F1 Academy: Carrie Schreiner is ready for the start of the season

Next weekend, the world debut of the new racing series for women, organised by the Formula 1 Association in cooperation with the world federation FIA, will take place on the Red Bull Ring in Austria. Racing will take place in new identical Formula cars.

Five of the best teams from the FIA Formula 2 and Formula 3 series will take part with three female drivers each. Among them is Carrie Schreiner, the only German driver. At the final test last week on the circuit in "Paul Ricard" in the south of France, the entire field was within 1.3 seconds of each other, which proves that the teams seemed to have managed to select 15 of the best female Formula drivers in the world for the new series.

The 24-year-old driver from the Saarland is the only woman who comes from GT sports. All the other female drivers have only raced in karting and afterwards in various formula series.

So, Carrie approaches the task in a humble way: "Some of my competitors have already been driving Formula cars for four to five years, which is certainly a disadvantage for me. No ABS, no traction control, much later braking points and much higher speed in the corners. I had to adjust my driving style completely again. During some test days with older cars, I could approach cautiously. At the two preseason tests of the F1 Academy in Barcelona and Paul Ricard in the new car, I was making progress. My pace in the race is already good, but I still have to improve in qualifying. I have not yet been able to make the best use of the new tyres, which is more complex than in a GT3. But I've already made great progress there, too. The Red Bull Ring suits me well, I've already won races there in GT3. It will certainly be very crowded, so my experience in the races will help me. Changing weather is also something you always have to expect in the mountains of Austria. With ART Grand Prix I have an absolute top team with whom I want to achieve a lot. I can hardly wait for the weekend!" said Carrie Schreiner before her Formula comeback.