British indoor karting organisation TeamSport is doing its bit to further female representation in motorsport and together with Motorsport UK and F1 Academy, has continued running F1 Academy Discover Your Drive UK, a nationwide programme to identify and develop the next generation of female karters.
Open to girls aged 8-12, TeamSport piloted the scheme across six venues in 2023 and saw a 265% increase in females participating in the British Indoor Karting Championships as a result.
The collaboration continues in 2024 with TeamSport Instructors using Discover Your Drive Days to identify talent to join the Discover Your Drive Race Academy – and a taster day was recently run on Monday, February 12.
“We teamed up with F1 Academy and Motorsport UK to provide the facilities and help promote the scheme to help young females, aged 8-12 to get into motorsport,” a TeamSport representative told Motorsport Week.
“We train the young girls, provide the trainers and facilities, and run the programmes. It’s our dream to see more females in motorsport and one day even in Formula One.”
TeamSport (which runs its own academy in addition to its collaboration with F1 Academy Discover Your Drive), is determined to ensure that its involvement in grassroots initiatives will make its venues a welcoming place for all.
“Motorsport is for everyone and we provide the grassroots. Our Race Academy (aged for 8-15) for boys and girls is thriving and we’re seeing more females than ever before.
“We want our sessions to be diverse and welcoming to all. We want to see females, we want families and we want everyone to feel they belong. We’re always investing in our own crew to ensure the training is of the highest quality too.”
Research conducted by More Than Equal in 2023 shows that girls make up just 13% of competitors at the karting level.
To improve participation in the upper echelons of motorsport, the numbers at entry level need to increase and TeamSport’s collaboration with F1 Academy Discover Your Drive is designed to do just that.
“We’re currently in our second cohort and just ran some taster sessions for young girls across the country (Feb 12),” the TeamSport spokesperson said.
“Proper sessions then start end of Feb and each racer has 5 sessions with our qualified instructors and hopefully it’s the start of some wonderful journeys for them!”
