of younger children, girls and boys, waiting to take pictures in front of the cars and with the drivers was an astounding scene that speaks to just how quickly the tides have turned.
Alpine Formula 1’s team principal Bruno Famin and Zinedine Zidane, CSR Alpine ambassador, were both in person throughout the weekend to support Pulling and celebrate her two wins. And post-win in the McLaren paddock, Jahm Najafi, vice chairman of McLaren’s Racing board, congratulated Bustamante on her second place and welcomed her as part of the McLaren team.
The elevated status of the F1 Academy drivers as role models and athletes will only continue to skyrocket. Reese Witherspoons’ production company, Hello Sunshine announced during the race weekend that Netflix is picking up a docu-series, set to be released in 2025. The announcement follows Netflix’s wildly successful Formula 1 docu-drama, particularly in capturing an American audience, “Drive to Survive.”
“It’s important to show the behind the scenes of racing drivers and show that it’s not just driving and there’s so much more behind it,” Pulling said. “It shows you just how much of a conversation there is around [women in motorsports and F1 Academy]. Netflix wouldn’t have agreed to this deal if they didn’t see potential in it as something exciting.”
The support for the F1 Academy drivers remains vast. Kendall Jenner was in attendance throughout the weekend with Tommy Hilfiger. Many Formula 1 drivers’ partners, known as WAGs, also came to support the initiative. Kelly Piquet, Carmen Montero Mundt, Francisca “Kika” Cerqueira Gomes, Alexandra Saint Mleux and Rebecca Donaldson attended the grid walk with Charlotte Tilbury and were seen throughout the F1 Academy paddock. And on the podium, Justine Skye and Charlotte Tilbury awarded the winners of the two races their trophies.
“F1 Academy wasn’t overshadowed by Formula 1 — we had our own moment,” Pulling said.
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