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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMaya Weug poses for a photo at an F1 Academy race in Zandvoort, Netherlands, Sunday, Aug. 23, 2026. (AP Photo\/Patrick Post) CORRECTED: location “at an F1 Academy race in Zandvoort” instead of during the World Rowing Championships in Znadvoort”, and the City field: Zandvoort instead of Amsterdam.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a good plan coming into this year and everything was ready to go and to focus on GT (sportscar racing),\u201d the 22-year-old told The Associated Press in a recent interview on the sidelines of the Dutch Grand Prix. \u201cBut then it suddenly all fell apart in March. Since then I\u2019ve just been standing, I wouldn\u2019t say on my own, but basically on my own.\u201d<\/p>\n
F1 Academy was launched in 2023 to give female drivers a platform to reach higher levels of competition in a sport that\u2019s always been dominated by men. But Weug\u2019s case highlights how even the academy\u2019s top drivers often struggle to bring in the sponsorship money they need to continue racing once they exit the two-year program.<\/p>\n
F1 Academy\u2019s managing director Susie Wolff told AP the series is challenging \u201cperceptions and stereotypes\u201d about women in motorsports even though it hasn\u2019t yet propelled its graduates to racing\u2019s top levels.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do acknowledge that it\u2019s frustrating to see that we haven\u2019t seen our champions go on to considerable success,\u201d she said, while noting that the series is only in its fourth season.<\/p>\n
Weug\u2019s turbulent year after leaving F1 Academy<\/p>\n
Weug had a rough landing this year after finishing F1 Academy runner-up in 2025. Despite backing from F1 Academy and Ferrari, her plan to move into GT sportscar racing failed for reasons she wouldn\u2019t specify but said were \u201cout of their control and my control.\u201d<\/p>\n
She only managed to arrange two races in a mostly amateur sportscar series in Belgium.<\/p>\n
Weug described her disappointment in a heartfelt social media post in August and appealed for teams and sponsors to get in touch.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I just expected that the results I put together over the past years would have counted for something,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n
Since then, things have started looking up: Earlier this month Weug had a one-off race in Germany in the Euroformula Open, a racing series with cars close in performance to Formula 3, but with a relatively small audience.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s not the only F1 Academy graduate struggling to finance her career.<\/p>\n
Marta Garc\u00eda, the inaugural F1 Academy champion in 2022, went nine months without racing this year until her return to the track last month in Belgium. The absence took a toll.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like \u2018who am I when I\u2019m not racing?\u2019 Trust me, that question is terrifying,\u201d she said in a video on Instagram. \u201cI started questioning everything, my value, my purpose. There were days where I didn\u2019t even know who I was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other ex-F1 Academy drivers have left motorsport, including for personal reasons, or dropped into mostly amateur events. Of the 16 drivers from the inaugural 2023 season, at least six do not appear to have raced cars competitively in 2026.<\/p>\n
Some are still in the spotlight. F1 Academy provides career-development funding to its champions.<\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s champion Doriane Pin was on a team challenging for a class win at the Le Mans 24-hour race, while 2024 winner Abbi Pulling tested for the Indy NXT series Monday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n
Costs have spiraled and female racers remain a small minority<\/p>\n
When F1 announced its new developmental series for women in 2022, CEO Stefano Domenicali sought to prepare up-and-coming drivers to move through junior ranks \u201chopefully to F2 and then the pinnacle of Formula 1.\u201d<\/p>\n
So far, no F1 Academy graduate has reached Formula 2, the level below F1 on the FIA racing ladder. No woman has taken part in an F1 world championship race in 50 years.<\/p>\n
One reason is spiraling costs. Another is that women are underrepresented at the grassroots, making up just 5-7 percent of youth entries in karting, the main entry route for children dreaming of F1. A season in top-level karting can cost $270,000, FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem told the AP this month.<\/p>\n
A year in F3 or F2 can run into the millions. With fewer seats available at each level up the ladder, drivers \u2014 and their sponsors or parents \u2014 are essentially bidding against each other for spots.<\/p>\n
People \u201care asking, \u2018Are you getting paid for it?\u2019 No. All the money we\u2019re finding is to actually be able to race and show yourself,\u201d Weug said. \u201cThat\u2019s always been something I\u2019ve been struggling with since I was 12.\u201d<\/p>\n
The FIA\u2019s efforts largely focus on opening up karting with sponsored places for female drivers. It says the field for a new World Cup event launched last year was 14% female, still low but double the typical level.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe invest in the grassroots, we invested in building up bridges, and we invest in making sure the journey is more affordable,\u201d Ben Sulayem told the AP. \u201cAccessibility comes from affordability.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wolff said F1 Academy\u2019s reach was driving demand for girls to take part and the series had more applicants than ever.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s many things that we\u2019re doing right,\u201d Wolff said. \u201cThere\u2019s clearly on the sporting side more we need to evaluate because it is not sustainable for our champions not to go on to some form of success.\u201d<\/p>\n
F1 Academy drivers are heavily subsidized<\/p>\n
F1 Academy uses modified Formula 4-level cars and enforces a maximum two seasons for drivers, meaning Weug had to move on after 2025, her second year.<\/p>\n
The academy is unusual because the series subsidizes drivers taking part, with backing from F1 ownership and its own sponsors. F1 Academy estimates it covers 82% of the cost, and Wolff estimated the value of a GB3 season like the one funded for former champion Pulling at around 700,000 euros ($797,000).<\/p>\n
\u201cI think one of the challenges we face is our name, F1 Academy,\u201d Wolff said. \u201cIt clearly gives the impression that we are getting our drivers ready for F1. And those with the knowledge in the sport, we are at F4 level, that means there is still F3 and F2, so this idea that F1 Academy is preparing you for F1 is also sometimes challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the Dutch Grand Prix last month at Zandvoort, Weug was on the sidelines at a track where she had a breakthrough home win last year. She wasn\u2019t driving but instead coaching her friend and former rival Alba Larsen, her replacement as the Ferrari-backed driver in F1 Academy. The academy\u2019s races benefit from the F1 spotlight by being held at the same tracks during the same weekends as Grand Prix races.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe most important is that people don\u2019t forget you,\u201d Weug said. \u201cThat you\u2019re on track is really important.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP Sports Writer Daniella Matar in Monza, Italy, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
\n See AP\u2019s full auto racing coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ZANDVOORT, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 Maya Weug seemed to be doing everything right. She was the first female member…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":912732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-912731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=912731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/912732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=912731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=912731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}