New docuseries set to highlight the female drivers of the F1 Academy

Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine media company will be creating a docuseries following the highs and lows of the female Formula One drivers of the F1 Academy. This partnering of F1 and Hello Sunshine will allow us to follow the lives of 15 extraordinary Formula One drivers in a similar format to the Netflix docuseries, Drive to Survive.

The F1 Academy is the home of Formula One racing for women, aimed to train and develop the drivers to compete at the highest level of competition. The show’s goal is to give fans an insight into the lives of these young women as they take on the extreme sport, with the logline reading, “The docuseries will highlight the drama of the races, as well as the personal stories of these incredible drivers and the teams around them, as they break barriers in one of the most demanding sports in the world.”

This is another concerted effort to boost the public standing of the sport, similar to how the Netflix series Drive to Survive has done, with that show now in its fifth season. This in-the-works series has yet to be given a name or find a home on any streaming or television channel though. Hello Sunshine’s head of unscripted Sara Rea will act as executive producer on the project with Isabelle Stewart executive producing on behalf of F1 Academy.

F1 Academy was only created last year and is in its inaugural season, so when better to start documenting than from the very beginning. The drivers are aged 16 to 25 and will compete in seven events scheduled throughout the year, with three races each coming to 21 races in total, finishing in Austin, Texas. In a statement reported in The Hollywood Reporter, Rea said,

“These drivers are dynamic, inspiring, and competitive, and Susie Wolff, their leader, is a force of nature in the best possible way,” Rea said in a statement. “With high stakes, adrenaline, and heart, F1 Academy is a rich landscape for compelling and powerful female stories.”

This series will help to highlight the sport’s determination to address the lack of gender diversity through the creation of the F1 Academy, as it has for so long been dominated solely by male drivers. Wolff added to the statement,

“F1 Academy is going to drive change in the motorsport industry as we create the best possible structure to find and nurture female talent both on and off the racetrack. We want to inspire women around the world to follow their dreams, and by partnering with Hello Sunshine, who are leaders in telling inspirational female stories, we will reach a global audience and empower the next generation of young women to break down barriers in motorsport and beyond.”

With the docuseries only just beginning and having no home as of yet, we cannot say when this will air, though undoubtedly we will have to wait until after this inaugural year is over to get the whole story.