Dopo the success of Drive to survivedocuments that tells, season after season, the background of the Formula 1 championship, also The women’s championship of Motorsport launched in 2023, finds its voice on Netflix. F1: The Academy It is the series that, for seven episodes, accompanies the viewer behind the scenes of the 2024 season, following the ambitions and battles of the young pilots on the track and outside.
F1: The Academybright motors and women’s dreams
Susie Wolff is driving on this high speed tripformer pilot, current director of the F1 Academy and wife of Toto Wolff, CEO of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas team of Formula 1, which introduces each episode by contextualizing the project: Create a concrete platform to grow female talent in motorsport.
“It is not enough to be good – says Wolff in the series – you have to have the same opportunities as men’s colleagues”. A simple message, which however becomes revolutionary in a world where women on the track are still an exception.
Female motorsport, a still fragile reality
There F1 Academy was born as a response to a structural lack: in recent decades, No woman has ever raced in the Formula 1 Regine class. The last to attempt was Giovanna Amatiin the early 90s. Before her Lella Lombardiwhich in the seventies was the only one to conquer points in a race. In short, the gap is historical. And only now do they begin to put bricks to build a solid career to the pilots from a very young age.
Formula 1 opens the doors to women with “F1: The Academy”, the new Netflix documentary that follows the young drivers on their path to success (Getty)
F1: The Academydominates the human story
The document does not enter too much technical details, but shows well how complicated for these girls it is to face pressure, movements, constant comparison. The races are there, but they remain in the background. More than the smell of gasoline, the human story seems to dominate.
But the goal is clear: to involve the general public, even those who do not follow Formula 1. And that’s why Netflix and Hello Sunshine, the production house founded by Reese Witherspoon, focus on an emotional and accessible narrative.
Not only engines: the female boom in “male” sports
The success of F1: The Academy It fits into a wider trend. In recent years, women have been conquering increasingly relevant spaces in sports considered historically male. THEWomen’s footballfor example, has exploded medically with the 2019 and 2023 World Cup, coming to fill stadiums and conquer sponsors.
The women’s rugbyonce almost invisible niche, today it has its own world cup and live broadcasts. Also icycling He opened to the great races: the Tour de France femars was relaunched in 2022, after years of absence.
The race for equality in sport is all uphill
In all these cases, the model is the same: Create a professional structure that allows athletes to emerge and build an audience. Visibility, in this sense, is the real gasoline. For this, projects like F1: The Academy They probably have a value that goes beyond the story, becoming messages, political and cultural acts. They tell what it means to have talent in a context that historically excludes you.
And the real formula 1?
The big question, however, remains: When will it happen that a woman will enter Formula 1? The road is still long, but the bases begin to be there. There F1 Academy has already announced which from 2024 will run on a few weekends of Formula 1 Verasharing track and stage. Moreover, equality is not conquered with words, but with numbers and presences on the grid.
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