The FIA will award superlicence points to the top five finishers in the all-female F1 Academy category this year.
In another change for the second running of the series this year, wildcard entries will be permitted from round two round.F1 Academy was launched last year to help promote young female racers up the motorsport ladder. It arrived at the same time as the collapse of another all-female championship, W Series.
For its second series, F1 Academy will exclusively run as support races during grand prix weekends. All 10 F1 teams will have branded presences in the category and have already revealed which drivers they will support.
All participants in the championship will have the chance to score up to 10 FIA superlicence points. This is five fewer than was awarded to the champion of W Series, which used more powerful cars.
Drivers must accumulate 40 FIA superlicence points over a maximum period of three years in order to qualify for promotion into F1. The distribution of points to F1 Academy drivers will be the same as that used in other junior single-seater series such as Indy Pro 2000 and Britain’s GB3 championship, as well as grand national-level NASCAR competition.
F1 Academy features five teams, each of which have previously fielded three cars each. However from this season Prema, last year’s champions, may enter an additional wildcard driver, who will be eligible to score points in the drivers’ championship.
The series’ managing director Susie Wolff believes the wildcard option “will promote regional talent, engage with local communities, and increase the talent pool in the regions in which we race which will be important for our long-term growth and ensure we are creating even more opportunities for women to get involved in our sport.”
A further update to F1 Academy’s rules means each driver many only participate in two seasons of the championship. This is being done to ensure there is sufficient room in the series to admit new drivers each season.
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FIA F1 superlience points distribution 2024
| Series | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Formula 2 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 30 | 20 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 |
| Indy Car * | 40 | 30 | 20 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Formula 3 | 30 | 25 | 20 | 15 | 12 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 2 |
| Formula E | 30 | 25 | 20 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| WEC (Hypercar only) | 30 | 24 | 20 | 16 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 |
| Formula Regional Europe Japanese Super Formula | 25 | 20 | 15 | 10 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Japanese Super GT500 IMSA Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) * | 20 | 16 | 12 | 10 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Formula Regional Middle East Formula Regional Americas Formula Regional Japan Formula Regional Oceania Formula Regional India | 18 | 14 | 12 | 10 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| DTM International Supercars Championship * NASCAR Cup * Indy [Nxt] * Euroformula Open Japanese Super Formula Lights | 15 | 12 | 10 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| National FIA Formula 4 Championships certified by the FIA** WEC LMGT3 | 12 | 10 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Asian/ELMS/IMSA Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| F1 Academy Indy Pro 2000 * GB3 Championship partnered by the BRDC NASCAR National * | 10 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| International GT3 Series | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| FIA karting World Championships in senior category | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| FIA karting Continental Championships in senior category FIA karting World Championships in junior category | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| FIA karting Continental Championships in junior category | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
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F1 Academy
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Jere (@jerejj)
5th February 2024, 12:42
Super Formula’s amount for winning the championship is surprisingly low despite being the world’s second-fastest circuit-racing series, while IndyCar seems to have received an increasement.
MichaelN
5th February 2024, 13:14
True, the short season and lack of circuits probably counts against Super Formula.
Indycar has gotten a slight increase in the lower positions, which seems fair given how close its seasons tend to be.
That said, this system is way too complex and should just be scrapped.
Jere (@jerejj)
5th February 2024, 14:10
MichaelN – True & I couldn’t agree more about scrapping the system altogether.
Michael – Good point.
notagrumpyfan
5th February 2024, 14:41
FIA should award 40pts for anyone who scraps this points system.
Michael
5th February 2024, 13:31
Super Formula Drivers also usually compete in Japanese Super GT500 and or WEC so those drivers can be eligible for a lot of points in a season. Whereas F2 drivers will struggle to compete elsewhere.
MattDS (@mattds)
5th February 2024, 21:30
Drivers can only accumulate points for two non-overlapping racing series in one calendar year. That means Super Formula drivers, if they choose to participate in multiple of these series, can only have one of these three series counting towards their super license points total.
Jeanrien (@jeanrien)
5th February 2024, 12:47
I like the no more than 2 seasons and the wild card, in line with the purpose of the serie to promote drivers and not become a serie where drivers stay for too long.
It would also be good if the champion was getting a seat in F3 or whatever series that can be the next step.
amped
5th February 2024, 13:03
Winning a second tier F4 (the drivers aren’t exactly front runners in real F4 series…) is not an achievement worthy of a F3 drive.
Quite frankly, a seat in FRECA is going to be challenging enough for them, based on previous experience of the W Series champion moving up to FREC. Most of the F1 Academy drivers already lost to Chadwick.
The quality and skill just isn’t there.
Asd
5th February 2024, 13:00
This is such an exercise in futility. And not only because barely anybody gets to F1 anyway.
This whole thing, instead of a silly point accumulation, should be a simple binary table of which accomplishment makes you eligible to be hired by an F1 team, like this:
Series 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th
Formula 2 yes yes yes yes no no no no no no
Indy Car * yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes no no
Formula 3 yes yes yes no no no no no no no
GT3 Series yes no no no no no no no no no
Etc.
Tristan
5th February 2024, 13:40
A generational talent that wins 2 years of F1 Academy, then top 5 in Formula 2 and there will be a female formula 1 driver on the grid!
That’s quite achievable! Only question is how long it will take to find them, and how long before investment in the pursuit is deemed unworthwhile.
This makes much more sense than W series.
amped
5th February 2024, 16:02
No driver that is in F1 Academy will skip Formula Regional and F3 to go straight to F2. Anyone that talented would not be touching the career graveyard that is F1 Academy. A playground for rich kids from the Emirates and America to roleplay as good drivers.
In reality, no F1 Academy driver is going to win a championship in any other series, not even F4. If they were capable of winning a real championship they would be.
Ludewig
6th February 2024, 12:35
It makes zero sense. Any female driver with the talent to be in F1 should not waste her time going up against drivers with little talent that won’t teach her much, but should go the same route as the men. For example, going from karting to F4, F3, F2 and then F1.
A driver that gets 10 points in F1 Academy twice is pretty much guaranteed to be too poor a driver to gain the extra points needed in the way more competitive series that reward 20 points or more.
Never in the history of sports have athletes benefited from competing against people with way less talent than them. It just leads to stagnation and them performing closer the low level of their peers, rather than having to push themselves to a higher level.
If anything, F1 Academy is a trap where athletes waste their talent for a paycheck. A bit like what Saudi Arabia is for football.
Alex
5th February 2024, 19:12
I feel like a 3 season limit would be better balanced than 2.
Season 1 – learn the ropes, make mistakes (it’s your first Formula), get up to speed
Season 2 – if you have the talent to make it to F1, you’re clearly quick by now – but cars, teammates, luck could still stop you from finish top 3 in the contest
There should be space for a season 3 so that a great driver who just doesn’t get the rub of the green in their first non-learning season gets 1 more chance to prove things
MattDS (@mattds)
5th February 2024, 21:54
Honestly I don’t understand this. Male drivers that get to F1 do not need the excessive luxury of 3 years in entry-level feeder series in which they have a “learning season” and “two seasons in case their first non-learning is unlucky”. I don’t even think there have been exceptions to this – at least not when it comes to drivers deserving their F1 seat.
Take Stroll as an example – he debuted in Italian F4. He WON that series.
Junior drivers debuting in entry-level feeder series should be up there immediately, from the go. They will be in fields where everyone is young and pretty much a rookie or second-year driver, F1 quality drivers will be at the front end of the field amongst peers. This counts double for F1 Academy: the field quality is not as good as a regular entry-level series to begin with, so any female driver with F1 level talent should definitely be winning races from her first season and place in the top two or three in the championship. There’s really no excuse for not doing so.
MXMXD (@mxmxd)
6th February 2024, 3:17
Guanyu Zhou did three years of FIA F3 Euro followed by 3 years of FIA F2 before getting into F1, and the best he finished in either of these six seasons is 3rd.
Ludewig
6th February 2024, 12:42
He is a pay driver though. Allegedly it took $30 million a year to bridge that gap between his not so stellar results and that F1 seat.
MattDS (@mattds)
6th February 2024, 13:37
@mxmxd we are talking about entry-level series, which means national F4 series. FIA F3 is two rungs up. F1 Academy would be at least half a rung down national F4 series.
Zhou is actually an excellent example illustrating my point: he finished second in his rookie Italian F4 season which was also his rookie season in single seaters. This just reinforces my idea that getting 3 seasons at F4 level (or even below) is an excessive luxury that no F1 grade talent should need.