On 28 October 2026, Formula 1 published its first sport-wide Social Impact Report and announced a separate renewal of its Engineering Scholarship. The report describes programmes delivered during the 2025 season; the scholarship commitment covers future academic years. Formula 1’s dated announcement and report summary set out both developments.
What Formula 1 says its 2025 programmes reached
The headline figure is more than 500,000 young people across 71 countries who accessed and benefited from Formula 1 programmes intended to educate, inspire and open routes into the sport. Formula 1 says the report brings together activity from the championship, the FIA, all ten teams and 24 race promoters. That combined scope matters: the total is a sport-wide figure, not a count attributable to one team or one initiative.
The report also lists more than 1,000 skills and talent-development opportunities that highlighted motorsport and related industries. The British Council’s Learning Sectors education programme worked with more than 150,000 students across four countries, and over 700 schools across the United Kingdom, South Africa, India and Brazil took part. Formula 1 separately says that 29,000-plus schools compete annually in STEM Racing. These are different measures: school participation, programme access and opportunities offered should not be added together as if they were the same kind of outcome.
Formula 1 describes the report as its first collective view of social-impact work across the sport. The announcement does not state whether the 500,000 figure represents unique young people across all programmes or how repeated participation was deduplicated. We therefore report it as Formula 1’s stated programme reach, rather than an independently audited count of unique individuals or proof of long-term educational outcomes.
How the engineering scholarship renewal works
Alongside the report, Formula 1 committed more than £2.4 million to renew its Engineering Scholarship for three academic years, from 2026/27 through 2028/29. The programme is intended for engineering students from underrepresented backgrounds. Formula 1 says the support covers full tuition fees and living costs, and can include placements with teams, access to technical facilities and experiences at Grand Prix events.
Ten new scholars are planned for each academic year in that period. Formula 1 says 48 students have been supported since the scheme began in 2021, including ten awarded scholarships in 2025. The renewal is a funding commitment for the next intake cycles; it should not be read as 30 students already enrolled, a guarantee of a job in Formula 1, or a report of money already spent.
The listed higher-education partners are the University of Strathclyde, Imperial College London, the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford and Italy’s Motor Valley University of Emilia-Romagna. Students still pursue engineering degrees through those institutions; scholarship support is a route to study and industry exposure, not a substitute for admission or a promise of a particular role.
Why the report links education with access to motorsport
The report follows the Hamilton Commission’s 2021 recommendations on widening opportunity in motorsport and engineering, and the Diversity and Inclusion Charter signed by Formula 1, the FIA and the ten teams in 2024. Formula 1 says every Charter signatory delivered social-impact programmes in 2025. Its examples range from STEM learning and skills development to community initiatives at Grands Prix and charitable partnerships.
For readers in India, the Learning Sectors figure is relevant but needs a careful qualification: the release groups the participating schools across four countries and does not provide an India-only total. It supports the conclusion that India was one of the programme markets, but it does not establish how many Indian students or schools took part individually.
What the announcement does—and does not—establish
The report provides a useful map of the scale and variety of Formula 1’s education and community activity, while the scholarship renewal names a concrete future funding period and annual intake plan. Reach figures show that programmes were reported across many places; by themselves, they do not show whether participants later entered engineering or motorsport careers, or compare programme results with a baseline. Formula 1 says it intends to strengthen governance, measurement and reporting as the work continues, which is the next step readers can look for in later updates.
That distinction is important when assessing social-impact claims in sport: participation, access, skills development and lasting outcomes are connected, but they are not interchangeable. We will treat the 2025 figures as Formula 1-reported reach and the scholarship as a future commitment unless subsequent reporting supplies independently comparable outcome data. For another view of the championship’s talent pathway, read our report on Alisha Palmowski’s 2026 F1 Academy title.
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