F1 Academy
Enabling F1 Academy to remove barriers for girls on and off the track and become a catalyst for change.
After a successful debut season, F1 Academy were anticipating more exposure by aligning the 2024 season with F1 race weekends. To attract more female fans, we re-imagined the series content and race features to align with a new refreshed brand.
Alongside the race content we created new content areas that speak directly to a younger female audience. Driven by the global initiative ‘Discover Your Drive’, the overarching aim was to increase female participation in motorsport both on and off the track.
As F1 Academy were racing at the same tracks as F1 during the season, we were able to leverage the live timing functionality, giving it a new look and feel to match the rest of the site.
Scope / Role
Digitas had a long history of supporting F-series racing (F2 and F3), which, in 2022, was extended to F1 Academy ahead of its launch season.
Initiatives operated in "burst" mode, with teams engaged for specific initiatives including brand/website launch (2023), "Discover Your Drive" (2024), and rebranding/content enhancements (2025); as well as an ongoing always-on managed service support role. The initiatives frequently required rapid turnaround (e.g. initial site launched end-to-end in 3 months), operating in separate (parallel), but complementary teams to other F1-related activity.
- Exec Lead / CPO (2023), Exec Sponsor (2024, 2025)
Outcomes
- Increased reach and engagement with core audience (2025: content views up 20% year-on-year, contributed to 31% YoY fanbase growth)
- Digital experience contributing to key F1 Academy impact measures (e.g. supported karters featured on 25% of all Senior category podiums in 2025) and wider uplift in participation (female from 5% to 25% of competitive karting)
- Contributed (2023-2024) to wider shift in F1 digital ecosystem (73% increase in total unique female visitors, with particularly notable growth among women aged 25–34 (+670%), followed by women aged 55+ (+240%) and 45–54 (+125%))
- Maximised use of common F1 services, allowing rapid delivery model and feature equality (e.g. Live Timing) with wider F-series programmes.
Reusing the F1 platform let a brand-new series punch above its weight and reach an audience the sport badly needed.
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