F1 Academy is on fire. On track, the championship is coming down to the wire in Vegas with a final showdown between Doriane Pin and Maya Weug. I learned last night that the series is the 2nd most viewed championship after F1. In just its third season, the series has already developed a pipeline of female talent and propelled multiple drivers into higher categories — a proof point that this experiment is becoming a real pathway.
I spent yesterday inside the F1 Academy paddock for media day, moderated a conversation with PUMA driver Aurelia Nobels, attended the LEGO x F1 Academy launch event, and ended the evening at a dinner with Doriane hosted by WhatsApp and Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team. I feel beyond lucky to have a front row seat to this series and the incredible girls and women behind it.
Standing in the largest F1 Academy paddock I’ve ever stepped foot in, I kept thinking back to the series’ first-ever co-located F1 race in 2023, which I attended during their debut season. It’s hard not to feel emotional about how many lives this series has changed (including my own).
Off track, the business side is scaling with a velocity that stands out, even in today’s hyper-commercial F1 landscape. In just three years, F1 Academy has gone from a small proof of concept to securing the backing of all F1 teams, launching a Netflix x Hello Sunshine docuseries, signing top-tier sponsors (AmEx, TAG Heuer, Tommy Hilfiger, PUMA, etc.), rolling out a massive Hello Kitty partnership, and now adding one of the world’s most beloved and recognizable brands: LEGO.
I attended the “secret event” last night, which turned out to be the LEGO x F1 Academy launch. Susie Wolff and LEGO CMO Julia Goldin announced three major moves:
LEGO will field a full F1 Academy car and driver beginning in 2026
The car will be piloted by Esmee Kosterman, this year’s Wild Card entry at the Dutch GP
They’re releasing a 201-piece Speed Champions set, available for preorder now ahead of its March 2026 launch
Here are my five biggest takeaways from being in the room last night.
1. LEGO has been building toward this moment for a decade
Julia Goldin shared that LEGO has spent the last ten years intentionally trying to bring more girls into building and creative play. Not by “pinkifying” products, but by showing girls they belong everywhere. They surveyed 4,000 girls in the US and UK and found:
87% want more opportunities for girls in motorsport
75% say racing sounds exciting
52% can see themselves as F1 Academy drivers
LEGO is leaning into a simple truth: girls are eager to build, race, and compete. They deserve to see themselves reflected back.
2. LEGO’s F1 sets are bringing women into the LEGO brand
This blew my mind: LEGO says F1 products have become one of their most effective “recruitment engines” for new female customers. The Speed Champions sets are some of their most popular with women. Just like F1 Academy is expanding motorsport’s audience, LEGO is expanding who sees themselves as a builder, creator, and engineer. It’s a natural collision of two audiences moving in the same direction.
3. The visual identity was intentionally designed to merge femininity, speed, and power
The (female!) design team walked through their process:
combining F1 Academy colors with LEGO’s iconic palette
building a checkered pattern that blends racing cues with LEGO’s blocky aesthetic
giving the minifigure long hair and representation that girls can be strong and feminine on track
They iterated dozens of versions to make the brick model feel like a genuine fusion of the two brands. And yes, Susie was heavily involved in the design!
4. F1 Academy’s Wild Card pathway is doing exactly what it was designed to do
Esmee Kosterman entered the series as a Dutch GP Wild Card, became the first Wild Card of the season to score points, and will now drive full-time for LEGO in 2026. It’s early but meaningful validation that F1 Academy can widen entry routes without diluting competitive rigor. I got to know Esmee in Zandvoort. She even drove a car with my face on it (shoutout TeamViewer for that one).
5. LEGO’s track record makes them the right bet
Even before entering F1 Academy, LEGO has become one of F1’s most effective commercial partners: Speed Champions sets, the best drivers’ parade of the year in Miami, brake-marker boards, build-your-own race weekend activations, and those Silverstone LEGO trophies have generated 20B+ impressions.
This is a brand with a proven ability to take F1 moments and transform them into cultural touchpoints. If you’re trying to shift fan perception, broaden who feels welcome in the paddock, and make a women’s racing series impossible to ignore? LEGO is exactly who you’d want in your corner.
If the last three years were about proving F1 Academy deserved to exist, the next three will be about scale. After last night, it’s obvious the right partners are lining up to help.