David Coulthard watches from a window overlooking the Yas Marina Circuit as Abbi Pulling takes the pole position which confirms her as F1 Academy champion.

To his right a group are excitedly debating the spat between George Russell and Max Verstappen which has lit up Abu Dhabi ahead of the final race of what has turned into a sensational year.

As the desert sun rises high in the sky Papaya shirts and caps gravitate towards each other to celebrate what in any other year would be the only story in town: McLaren’s transformation from chumps to constructors’ champs.

“This isn’t any other year, though, is it?” says Coulthard. “Apple would not have needed to write a script for Brad Pitt to play [in the upcoming F1 movie] had they just waited for this season to play out then made a film of that. We’ve had everything.”

Well, nearly. Despite 40 per cent of the F1 audience being female, and young women between the ages of 18 and 24 being the fastest growing demographic, there is still no female representative on the grid.

There has not been for almost 50 years.

This is not news to Coulthard, a 13-time Grand Prix winner who finished runner-up to Michael Schumacher in the 2001 Drivers’ Championship. Doing something about it has long been his mission.

Which is why he is watching with greater interest than many in attendance as Pulling, a 21-year-old from Lincolnshire, secures the all-female F1 Academy series and with it a fully-funded season in next year’s GB3 Championship.

His mind goes back to when his late sister Lynsay was at that sort of age but unable to pursue her own motor racing dream due to family finances already being stretched supporting his rise through the ranks.

“Long story short, I always regretted that she missed an opportunity,” says Coulthard, 53. “And I’ve become more focused on that in my retirement and in her death.”

Lynsay passed away in 2013, found dead at her home in the south of Scotland at the age of 35. She was six years younger than David.

He thought of her during FP1 on Friday as Arthur and Charles Leclerc became the first brothers to drive for the same team in the same F1 session.

“I read an interview in which Charles recalled his late father having a conversation with Arthur that he would have to stop racing because he could only afford to support one of the two sons,” says Coulthard.

“Charles, being the older, got that support. That led him to become a F1 driver, missing out the long and difficult bit in between. Arthur had to stop racing for three or four years before he could start again.

“There’s a similarity with me and Lynsay. I entered cars when she was 11, I first drove a Formula 1 car when she was 13.

“She was more naturally talented than I was when she first started karting. But because I was seen as having the potential to get to F1 it meant the support for Lynsay’s racing had to stop.”

In her memory, Coulthard decided he was going to do something to increase opportunities for women in motor sport. First, he got involved with the W Series, an all-female single-seater racing series that ran for three years before going bust.

Undeterred, he teamed up with entrepreneur and philanthropist Karel Komarek to found More Than Equal, a global independent initiative aimed at finding and developing the first female F1 world champion.

While Susie Wolff’s F1 Academy works with drivers in their late teens, MTE identifies high-potential girls of between 12-14 to equip them with the knowledge and experience boys have already accrued at that stage.

“We work with the girls at a younger age so they arrive at the foot of F4, where you start climbing the ladder, ready and highly capable of driving at that level against boys,” explains CEO Ali Donnelly.

“An all-female racing series is brilliant to give you more track time but ultimately if you’re going to get to F1 you’re going to have to beat boys all the way up the ladder.”

Time will tell if this is a wild goose chase.

“When we will get that female F1 world champion I simply can’t answer,” admits Coulthard. “But it will be sooner due to initiatives like More Than Equal and F1 Academy than it would otherwise have been.

“There will be many who will go, ‘yeah, it will never happen’. That’s just the way of the world. But every generation should aim to be better than the last otherwise there’s no evolution.

“It’s a bit late for Lynsay, of course, but as and when we meet again I want to be able to tell her that I’ve done something positive.

“I’m not a religious person but I do feel the emotion of whatever is beyond this journey because her life was cut short.”

It is only three years ago that the prospect of a woman riding the winner in the Grand National was considered equally unlikely. Between 1839 and 2020 the world’s oldest and greatest steeplechase was won only by male jockeys.

That was before Rachael Blackmore.

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“I use Rachael’s example all the time,” says Donnelly. “Because my experience as a fan of horse racing as an Irish woman was being constantly told a woman will never win the Grand National.

“She came in and not only won it but won it well. Overnight the debate in that sport changed to ‘why aren’t there more female jockeys and what are we doing about that?’

“I think that’s where motor sport, if it wants to, can get to. I think it’s a great ambition.”

Donnelly will soon move back to rugby union, a sport which has fully embraced the women’s game and benefited greatly from it. But she is not taking her foot off the gas just yet.

“Two things are happening that are making the sport sit up and actually start to make an effort to try to encourage female drivers,” she says.

“1, the changing fan base – a higher percentage of female fans, a higher percentage of young fans. And 2, those fans tend to be more progressive when it comes to diversity and inclusion.

“If you’re Formula 1 you need to listen to your fanbase. I think there’s now a genuine understanding that if you want to keep hold of that young fanbase, that female fanbase, you need to start listening to what they say and deliver.

“The other thing I think is that there is a penny dropping that, as well served as F1 is by big brands and big sponsors, there are a huge swathe of brands and sponsors that are out of reach currently as there are only male drivers on the grid.

“When we saw Charlotte Tilbury, the make-up brand, sponsor F1 Academy, to me that was quite a game changing moment for the sport.

“Charlotte Tilbury would never have come into motorsport before because there was nothing for her to latch onto.

“The rise of women’s sport is only going in one direction and the sports that don’t recognise that quickly are going to miss out.”