F1: The Academy is a Huge Step for Women in Sports

Photo Credits: Netflix

I spent my Wednesday morning binge watching the new Netflix racing documentary F1: The Academy which follows the F1 Academy 2024 Season. The show puts a strong effort into portraying these high level athletes as just that instead of portraying them as “women who do sports” which was a huge risk that I feel paid off with authenticity and respect for these young girls. There is really only one main criticism I am seeing online about this show which is the strong focus on only a few drivers throughout the season; Bianca Bustamante, Lia Block, and Abbi Pulling. They of course spend time with other drivers, Doriane Pin makes a strong showing as an opposing force to Abbi throughout her championship bid and the Al Quabasi sisters get a fair amount of screen time detailing the struggles of competing against family. The show doesn’t show many other racers throughout the season, whether it is down to contract disagreements or lack of interesting storyline, so the criticism is valid. However I would like to look deeper into why the show focused so heavily on Bianca and Lia’s stories in particular.

What is F1 Academy and why is it important?

We have to start with what even is F1 Academy (F1A) and why is female representation in high level athletics so important in the first place. Founded by ex-Williams driver and the last woman to have driven in a Formula One car, Susie Wolff, F1A is a spec series at the Formula 4 level with the purpose to bring exposure to young women’s careers as competitive racers. The series was founded in 2023 and allows each girl 2 years total in the sport to prove themselves and showcase their skills to potential next step teams in the Formula 3 level of racing. The champion of F1A also gets a fully funded seat in GB3 so they can continue to showcase their talents without worrying about the large financial aspect that kills many young racers careers, male or female.

This series is so important because exposure is one of the most measurable ways to get young children interested in these sorts of careers. Seeing a woman in a high level of this male dominated career helps inspire young girls into even being interested in cars and karting and hopefully inspire them to drive competitively and get to high levels of the career as well. This effect of representation has been studied and publicized by blogs like Psychology Today and specifically in Kevin Nadal’s post “Why Representation Matters and Why It’s Still Not Enough”. By seeing women in this sport, young girls hopefully get interested in grass roots karting and work their way up the pyramid to get to Formula One at some point.

Netflix announced in 2024 that they would produce a documentary series following the style of Drive To Survive that would focus on the 2024 F1A season. Producing a documentary about women in high level athletics was a huge risk, especially if they didn’t want to overly feminize and demean these young girls for a male audience that sports topics generally appease. They wanted to focus on making these young girls look like the high level athletes they are, not just women who do sports. This was a huge risk and can be seen by how they focused the seven episodes of the show on the champion, Abbi Pulling, and 2 drivers with either a compelling story or a large marketability factor.

Bianca Bustamante and Personal Marketability

Credit: Vogue Philippines

Bianca Bustamante is a 20 year old Filipina race car driver. She competed in Formula W in the 2022 season and the Formula 4 UAE championship in 2023 alongside the F1A 2023 season. She currently drives for Elite Motorsport in GB3 alongside the F1A 2024 champion, Abbi Pulling. Bianca states throughout the documentary and focuses a lot on how she has to be a marketable person to pay for her seat in these championships, focusing on the hardships and issues that come along with being both underrepresented in the sport and being underfunded.

It’s no secret that motorsports is expensive, you are likely to not get paid until you reach a really high level and have to pay, usually through sponsorships, to even have a chance at racing in most series. This focus on sponsorship is a huge reason Bianca has worked so hard to be as marketable of a driver as possible. She worked with Vogue Philippines and does sponsorships and brand deals on social media to promote herself and her personal brand.

F1: The Academy focused on her because of her marketability. She was ranked by SportsPro 150MM as the 64th most marketable athlete in any discipline for 2024. Using this they are able to use her a a marketability goldmine to producers and were able to create a fairly compelling narrative throughout the show of her struggles dealing with the need to be marketable but also with the desire to just go racing.

Photo Credits: Ken Block’s Facebook

Lia Block, Compelling Narratives, and Diversifying Audiences

Lia Block is an 18 year old American racing driver. She made her racing debut in 2021 at the Oregon Trail Rally and competed fulltime in the 2022 season. She then competed in the 2023 American Rally Association season in the Open 2WD class and became the youngest champion in the series’ history after winning 4 of the 5 races. She then went on to compete in the later half of the 2023 Extreme E season and 2023-24 Nitrocross series before joining F1A in 2024 with Art GP as a Williams Academy driver.

Her resume is extensive for her age, especially being the youngest Rally Champion in the series she competed in. She has a lot of fans from that series, or at least people that know her name. As a result, her being a large focus of F1: The Academy can be seen as a bid for gaining a more diverse audience through her Rally Cross fame. That, alongside the viewership brought in from fans of Ken Block who had a strong career in Rally before passing in a snowmobile accident in 2023.

By being able to diversify the audience the show is aimed at, more eyes can be put onto the show which is the whole point of F1A and the documentary. Getting representation and giving these young girls experience and getting eyeballs on their careers is the number one goal of F1A.

Her storyline is also one of the most compelling ones that Netflix focused on for the season. She is portrayed as wanting to take a chance and make a name for herself as Lia Block instead of daughter of Ken Block. Her narrative around the legacy that exists in motorsport families and her love for her dad and the sport he was a part of are hugely compelling and bring a strong voice of authenticity throughout the show.

She is still competing in the 2024 F1A championship and will hopefully be able to continue competing in this sport she so clearly loved.