They are, by their very nature, customer spec series. Perfect for a feeder team to be set up in.
For those who would argue it would dilute the competition, the need for sponsorship and with drivers paying it already makes all levels of motor sport contrived to some degree – the governing body creating a gateway team is arguably less so.
Adding weight to the idea is that the drivers are there. Simona de Silvestro, part of IndyCar’s female-centred Paretta Autosport, was previously a development driver for Sauber, as was Tatiana Calderon. The former is certainly a strong racer, meaning there’s no reason why she couldn’t compete in F1 with the right amount of preparation.
The same would surely go for Sophia Floersch, currently racing in ELMS, Lilou Wadoux, driving in WEC, and Katherine Legge in IMSA. These are not the only examples.
The closest F1 is to a female racer appears to be Alpine’s ‘Race(H)er’ project to help bring a female through from karting within ten years, but no drivers have yet been announced.
McLaren does have Ugo Ugochukwu in its junior ranks, but with the young black driver currently competing in British F4, he is a long way from making it to the top.
An obvious candidate for a team to help racial diversity – were it to compete in F2 or F3 – would be the American Myles Rowe, who recently only just missed out on the USF2000 series (equivalent to F3). The FIA should be falling over itself to offer him a test in one of its junior categories.
Where is the next black F1 driver coming from to step into Hamilton’s shoes?
And while we wait, multiple series are leaving F1 in their dust on diversity.
WEC has both the Richard Mille and Iron Dames teams as a platform for female drivers at the top level in their discipline (aided by the FIA’s Women in Motor Sport initiative), whilst Extreme E has gender equal driver pairings as a rule.