Sky Sports F1 strategy analyst Bernie Collins has highlighted the growing female interest in Formula One, pointing to Netflix's Drive to Survive's 40 percent female viewership. Considering the numbers, Collins believes that the day isn't far when potential sponsors will support a female driver lineup on the Formula One grid.Alongside Drive to Survive, the all-female championship F1 Academy is reportedly gaining popularity, offering young women a platform to develop their talent and progress into higher racing series.Collins, who began her F1 career with McLaren in 2009, serves as a strong example of female success in the sport. She most recently held the role of head of race strategy at Aston Martin until 2022, before joining Sky Sports in 2023. While she hasn't driven an F1 car, she is confident that female drivers can be well-suited to driving those fast machines in today's age. She said:"I believe it's 100 per cent possible we will get a female F1 driver."I've never driven anything like a Formula One car, let's be clear, so my knowledge base is not one to comment on the physical strengths required."But F1 cars now have power steering so it's about getting the right seat set-up, the right set-up of the car to make that happen."However, she pointed out a fundamental issue and explained what F1 ambassadors like herself need to do to ensure women can race comfortably in the future. She added:"Obviously some tracks are more physical than others but the problem that I see is something very different."It's that only one per cent, or so, of junior karters are female. You're not going to get one of the best 20 F1 drivers from that one per cent. The numbers just aren't there."What we need to do as broadcasters, as people in the sport, is actually encourage parents to put their little girls in karts at ages six, seven, eight and nine and get that karting percentage up."Because if we do increase that number, I really don't see any reason we can't achieve it."Considering Drive to Survive's 40 percent female viewership, Collins pointed to the growing sponsorships that are coming along and the potential they hold in supporting a future female F1 driver. She said:"That 40% viewership means the market is changing fast. We've got Charlotte Tilbury sponsoring F1 Academy, which is massive. We've got Elemis sponsoring Aston Martin. That tells us female sponsorship is there."Imagine the hit it would be if Charlotte Tilbury sponsored the next F1 female driver. Imagine the marketing campaign. So while there used not to be money there, I think there is now."The question is, can we significantly raise the female proportion of karting, because you don't want to put anyone in a car that's not good enough. Get it to 10% and you've got the chance to get the one that's good enough to make it to F1."Collins predicts that increased female participation means there will be more women engineers and mechanics in teams in the near future. She added:"From a landscape perspective there obviously are more women with much more involvement in the sport now than when I started."We've talked about the 40% female fan base and I think, internally in the teams, the ratio of mechanics and engineers will hopefully start to shift more in line with the fan base."If 40% of your young engineers are female, which I think is nowhere near that in an engineering class, you should start to see more coming into F1. I think there's definitely scope for that to happen."Collins will be present at the Shanghai International Circuit this weekend, reporting from the pit wall during the Chinese Grand Prix.