The all-female F1 Academy series is set to begin its inaugural season in April, but only the last of the seven rounds is being held at an F1 Grand Prix, in Austin, Texas in October; the 2024 campaign will see all races held at F1 weekends
Friday 31 March 2023 06:26, UK
The F1 Academy series will be held exclusively at Formula 1 race weekends in 2024, F1 president Stefano Domenicali has confirmed.
The all-female series is set to begin its inaugural season in April, but only the last of the seven rounds is being held at an F1 Grand Prix, in Austin, Texas in October.
The announcement follows confirmation earlier in March that the category will be led by Susie Wolff, with the former Williams development driver having been named managing director.
"I can confirm that next year the F1 Academy will be on the racing weekend of F1, of course not everywhere, but that will be part of the plan to promote the F1 Academy," Domenicali told Sky Sports F1 on Friday at the Australian Grand Prix.
"That's really something that we are really keen to make sure will be hopefully the right booster for the season to grow.
"F1 took the leadership on this project to try to do something, investing, believing that by bringing attention to the project, we can really hopefully as soon as we can, have a girl, a woman in F1.
"That's what I hope and that's why we're investing a lot."
The series is for younger drivers and will feature five teams - ART, Campos, Carlin, MP Motorsport and Prema - each entering three cars to make up a 15-strong grid.
The 15 competing cars will take to the track for the first time on April 11-12 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for an official test session, with the season getting under way on April 28-29 in Spielberg, Austria.
The new series has been created to maximise the opportunity and potential of young female drivers to reach the highest level in motorsport.
"It's great that the F1 Academy will be racing during F1 events next year and this highlights again the importance of the series to Stefano and the team at F1," Wolff added.
"We are looking forward to getting the season under way in a few weeks' time and while there is lots of work to do, we are forming a clear plan to build a project that really works for the future of female talent in motorsport."
