Netflix’s ‘F1: The Academy’ Review

Within the opening episode of F1: The Academy, Netflix’s glossy new motorsport docuseries, Susie Wolff units the tone early-on. “This isn’t a second,” the managing director of the all-female F1 Academy says with conviction. “It’s a motion.” Wolff repeats the road a number of occasions all through the present, and it’s a sentiment that ought to really feel empowering. However because the episodes unfold, it turns into clear that this mission assertion is telling about what lies beneath the aesthetic polish and the large names hooked up to the manufacturing (Reese Witherspoon’s Good day Sunshine is on the helm).

F1: The Academy doesn’t fairly know how you can inform its personal story. It desires viewers to imagine that it’s deeply invested within the journey of fan favourite Bianca Bustamante, Mercedes ace Doriane Pin, and the season champion Abbi Pulling, however these athletes usually really feel like autos used to place the game in entrance of younger ladies and ladies looking Netflix, who could take an curiosity in racing on account of watching the present. After all, this isn’t a foul factor, however consequently, F1: The Academy misses the chance to supply a pointy, illuminating take a look at what’s really holding feminine drivers again.

To be clear, there’s lots to love right here. The collection is superbly shot, emotionally resonant, and provides a platform to younger ladies in racing whose tales in any other case wouldn’t be informed. We get compelling, intimate moments – like Pulling’s quietly touching relationship along with her father, and the Al Qubaisi sisters navigating harm, on-track struggles, and stress from a demanding mother or father. There’s little doubt that these are essential tales, and it’s refreshing to see them spotlighted with care.

However F1: The Academy not often explains itself. From the title alone, one would possibly assume that the collection is a direct feeder into Formulation 1, particularly on condition that the goal demographic is an informal motorsport viewer with restricted prior data. We’re continuously informed that there are obstacles retaining ladies from higher echelons of motorsport, however the issues are by no means clearly articulated to us. Maybe that’s as a result of feminine drivers have lengthy struggled to realize visibility, and F1: The Academy helps clear up that challenge, which places us in fairly ‘meta’ territory. In the event you don’t see ladies racing, how are you presupposed to imagine you might be one? In that method, the present’s mere existence is a step ahead.

Doriane Pin, Abbi Pulling and Maya Weug

Picture by: Clive Mason/Getty Photos

However a step ahead nonetheless requires course, and at occasions, the collection appears to drag away from its personal potential with a view to serve a slick narrative. If the goal of the present is solely to place a colourful, shiny billboard for racing in entrance of potential followers (and younger ladies who could pursue a profession in driving, engineering or mechanics), then I’ve little doubt its function will probably be achieved. We don’t want a doom and gloom collection about how tough it’s to be a girl in a male-dominated subject, however that doesn’t imply the present couldn’t have supplied viewers correct context.

When Wolff says, “In the event you can’t minimize it in F1 Academy, there received’t be a lot of a motorsport profession left for you,” it lands with a thud. Not as a result of it’s unfaithful, however as a result of the collection hasn’t finished the work to assist the viewers perceive what “slicing it” even means. The place does F1 Academy sit on the ladder to F1? How do these drivers stack up towards their male counterparts who’re additionally climbing the ranks? What are the pathways past the Academy? With out an evidence of that framework, the stakes really feel nebulous.

Drivers like Pulling and Pin are framed because the hard-nosed, critical abilities. And they’re. Watching Pulling practice and carry out is genuinely thrilling, and Pin’s development over the season is a testomony to what time, funding, and alternative can do for girls in sport. In the meantime, Lia Block, a newcomer to single seaters, will get an important edit, bolstered by a poignant thread surrounding the legacy of her late father, rally legend Ken Block. American up-and-comer Chloe Chambers can be a pleasure to look at onscreen, and her story culminates in a satisfying transfer to the Purple Bull program.

Then there’s Bustamante. She’s one of the vital magnetic personalities within the collection – a pure on digicam, well-liked with followers, and simply essentially the most adopted F1 Academy driver on-line. And but, the present appears oddly decided to place her in a field. Her storyline revolves round her social media presence, positioning it as a distraction at finest, and a legal responsibility at worst. There’s a way that she isn’t being taken as critically as her friends, regardless that, in actuality, her reputation is doing a few of the heaviest lifting in rising visibility for girls in motorsport.

It feels particularly pointed when Mercedes workforce principal Toto Wolff states, “This isn’t an influencer racing collection. Solely one of the best should survive.” However the unstated irony is that each driver, male or feminine, is aware of the significance of marketability in fashionable motorsport and above all, the need of monetary backing. A number of males have discovered themselves in F1 seats lately, predominantly due to the sponsorship cash they entice for his or her groups. The criticism hurled at Bustamante feels outsized given she’s merely enjoying the sport – the solely recreation – out there to ladies who don’t hail from excessive wealth however nonetheless must fund their careers.

Bianca Bustamante

Picture by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Photos

The on-track modifying does her no favors both. She was removed from the one driver who made errors all through the season, however hers are put beneath a microscope. And when she finally lands a seat within the GB3 Championship for 2025 (alongside Pulling, who acquired a fully-funded seat as her prize for successful the season) the collection fails to attach the dots for the viewer. There’s no point out that Bustamante’s social media earnings performed a big position in securing a drive, regardless that that context is essential to understanding the realities of driver growth in right this moment’s panorama.

Elsewhere, the present shines when it leans into what makes these ladies – and this collection – distinctive. The camaraderie, the emotional intelligence and the friendships off-track. A scene celebrating Block’s birthday in Singapore is without doubt one of the most genuine, joyful moments of all the season. It’s a reminder that whereas these ladies are fierce rivals, they’re additionally advanced, caring people who don’t should mirror their male counterparts to be taken critically.

F1: The Academy is a well-intentioned and superbly produced collection that succeeds in placing ladies in motorsport on the worldwide stage. That visibility alone is a robust win, and it’ll undoubtedly encourage the following era to imagine that they belong right here. But when that is going to be a motion, as Wolff insists, the collection must belief that the viewers can deal with the complete, sophisticated fact of what it would take to get a girl to the highest.