‘F1: The Academy’ Netflix series to launch in May

F1 Academy’s Netflix series F1: The Academy is set to launch globally on 28 May 2025, produced by Hello Sunshine, actor Reese Witherspoon’s production company.

The docuseries follows F1 Academy’s all-female grid through the 2024 season, allowing viewers to go behind the scenes in the paddock and glimpse the personal lives of the talented female driver base.

F1 Academy managing director Susie Wolff is an executive producer of the series for F1 and said upon the series’ announcement: “To have the F1 Academy docuseries launch globally with Netflix is not just a huge step forward in visibility for our mission, but also a resounding statement about the momentum and demand for women’s sport.

“We want to inspire and empower the next generation of young women, and Netflix will open up F1 Academy to a global audience of existing and future fans.”

Fans have already been offered snippets of what’s to come through the drivers’ social media, such as Bianca Bustamante and Maya Weug who posted about the series to their Instagram pages.

Weug took the film crew around Ferrari’s Maranello base as the Scuderia’s first-ever female driver academy member.

The series forms part of a huge marketing push for F1 Academy, which has helped increase the championship’s visibility since its inception in 2023.

This includes the backing of the 10 F1 teams and numerous large brands, such as TAG Heuer and Charlotte Tilbury, from the start of 2024, and the increased number of cars on the grid for 2025 - from 15 to 18.

Red Bull Ford-backed F1 Academy driver Chloe Chambers told Motorsport.com: “The gain that you get from all of the media and all of the attention, especially now this year with the F1 teams coming in and the Netflix documentary, I think that next year [2025] and the following years will be even bigger than the last. Not just for the drivers, but also for the series.”

And given the part Formula 1’s Drive to Survive has played in raising the popularity of the series over the last few years, one can only assume that F1: The Academy will have a similar effect.