Ex Formula E driver Katherine Legge says female participation in motorsport is set to "explode" in these next 10 years and here’s why she’s not wrong. 

 

Firstly, the women’s only open-wheel racing series, W Series, finally have some good news after being forced to cancel their entire season due to the pandemic. W Series has now become an F1 support series, just like F2, which is considered to be the “road to F1”. This means that W Series now has the financial backing it needs to race and will be joining the F1 weekend at 8 occasions throughout the year. This will also be great for all the drivers as they will get to race in the same environment as F1 drivers and showcase their talent to all the F1 team bosses. 

 

Secondly, this year will see the start of a new racing series which will be focusing its efforts to saving the environment and various ecosystems, all while producing some entertaining racing. This off-road rally series is called Extreme E and apart from already having some world class drivers on board and trying to become the first ever racing series with a net-zero carbon footprint, they also have an interesting race format. The race weekend will be 2 days long, starting with qualifying sessions on Saturday and the races on Sunday. What interests me the most is that each team will consist of one male and one female driver who are each required to drive one lap each of the 2 lap races. The teams will determine which driver goes first to best suit their strategy and driver order selections are made confidentially, with competitors kept in the dark as to other teams’ choices until the cars reach the start-line. Contests between males and females will therefore be ensured. This also makes Extreme E the first racing series to enshrine a 50-50 gender split within its teams. 

 

Lastly, Ferrari has recently selected the first female member of its driver academy. Her name is Maya Weug and she’s only 16! The karting graduate will progress to F4 this year with backing from the greatest team in the history of F1 and all of tifosi and I’m looking forward to seeing her in Formula 1 in the next couple of years!