There are 22 drivers currently racing in Formula 1, that glitzy, globe-trotting sport at the centre of Brad Pitt‘s latest blockbuster. This season’s crop of F1 drivers hail from 15 different countries, range in age from 18 to 44, and they’re all men. But here’s the thing: they don’t need to be.

Only a few women have raced in F1 over the decades. The first was in 1958, when Italian racer Maria Teresa De Filippis piloted a Maserati 250F in the Belgian Grand Prix. She finished 10th after starting from 19th on the grid, a performance any F1 rookie today would be proud of. Another Italian driver, Maria Grazia ‘Lella’ Lombardi, became the first woman to score a point in F1, racing at the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix. Women like Lombardi and De Filippis, however, are few and far between. F1—like all motorsports, and indeed most top-tier pro sports—is an overwhelmingly male domain.

Hopefully not for much longer. The all-female F1 Academy racing series is designed to support women racers and help them climb the hyper-competitive ranks of professional motorsport—and perhaps into one of those 22 F1 seats. It’s working; earlier this year, the 2025 F1 Academy champion, Doriane Pin, was granted a test day by Mercedes in their F1 car, which she absolutely crushed, impressing the whole team.

For its 2026 season, the F1 Academy is growing yet again. The series will race across three continents, five countries, and six Formula 1 World Championship events, including right here at the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix. Drivers as young as 16 race Formula 4 cars, which look like shrunken-down versions of their Formula 1 counterparts. (But trust us, F4 cars are plenty quick enough to terrify any normal driver.)

As the series progresses, it’s attracting bigger crowds and new partnerships. Sephora just signed on to sponsor Spanish driver Natalia Granada, who joined the 2026 F1 Academy as a rookie. She’ll drive the Sephora car, operated by Prema Racing, with a livery inspired by Sephora’s signature black-and-white stripes.

“Racing professionally, as my sole job, is my passion and objective, and for sure F1 would be a dream, as would many other world-level championships,” Granada said.

“The ratio between males and females starting in motorsport has always gravitated very heavily to men,” she added. “Making it the whole way up the ladder and arriving to F1, the chances of that happening are very thin for any male driver, and even thinner for women.”

If you think raising a child to play pro soccer or hockey is expensive, you’re in for a shock. Running a Formula 4 car for a season of racing can cost around US$200,000, including travel, fuel, tires, and testing. Talented young racers either need to have parents with very, very deep pockets, significant sponsorship backing, or the full backing of a top racing team—preferably all three.

To make it this far up the motorsport ladder—a journey that began for Granada with go-karts when she was 11—she and her family have already had to sacrifice a lot. Though that’s not exactly how she sees it.

“I’m not sure sacrificed is the correct word, but me and my family have given up home, friends, family time, and other passions [to foster my racing career,]” Granada explained. “But they weren’t really a sacrifice, because it was what I and we wanted for my career.” It’s certainly not a typical teenage experience.

What a race day actually looks like for her is rather unglamorous. Wake up 15 minutes before breakfast. Get changed. Eat. Lay out the gear. Review notes with the team and race engineer. Warm up listening to music before jumping in the car. “I try to keep the mind quite clear,” she said, “don’t overthink and just get in the right zone.”

The opportunity to be part of the elite F1 Academy series has changed the trajectory of her motorsport ambitions.

“If it weren’t for this opportunity, I’m not sure where I’d be, but being able to drive in single seaters and learning from these cars will be very helpful in the future,” she said.

Her Sephora partnership is great for the sport and adds to a growing list of sponsorships and tie-ins, from brands including TAG Heuer, Hello Kitty, American Express, Lego, and Puma. Each F1 team also backs a driver on the F1 grid.

Getting sponsors isn’t the biggest challenge though, said Karin Fink, head of commercial operations for the F1 Academy. “The appetite from brands to engage with women’s sport and motorsport is stronger than ever,” Fink said.

The real challenge, she explained, is teaching brands how to value what they’re looking at. “The frameworks that the industry traditionally uses to evaluate return on investment haven’t fully caught up,” said Fink. “Part of our job is helping partners see the long‑term opportunity, not just in terms of audience growth, but in cultural impact and brand alignment.”

The cultural pull is real. The 2024 season became F1: The Academy on Netflix. Live race viewership on YouTube jumped 67 percent year over year. A study cited in the series’ 2025 year-in-review found 87 percent of girls surveyed would like to see more opportunities for girls in motorsport, and 52 percent could see themselves as a racing driver one day — following in the footsteps of De Filippis, Lombardi, Doriane Pin, and Natalia Granada.

Somewhere out there is a racer who will stand on the top step of the motorsport ladder, becoming the first woman to win the Formula 1 World Championship. The race is on.

Images courtesy of F1 Academy Ltd. / Parc Ferme Co.