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The inaugural season of F1 Academy, the new all-female racing series, gets under way in Austria this weekend.

The drivers and teams have had four days of pre-season testing in Barcelona and at Circuit Paul Ricard, with British driver Abbi Pulling topping both days of testing in France.

F1 Academy will race at seven locations in 2023, with the season concluding at Formula 1’s US GP in October. Three races will be held at each venue over the course of the weekend.

Here Sky Sports F1 breaks down the new series.

What is F1 Academy?

F1 Academy was launched in November 2022 by Formula 1 and aims to prepare and develop female drivers to progress to higher levels of competition.

The category is designed to “give more access to track time, racing and testing, as well as support with technical, physical, and mental preparations”.

It is hoped the F1 Academy will provide the experience to progress to Formula 3, and help Formula 2 and Formula 1 opportunities in the future.

Susie Wolff, the former Williams F1 development driver and most recently team principal of Formula E team Venturi, was named managing director of the series in March.

Who are the drivers and teams?

F1 Academy features five teams – ART, Campos, Rodin Carlin, MP Motorsport and Prema – each entering three cars to make up a 15-strong grid.

All five teams also race in Formula 3 and Formula 2 and have pedigree for bringing through young talent: Lewis Hamilton and George Russell are ART alumni, Lando Norris was given his F2 debut by Campos before racing for Carlin, Charles Leclerc and Mick Schumacher both won the F2 title with Prema while MP Motorsport had last season’s F2 champion Felipe Drugovich.

A number of drivers have joined F1 Academy having previously raced in W Series. Among those is Pulling, who finished fourth in last season’s W Series standings.

Speaking to Sky Sports about her ambitions for her first season in F1 Academy, Rodin Carlin’s Pulling said: “I want to win races and show consistency and show that I can be a front runner.

“I think I showed that at times last year (in W Series) and I just want to solidify that. The team have got a really good package. There is a lot of work going on behind the scenes and I think it will all add up and amount to success.”

Prema’s Marta Garcia is a former winner in W Series while Campos’ Nerea Marti was on the podium three times.

And some of the youngest talents on the F1 Academy grid are British with 17-year-old Chloe Grant, 18-year-old Jessica Edgar and 16-year-old Chloe Chong joining Pulling on the grid.

Pulling is one of two drivers on the grid affiliated already to an F1 team, with the 20-year-old part of Alpine’s academy. Lena Buhler is part of the Sauber Academy.

What car will they be driving?

F1 Academy will see all drivers race in identical cars – a Tatuus T421 chassis that is also used in Formula 4.

The cars are powered by turbo-charged engines supplied by Autotecnica and capable of 174 horsepower, while Pirelli will supply tyres.

The cars will have a top speed of 240 kph (149mph).

Where will F1 Academy be racing?

F1 Academy will race at six European tracks in its inaugural season before its finale at the US GP in October.

The season begins with a two-day event at the Red Bull Ring this weekend, April 28-29.

Spain will then host two events at Valencia and Barcelona in May before summer stops in the Netherlands (Zandvoort), Italy (Monza) and France (Le Castellet).

While only the season-finale is part of an F1 weekend in 2023, F1 president Stefano Domenicali has already confirmed F1 Academy will be held exclusively at Formula 1 race weekends in 2024.

What is the weekend format?

Each race weekend will feature seven sessions of track action.

They will begin with two 40-minute practice sessions before two qualifying sessions later in the day, each lasting 15 minutes.

Qualifying 1 will set the grid for Race 1 while Qualifying 2 sets the grid for Race 3.

Race 2’s grid will be set by reversing the top eight drivers from Qualifying 1.

Races 1 and 3 will both be 30 minutes long plus one lap. Race 2 is a shorter, lasting 20 minutes plus one lap.

“The format is huge for development,” Pulling told Sky Sports. “I’ve been fighting to get some seat time and this year it looks like it will be really good.

“Seven weekends with three races per weekend – two 30-minute and one 20-minute reverse grid race so that throws some race craft into the mix as even if someone is driving away with it, they’ll have to go back.

“The testing that they provide…is great for developing drivers at a young age.”

What is the points system?

F1 Academy will have the same points scoring system as Formula 1 for Races 1 and 3, with 25 points being awarded to the winner and points being awarded down to P10.

The points in descending order will be: 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1.

The shorter Race 2 will see 10 points awarded to the race winner and points being awarded down to P8.

The points in descending order for Race 2 will be: 10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

In all three races, a driver will receive an additional point if they set the fastest lap, provided they finish in the top 10.

The driver who claims pole position in each qualifying session will also be awarded two points.

After a chaotic Australian Grand Prix, won by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, how are each of the 10 teams feeling as they fly home from Melbourne?

The sold-out Albert Park crowd were treated to a thrilling race of crashes, battles and a sprinkling of controversy. While Max Verstappen fought back to win Red Bull’s first race in Australia since 2011, he was joined on the podium by Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. Reliability, collisions and penalties caused pain for many, including George Russell and the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.

Ted Kravitz delivers his verdict on all 10 teams…

Red Bull – ‘Super-duper DRS is half their advantage’

It was a weekend of mixed fortunes for Red Bull, who have often struggled in Australia as Verstappen won, while Sergio Perez limited the points lost to his title rival after a horrible Saturday that saw him crash out of qualifying after three corners.

TED’S VERDICT: Max Verstappen P1 – it was a terrible lap one with Verstappen down to P2 – the Mercedes got past him, Lewis pushed him off.

But Max eventually breezed past Hamilton with the magic DRS.

What word shall we think of to describe this DRS? ‘Super-duper DRS’.

It is an advantage – the engineers in the pitlane estimate that it’s worth two-tenths or three-tenths of a second on that lap compared to another car with DRS.

So, this Red Bull super-duper DRS is worth rather a lot.

When you consider that Red Bull’s entire advantage is two-tenths or three-tenths, that’s quite a handy advantage to have.

I don’t think it is their entire advantage – there’s a great car, it’s aerodynamically efficient, it’s engineered well and all the rest of it, but it could be half of their advantage that is down to their super-duper DRS – food for thought for the other teams.

Sergio Perez pitted twice under the first Safety Car, got the hard tyres out of the way, got boxed in at the start – that was his problem, and then, after that, it was a quieter weekend for Checo.

He made his way through, but it’s a missed opportunity – I think after qualifying and after the problems they had on Saturday with the brakes, it is a missed opportunity for Red Bull and Perez – he should have been P2 or higher.

Mercedes – ‘They’re happy around here’

Despite Russell’s fiery end to the race, Mercedes will be generally pleased as they appear to have made progress, taking the fight to Aston Martin and Ferrari in the competition for the second-quickest car – only three-tenths off Verstappen in qualifying, will future developments help them fight for future wins?

TED’S VERDICT: They should be happy at Mercedes because Lewis Hamilton was second.

George Russell DNF, it’s an engine failure – went pop, apparently it wasn’t a leak.

Poor George had already been done over by the red flag caused by gravel.

Lewis Hamilton got Max Verstappen at the start, stayed out before Max got him back.

Lewis was challenging Russell before Russell pitted, but I thought Lewis managed it all very well and secured P2, so I think they are happy around here.

Aston Martin – ‘They got a bit of luck today’

Aston Martin were rare in that both drivers had good days, finishing third and fourth – something they may not have seen coming after the second restart, which saw Alonso spin out and Lance Stroll off into the gravel.

TED’S VERDICT: Fernando Alonso’s got his third podium in three races and he got a bit of luck even if it was the correct interpretation of the rules.

Alonso stays P3 and Lance Stroll stays P4, and both benefited from the gravel red flag.

Alonso challenged Max Verstappen in race two and then he chased Lewis Hamilton, but he said it was difficult to get close.

It was a disastrous red flag too – Alonso spun, but they got that reinstated.

Solid race from Stroll, [as he] got stuck behind Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz’s fight.

McLaren – ‘Woo! Gravel!’

McLaren leave Melbourne with their local boy scoring his first F1 points as a rookie at his home race and the team moving off the bottom of the table after two torrid races in the Middle East.

TED’S VERDICT: They have scored their first points of the year, so well done McLaren – 12 points and that puts them straight into P5 in the Constructors’ Championship – Lando Norris P6, Oscar Piastri P8.

I’ve got ‘Woo! Gravel’ here.

They were very much advantaged by the red flag for gravel, both into ninth and 10th with the free pit stop.

Oscar Piastri lost out at the restart, dropped to P12 and then he got up to P11 ahead of Yuki.

Lando was really quick, did so well – well done McLaren.

Haas – ‘That was scary’

At one stage, it looked as though Nico Hulkenberg was going to score his first F1 podium, but despite their protests, he moves back to seventh to at least score points after his team-mate’s wheel came off – it was that sort of crazy day.

TED’S VERDICT: DNF for Kevin Magnussen with that spin and it’s Hulkenberg with P7.

Hulkenberg nearly hit Alex Albon when he span – that was scary, he said.

Magnussen lost out at the red flag and restarted last, he then ran brilliantly, Lando Norris then challenged him and got P8, then Magnussen spun and crashed, putting wheel-rim debris all over the track.

Alfa Romeo – ‘Would have been much more than it was’

Safety Cars and red flags can cause teams to roll a dice hoping for double sixes, but Alfa Romeo came away missing out – Valtteri Bottas’ mullet in Melbourne clearly was not the lucky charm they were hoping for.

TED’S VERDICT: Let me tell you the sorry tale of Alfa Romeo’s race because after pitting early on the first Safety Car, they could have been set for many points, so they are frustrated at the red flag for gravel.

They don’t really know why the red flag happened and they were always catching up from that point on.

Valtteri Bottas P11 and Zhou Guanyu P9, so well done Zhou Guanyu, he’s got two points.

Both benefitted from the gravel early on [when they pitted under the Safety Car] but then lost out when there was a red flag [the second of the three] – it would have been much more than it was.

AlphaTauri – ‘This is what we have, I’m sorry’

It’s been a tricky start to the season for AlphaTauri with an uncompetitive car, but Yuki Tsunoda managed to score the Red Bull junior team’s first points of the season.

TED’S VERDICT: They got a point, Yuki Tsunoda had a point and I think that’s AlphaTauri’s first point of the season.

Yuki restarted P8, Nyck de Vries got clonked on the restart too by Ocon.

Yuki struggled with the set-up of the car, the balance of the car, the engineer said ‘this is what we have, I’m sorry’.

De Vries was struggling with the car for the whole race, after that clonk, he said that the car was not right, he pitted, Yuki also pitted on the Magnussen safety car and lost out because of the red flag – he would have been much further up.

Ferrari – ‘Groans, a thunderous face but a little bit of pace’

Leclerc crashed out on lap one and Sainz was taken from fourth [to] out of the points due to a controversial penalty that he called “unacceptable” – Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur reportedly has a bad back and these race results will only add to the pain.

TED’S VERDICT: It’s Sainz P12 and Leclerc DNF.

Carlos Sainz, [his penalty was] very unfair I think he believes, and by the look on his face, which is worse than thunder, I would imagine he knows that that result is not going to be adjusted.

It was never going to be adjusted – let’s face it – but they had to give it a go and test the theory.

Charles Leclerc, a real fan favourite, groans in the grandstand when he has had the incident with Lance Stroll.

And when you qualify badly in P7 and you’re in the carbon-fibre zone, this kind of thing can happen.

As for Sainz, it was a good fight on lap one, pitted under the Safety Car before the gravel caused the red flag, and that sunk him to P11, then he got stuck behind Gasly for quite a while, but got through and was going to be P4 but then got the five-second penalty for clonking into Alonso, which he thought was a racing incident.

But at least Ferrari had some pace, and that’s an interesting little upside for Ferrari going forward.

Alpine – ‘A costly result’

To quote Sky Sports’ Sam Johnston, who was reporting from Australia, Alpine were looking “frisky” and were set to score points with both of their drivers, but the French team was one of the biggest losers as both Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly got caught up in the manic final restart.

TED’S VERDICT: I hope dinner’s good because they’ve ended up with two wrecked cars and no points.

Not their fault – it was the first time that the drivers had come together – we always thought they would, but actually it wasn’t a thing because they were just innocent with each other.

Ocon pitted at the end of lap one, Gasly benefited from the red flag.

It was all going well, and then Gasly went wide, rejoined and clonked into his team-mate, so you’ve got to feel sorry for them because that is a costly result from a race where they should have had 10, 11, 12 plus points down here at Alpine.

Williams – ‘Alex absolutely gutted’

Alex Albon was flying during qualifying, and looked like scoring points in his low drag and low downforce car – it was the lack of downforce that may have caused his huge crash and that left Williams pointless.

TED’S VERDICT: It’s a DNF for Alex Albon, it’s P16 for Logan Sargeant.

Alex Albon absolutely gutted – it had been a great weekend, he was P6 when the rear let go, he spun it into the wall and out.

Logan Sargeant pitted under the first Safety Car, put on the hard tyre and then he went onto the medium, he said ‘this tyre is terrible, we have to get off it’, and then he had some more fruity words on the radio and they said ‘careful on the radio Logan, we don’t like those kind of words’.

There you go, another lesson for Logan in his Formula 1 debut season

Max Verstappen claims his first Australian GP pole position: Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez crashed out in Q1; Mercedes’ George Russell second ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton; watch the Australian GP live on Sunday at 6am on Sky Sports F1, with build-up from 4:30am

Max Verstappen held off a surprise Mercedes charge in Australian Grand Prix Qualifying to beat George Russell and Lewis Hamilton to pole position.

The reigning world champion became an overwhelming favourite for pole when his Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez crashed out in Q1, but in challenging cool and windy conditions at Albert Park, Mercedes posed an unexpected challenge.

Hamilton was just nine thousandths of a second off Verstappen after the first set of runs in Q3, but the Dutchman was able to pull out a clear 0.2s advantage as he delivered a 1:16.732 in the closing moments.

It was Russell who was able to snatch a place on the front row, edging out Hamilton by further tenth and out-qualifying his seven-time world champion team-mate for the third time in as many races this season.

Fernando Alonso, who has finished on the podium behind Red Bull one-twos in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, was only able to finish fourth for Aston Martin, while his team-mate Lance Stroll was sixth.

Carlos Sainz split the Aston Martins in fifth, pulling off a rare Qualifying triumph over his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc, who was seventh.

Alexander Albon produced a hugely impressive performance to take eighth, as a Williams driver reached Q3 for the first time this season, finishing ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg, who continued his strong start to the campaign.

Australian GP Qualifying Result
1) Max Verstappen, Red Bull
2) George Russell, Mercedes
3) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
4) Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin
5) Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
6) Lance Stroll, Aston Martin
7) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
8) Alexander Albon, Williams
9) Pierre Gasly, Alpine
10) Nico Hulkenberg, Haas

What happened to Perez?

Having delivered a hugely impressive performance to beat Verstappen in Saudi Arabia two weeks ago, Perez’s hopes of mounting a world championship challenge had been a hot topic coming into the weekend in Melbourne.

However, the Mexican endured one of the worst days of his Formula 1 career, initially struggling badly in final practice on Saturday morning as he went off track several times after missing the beginning of the session while his mechanics worked on his car.

Light rain in the moments before Qualifying meant conditions remained challenging as the session began, with Logan Sargeant’s early spin in his Williams at Turn 13 a clear warning to other drivers.

However, Perez didn’t learn, and as he had done in practice, locked up on the way into Turn 3, before running into the gravel and becoming beached in mud just before the barrier.

While Verstappen was able to fight back from 15th on the grid to finish second in Saudi Arabia, Perez faces a huge task to extend Red Bull’s streak of one-twos to start the season.

Mercedes come from nowhere to create Q3 drama

It has been all doom and gloom so far this season at Mercedes given Red Bull’s dominance, with team principal Toto Wolff confirming the implementation of major changes to their design philosophy are under way.

Russell and Hamilton said after Friday practice that the third row of the grid was the best they could hope for in Qualifying, but as the pole position shootout played out – with Perez absent – it became clear the W14s were Verstappen’s biggest challengers.

Verstappen was only able to knock Hamilton off provisional pole by the narrowest of margins as the first runs concluded, and the prospect of a first pole since December 2021 for the 38-year-old suddenly seemed realistic.

However, with time left for only one flying lap after the field pitted for fresh tyres, Verstappen delivered a stunning lap which would be enough to seal a first pole at Albert Park for the two-time world champion.

Russell was able to get within 0.3s, with Hamilton a further half-tenth behind his team-mate having had his preparations for his lap hindered by Hulkenberg, who didn’t leave a clear path for the Mercedes to pass.