F1 Academy: Everything to know about the 2024 season - driver line-up and schedule

Following the success of F1 Academy in 2023, the series will return for a 21-race campaign across seven weekends this year. The all-female championship is directed by former Williams test driver Susie Wolff, who aims to help young women progress towards the higher levels of motorsport. 

Marta Garcia won the inaugural F1 Academy championship and moved, alongside runner-up Lena Buhler, to the Formula Regional European Championship in 2024. 

The series has also seen a number of changes made, which includes the introduction of FIA superlicence points - something that is an entry requirement for F1. Drivers will also be limited to two seasons in F1 Academy in the hope that it will prevent their career from stagnating, while allowing new entries to join the grid. 

Teams will also be allowed wildcard entries, for example PREMA is set to run a fourth car which will feature a driver from the host region.

But arguably the most significant change is the one that has created a closer relationship between the series and F1.

All 10 F1 teams will support an F1 Academy driver in 2024 with the championship's remaining five drivers being backed by other partners, which includes Tommy Hilfiger for Campos Racing's Nera Marti and Charlotte Tilbury for Rodin Motorsport's Lola Lovinfosse. 

Here’s everything you need to know about the 2024 F1 Academy season: 

What is F1 Academy?

F1 Academy is a female-only single-seater championship which aims to increase the development of women drivers in motorsport between the ages of 16 and 25. It therefore tries to create an easier transition from karting onto the single-seater ladder, with the hope that female drivers can then use F1 Academy as a springboard to higher levels of competition like Formula 3 and beyond. 

The series was announced in November 2022 at a time when the future of W Series - a separate all-female, single-seater category - looked uncertain as the championship struggled financially and, shortly after, it entered administration before closing. 

This left F1 Academy as the sole all-female series in motor racing, and it received significant backing from F1 where ahead of its debut campaign, Wolff was appointed managing director. 

In 2024, F1 teams will be supporting a driver and have a car dressed in its livery. This is part of a bigger collaboration between the two series, because the all-female championship will run exclusively on F1 grand prix weekends in 2024 as part of the support races. 

This is different to 2023, where F1 Academy races were run as support events to the likes of FRECA, DTM and the World Endurance Championship. So, F1 Academy will be vastly different in 2024 as the series attempts to increase its standing within motorsport and get more young women progressing through the single-seater ladder. 

Marta Garcia, Léna Bühler, Lola Lovinfosse (Photo by: Prema Powerteam)

F1 Academy race weekend format

An F1 Academy weekend has three races but before them are two practice sessions of 40 minutes and two 15-minute qualifying sessions. The first qualifying is for race one of the weekend, with the second for race three as both last 30 minutes plus minutes plus a lap.

This is because race two is where the partially-reversed grid format is used, as the top eight qualifiers from qualifying one are flipped for the starting order. Considering this, and because it is a shorter session, less points are awarded for race two with the winner scoring 10, second getting eight and third on six, with the tally then going down by one until the final point position of eighth.

For race one and three, meanwhile, they use the same points system as F1 where the winner scores 25 points with 10th being the final point position. F1 Academy also offers a point for the fastest lap in a race - provided the driver finishes inside the point positions - while two points are awarded for a pole position. This all means that a maximum of 67 points is available on an F1 Academy weekend.

Session	Length
Free Practice 1	40 minutes
Free Practice 2	40 minutes
Qualifying 1	15 minutes
Qualifying 2	15 minutes
Race 1	30 minutes
Race 2	20 minutes
Race 3	30 minutes

Where is F1 Academy racing in 2024?

F1 Academy will continue to race across seven weekends in 2024, but five of the tracks will be new with only Barcelona and Zandvoort staying on the calendar.

The upcoming season will span three continents as Asia joins Europe and North America where the calendar features both street and traditional circuits. The 2024 campaign begins in Jeddah before visiting other new tracks like Miami, Marina Bay and Losail ahead of the season finale at Yas Marina.

This means the Red Bull Ring, Valencia, Monza, Paul Ricard and COTA have all been dropped from the F1 Academy calendar.

Round		Circuit	Date
1	R1	Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Saudi Arabia	7-9 March
	R2
	R3
2	R1	Miami International Autodrome, USA	3-5 May
	R2
	R3
3	R1	Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Spain	21-23 June
	R2
	R3
4	R1	Circuit Zandvoort, Netherlands	23-25 August
	R2
	R3
5	R1	Marina Bay Street Circuit, Singapore	20-22 September
	R2
	R3
6	R1	Losail International Circuit, Qatar	29 November - 1 December
	R2
	R3
7	R1	Yas Marina Circuit, UAE	6-8 December
	R2
	R3

Lia Block, ART Grand Prix with Williams Racing (Photo by: Williams)

Who is racing in F1 Academy in 2024? 

The grid for the 2024 F1 Academy season is now complete with nine drivers returning to the series. Abbi Pulling, Bianca Bustamante, Carrie Schreiner, Emely De Heus, Jessica Edgar, Lola Lovinfosse and Nerea Marti, as well as sisters Amna and Hamda Al Quabaisi are all set for their second year in F1 Academy.

This means six drivers are making their F1 Academy debut in 2024: Tina Hausmann, Lia Block, Doriane Pin, Chloe Chambers, Maya Weug and Aurelia Nobels.

All six drivers have come from various backgrounds ahead of their rookie season as Hausmann and Nobels both competed in the 2023 Italian F4 championship, while Block has mainly raced in America yet also drove for Carl Cox Motorsport in Extreme E. Pin has also driven at a high standard, as she was Daniil Kvyat's Prema team-mate for the 2023 World Endurance Championship where the pair came ninth in the LMP2 standings. 

Chambers finished 16th in the 2022 W Series standings ahead of a Formula Regional Oceania Championship drive in 2023, while Weug finished 17th in FRECA last year after coming 14th in the 2022 Italian F4 Championship.

Although it says the six drivers are being backed by other partners, some still belong to an F1 team's junior programme. For example, De Heus will be supported by the 'Red Bull' company and not 'Red Bull Racing' or 'RB' like the Al Qubaisi sisters - but that is just a technicality in accordance to the rules, so all three are still part of the Red Bull family. 

Likewise with Nobels, she is part of the Ferrari Driver Academy but Weug is listed as the one receiving support from the Italian manufacturer. Instead, Nobels is being supported by PUMA who already have a partnership with Ferrari anyway, so the close links remain. 

Teams	Driver	Country	Supporting team
Prema Racing	Tina Hausmann	Switzerland	Aston Martin
	Doriane Pin	France	Mercedes
	Maya Weug	Netherlands	Ferrari
MP Motorsport	Amna Al Qubaisi	United Arab Emirates	RB
	Hamda Al Qubaisi	United Arab Emirates	Red Bull Racing
	Emely de Heus	Netherlands	Red Bull
Rodin Motorsport	Abbi Pulling	United Kingdom	Alpine
	Jessica Edgar	United Kingdom	None
	Lola Lovinfosse	France	Charlotte Tilbury
ART Grand Prix	Bianca Bustamante	Philippines	McLaren
	Lia Block	United States	Williams
	Aurelia Nobels	Brazil	PUMA
Campos Racing	Carrie Schreiner	Germany	Sauber
	Chloe Chambers	United States	Haas
	Nerea Marti	Spain	Tommy Hilfiger

What happened in the 2023 F1 Academy season? 

Many drivers from the defunct W Series switched to F1 Academy - but not W Series champion Jamie Chadwick who moved to Indy NXT - and the grid of 15 was split into five teams - Campos Racing, MP Motorsport, ART Grand Prix, Rodin Carlin and Prema Racing - all with experience of racing in F2 or F3. 

Marta Garcia, Prema Racing (Photo by: F1 Academy Limited)

Once the grid was completed, F1 Academy debuted at the Red Bull Ring where it quickly emerged who the outstanding driver was. Garcia won two of the three races on the opening weekend which gave the Spaniard a championship lead that she never lost. 

The 23-year-old followed up her dominant weekend in Austria with another victory in Valencia a week later but went winless at the following round in Barcelona. However, it was her consistency that weekend that set her apart as Garcia stood on the podium in each race before another top three finish in Zandvoort, yet the next win still eluded her. 

Championship rivals Buhler and Hamda Al Qubaisi kept in touching distance as a result, but Garcia was soon back to winning ways taking victory in the opening race of the Monza weekend. 

The Prema driver then increased her championship lead after the penultimate weekend, as Garcia won two races at Circuit Paul Ricard which gave her a comfortable advantage going into the season finale. Garcia then wrapped up the championship win with a victory from pole for the opening race in Austin.