the sad reality is that the girls in f1 academy simply wouldn’t get the same amount of funding as the boys in an equal series if they didn’t promote fashion and other “feminine” products because the ones promoting the men aren’t also promoting women in motorsport - which is admittedly fucked.
However, the girls getting these big brands (Aurelia and Sol De Janerio, Joanne and Wella Cosmetics etc) are indeed getting more followers, more than most boys in f4 series are by a mile, but they’re so focused on promotion it’s become a detriment to their racing at points
obviously the fact that they’re doing sponsorships isn’t the only reason they’re not competing for race wins, but it’s worth pointing out that the three women fighting for the title heading into Vegas is the three women with the most consistent backing from sponsors that aren’t traditionally feminine - Doriane, Maya, and Chloe. These women have sponsors directly tied to their respective academies and sponsors more likely to target men as well. This is possibly due to their academy backing.
so then why isn’t aurelia getting the same as everyone else? and by extension, Alisha and Rafaela? that’s a question i can only explain as the lack of actual care that most of the academies have for their female driver development. That’s probably why girls like Aurelia, Joanne, Chloe Chong and so on are so dedicated to the grind of promotion and marketing because that’s the only way they can get brand attention and further their racing career
This is such a thoughtful ask, and I'm so glad you decided to type it up, thank you! You make such a good point about drivers doing so much promo that it risks becoming incompatible with racing, and how it's something top drivers in the series have to worry less about. But also who knows how their careers will all evolve, and whether the girls who currently have academy sponsors will get to keep them (thinking about how Alpine dropped Abby Pulling immediately!)
Earlier, I was talking to @/antspaul about whether some of the more outwardly "racing-focused" girls worry that being too feminine may hurt their chances of being taken seriously, and they brought up how Susie Wolff talked a lot in her book about, like, remaining "marketable" while being taken seriously. There's just so much they have to do just to hope to get to F3.
Anyway I totally agree that most academies don't actually care about female drivers, but that's part of why I'm glad F1A exists (despite all the issues related to the series marketing itself as associated with F1 vs. "just" being an all-female F4 racing series) because it forces more direct involvement of F1 teams with junior female drivers.
