In many ways, Rachel Robertson is a typical British teenager.
She spends her free time meeting her friends for lunch and attends college near her home in the south of England.
But in one specific aspect, it is totally different.
Your job is to sit behind the wheel of a sleek 174-horsepower race car, smelling the fuel in the air and listening to the squeal of the tires.
Robertson is one of the fastest drivers on the planet.
The 18-year-old is part of an elite group of women who are invading motorsport, dominated since its creation by two institutional powers: men and money.
Robertson competes in the F1 Academy, a women-only championship promoted by the Formula 1 Group. She wants to be the first woman in the last 50 years to qualify for Formula 1, the most popular annual motorsport tournament in the world.
Robertson started karting when he was 14 years old. She remembers usually being the only girl on the dance floor.
She competed with boys, who, they said, often found her a nuisance, not a serious competitor.
“A lot of the time they think ‘oh, it’s just a girl in front of me, I’m going to take her off the track’.”
These were the same boys who, according to Robertson, were often left with nothing to say when she sped across the finish line ahead of them.
“They don’t want to acknowledge that you’re actually better,” she says.
“If you lose to some of them, they say ‘that was good’. But if you win? They don’t say anything.”
Dutch pilot Esmee Kosterman tells the same story. Now 20 years old, she remembers competing against boys who didn’t always appreciate her presence.
“They always told me ‘it’s not for girls’ and ‘it’s not your sport’. They ridiculed it,” she says.
Kosterman’s passion for racing took shape at the age of six.
When she was a child, her mother took her from school to dance recitals, while her car-loving father took her brother to the local circuit.
“I told my parents ‘I don’t want to dance, I also want to go on the circuit, drive!”
“And that’s how it all started,” she recalls, laughing.
Robertson and Kosterman are among the racers competing this year in the F1 Academy for the first time. And they take advantage of guidance from their more experienced rivals.
This is Alba Larsen’s second year at the F1 Academy. Now, she occupies the coveted seat of the Italian giant Ferrari, the largest team in world motorsport.
A few years ago, the 17-year-old Danish girl would laugh if she was told where she would be today.
During the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns in 2020, most sports were canceled due to proximity rules.
A friend then invited Larsen to try karting. It was very different from the handball she was used to, but she says it lit a fire inside her.
Larsen clearly remembers the feeling of the little bumps on the asphalt, the smell of burning rubber and how her head would jerk back when she stepped on the gas.
“I didn’t drive very fast… but I just remember the adrenaline,” she says.
“You feel all these emotions. And I think that’s where you really fall in love with directing.”
Larsen says she never thought her passion could turn into a career, as she didn’t see women competing at the top level of professional motorsport.
And it is this issue that the F1 Academy tries to change.
Motorsport is one of the few sports in which men and women can compete on equal terms — theoretically.
But looking at the main categories, it is impossible to confirm this, as they are completely dominated by men with money.
The last woman to compete in Formula 1 was the Italian Lella Lombardi (1941-1992), in 1976. She was, to this day, the only one to score points in the category.
The most recent study indicates that only 10% of current motorsport drivers are women.
The highest percentage of female participation is in karting (13%), the category in which almost all professional drivers begin their careers, including Robertson, Kosterman and Larsen.
But, in the higher categories, the rate drops to 7%.
The F1 Academy was founded in 2023 as part of an ambitious plan to get women back on the Formula 1 grid and increase the number of women driving race cars.
Basically, it looks like a graduation program for young racers who have demonstrated their aptitude in the junior karting categories.
To develop your skills, the F1 Academy provides the kind of institutional support that has historically only been available to men: funding, training and, most importantly, track time.
In the motorsport pyramid, it is equivalent to Formula 4, the international racing category for individual beginners.
The drivers go through 14 races, in seven stages, for one to become F1 Academy champion, which is worth fully funded participation in the discipline of their choice.
But there is a catch. The few competitors who get this chance will probably only have two years in the gym to reach their milestone. And, if they can’t, they will need to continue fighting without all this support.
For Kosterman, the potential of losing his spot for that pivotal sophomore year is what keeps his focus sharp.
“There’s no time for mistakes. You want to defend your spot,” she says. “And if you don’t succeed, you know: next year, the position will no longer be yours.”
A relaxation of regulations announced last year meant that some drivers could be granted exemptions to continue for a third season if it was believed to be beneficial to their development.
F1 Academy does not escape critics.
Some of them — including four-time Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen — expressed their concerns about the cars used in the series. They would be too slow to allow women to properly ascend to F1.
Others question the purpose of separating women pilots into their own category.
Larsen says there is a lot of pressure on women.
“You can’t make too many mistakes or people will say ‘they’re women drivers, of course that’s going to happen’,” she said. “But it’s not like that. I can be aggressive too!”
Robertson is excited about the opportunity to learn from other women on the track after years of isolation.
“Neurologically, women are not the same as men. There are many differences and I am very curious to see what happens when all 18 of us are driving together”, she highlighted, before this year’s championship.
There are also financial pressures.
The cost of the initial kart alone can be more than US$10,000 (around R$52,500) and women often have difficulty seeking investment and sponsorship at the beginning of their careers. This factor is fundamental to being able to continue in the sport.
But, unlike other female-focused automotive projects of the past (such as the now-defunct W Series, 2019-2022), the F1 Academy appears to be here to stay for a long time.
The category has signed a partnership for several years with all 11 Formula 1 teams and has the support of the main sponsors.
Its most recent champion is Frenchwoman Doriane Pin, who took over this year as test driver for the Mercedes Formula 1 team.
The 2023 and 2024 champions (Spanish Marta García and British Abbi Pulling) are also on the track to this day, competing in regional and international championships.
“I remember when I was eight years old in primary school when they asked me ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?'” says Robertson.
“I said ‘Formula 1 driver’. It’s my guiding star.”
This text was originally published here.
