The 2021 season will be an important milestone for female participation in Formula 1: In its second year of existence, the W Series will be one of three formulas that will run motorsport’s top-class run, especially for women.
This means that 20 young women, including Brazilian Bruna Tomaselli, who debuted in W Seria in 2021, will have the chance to race in front of drivers such as Louise Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen and Charles LeClerc, and will all enjoy visibility Basic F1 categories – others are Formula 2 and Formula 3.
This is an important milestone because motorsport is a mixed sport, meaning nothing prevents women from racing in Formula 1, something that has happened in the past. Laila Lombardi was the last woman to compete in the race in the 1970s. Giovanna was the last woman to try to qualify Amati in the early 1990s, and most recently competed by Susie Wolfe, now a team leader in Formula E. Free practice session in 2014.
However, this is a mode in which the imbalance between the number of drivers of both genders has already started on a much larger scale, and this imbalance continues to increase as the categories are tapping. Historically, in addition to representing a very small number of female drivers, it is a difficult time to get sponsorship and fight against infamy, especially on the route from Formula Car to Formula 1, given that watching women race endlessly. Is more common. And rally.
The AW series wants to change in a way it has never been done before: to create a specifically female category as training and to give visibility to pilots. And racing together with F1 would not be a better way to achieve it.
“I have never seen F1 in my life”, the Brazilian driver revealed.
“First of all it is great to be in the Formula 1 world. I have never seen the race up close, I have never been able to go to Interlagos. I’ve never seen a Formula 1 in front of me, so for me it’s all going to be very new and very good, “says Bruna Tomaselli, who is from the cabbie, on the interiors of Santa Catarina, and who won the race in the year. In the championship of, W told the previous column of the series, which got canceled due to Kovid-19.
“People from the W series intend to do various activities together with F1, asking us to interview together with the drivers, which will give a very quiet visibility,” says the 23-year-old driver, who is in Brazil. Went to karting, then jumped into Formula Junior, Formula South American, and in the United States, in the F2000, raced in one of Indy’s original categories and uses a car compatible with Formula 4 in Europe. .
In the W Series, Tomaselli will race with a stronger car, the same one used by the F3 Regional. This is one of the goals of the category, which was born in 2019: to give women drivers the opportunity to ride F3 cars, in a championship in which budget concerns are not present like others. This is because the pilots are selected according to their performance in a series of tests, and according to their performance their vacancies are retained for the next year. In addition, all participants win cash prizes so that they can continue their careers, opening the door for them to come to the mixed championships with more experience.
And this is a medium-term goal for Tomaselli. “” My main objective in this first year is to guarantee my attendance next year, namely to be one of the first 12, but of course I go after the podium, always to move forward. I do not know the car as well as the girls who worked in the first season, but I am training a lot and I will do everything possible in the pre-season test to have a good first race. ‘
The trial will feature eight races in the end of April, in Valencia, Spain, and the season, all serving as Formula 1 openings. The championship starts with Paul GPard passing the French GP, followed by Austria (Red Bull Ring), Great Britain (Silverstone), Hungary (Hungerouring), Holland (Zandovort), USA (Austin) and Mexico (Hermanos Rodriguez).
All tracks will be new to Tomaselli. “I’m excited for the first race at Paul Ricard and also riding in Austin. But the entire calendar is very good, with history-making tracks in F1 and motorsport. I did not ride any of them, which is going to be an obstacle, but I am preparing a lot on the simulator. ‘
With several championships affected by the epidemic, the driver bets on a mix of tests with a Formula 3 car in Brazil, participation in the Imperio Patience Brazil (and became the first woman to win in the national competition), physical exertion in the gym and a lot of simulators, and she has already begun to feel the difference of being part of the running class in conjunction with F1. “” It’s definitely served to give us more visibility, and it should only grow when it actually starts. People are surprised that the W series, in its second year, managed to open eight stages for F1 ”, Tomaselli says.
Women are moving forward in motorsport
Jamie Chadwick was the champion of the first edition of the W Series and is a development driver for Williams
Picture: Williams / Disclosure
In fact, it is a sign of the times for the top motoring category, which seeks to expand its audience since the commercial rights passed primarily in the hands of Liberty Media. One of the first measures to make the game more align with society was to change the so-called Grid Girls, model, which placed the flag and number of pilots on the grid with consideration by children (mostly countries, cartists). Changing women’s perception regarding their participation in sports.
The International Automobile Federation is also working directly to promote female participation in sports, focusing on promoting training camps for women, women drivers in partnership with women in the motorsport commission, in addition to the creation of the FIA Girls on Track. Is concentrated. With Formula One teams. In the first year of this type of action, Ferrari hired driver Maya Veg to be part of their private academy. When he went through the evaluation of the blacksmith program, between the end of last year and the beginning of 2021, Maya received the best performance ever at the set of tests implemented by Ferrari for pilots at his academy, which Jules Bianchi , Formed Charles Lechler and Mick Schumacher for F1.
There is also a name in the AW series that already attracts attention: Jamie Chadwick, the champion of the first edition of the championship in 2019, is a Williams development driver and will race in the Extreme E, a class of electric SUV that debuted in April this year . It has a pair of pilots. The W Series Championship starts on 26 June.
