In motorsport, data is everywhere. Engineers can track tyre temperatures, throttle application, and braking zones down to the millisecond. But a screen full of squiggly lines only tells half the story. The real tension on the pit wall comes down to a constant choice: when do you trust the cold telemetry, and when do you lean entirely on human intuition?

For Eimear O’Connor, Race Engineer at PREMA Racing, striking that balance is the job. Speaking with us behind the garage during the last Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort, she unpacks her distinct philosophy.

Now in her third year as a Race Engineer in F1 ACADEMY, she approaches the paddock with a clear mindset: a driver is more than someone executing a pre-planned strategy. “They are part of the car, and ultimately they are the best sensor you probably will have in the car,” she shares. Extracting peak performance takes more than a flawless setup. It requires absolute trust, knowing how to read a driver, and putting in the invisible work long before the cars ever reach the glamour of the starting grid.

Life As A Race Engineer In F1 ACADEMY

The race weekend starts back at the workshop with a post-mortem of the previous race, auditing mechanical health, analysing setup choices, and running drivers through simulator sessions. Even when teams are not returning to the same track, some data carries over.

“We normally get the drivers to come to the simulator, so we would prepare some setups for them to run,” Eimear explains. “It’s mainly just track learning, but we might test some setup items as well, depending on whether there’s something that we could consider doing.”

By the time the team arrives at the paddock, time is the enemy. Since teams do not have their cars in the workshop to prepare setups, they operate entirely out of freight boxes. With only one Free Practice (FP) session each race weekend, there is a narrow window to install everything on the first day “Beyond setting up the car, it’s just getting into the race weekend and trying to win,” she notes.

Having only one FP also means teams must find ways to maximise limited track time. This turns the track walk into a strategic tool rather than a simple bonding exercise. In Zandvoort, Eimear combines physical track conditions with F1 ACADEMY historical data from the past three years to give her drivers a head start, especially important in a track where the weather is unpredictable.

“We have the video from the onboard of the wet from 2024,” she notes, pointing out where puddles typically form. “Because they only have a limited time in FP, getting them into the right headspace to try and get the maximum out of the car immediately from the off is really important.”

This intense, hands-on environment demands engineers who can manage every aspect of the machine and the driver. It is exactly why Eimear is in no rush to climb the ladder to Formula 1 (F1).

While she acknowledges F1 as the ceiling of motorsport and would take the opportunity when it presents itself, she prefers the autonomy of junior categories, or even other series such as Formula E, IndyCar, or the World Endurance Championship.

“Because the teams in F1 are so big, you get very streamlined very quickly,” she says, reflecting on her career trajectory. “Keeping my options open and progressing technically is really important. Moving up the ladder to regional F3, F2 is ultimately the goal for me, and then if at some point in that career F1 comes knocking, I would probably go for it.”

Translating Trust into Lap Times

As a Race Engineer with three seasons of F1 ACADEMY under her belt, Eimear knows what a winning partnership looks like. Her first two seasons paired her with formidable talent: Maya Weug, the 2025 Vice Champion, and Nina Gademan, who recently secured a memorable double podium at her home race in Zandvoort.

Working with Maya set an immediate benchmark. Eimear remembers her as one of the most committed drivers she has ever partnered with. That relentless drive created a foundation that forced Eimear to raise her own game to match the intensity.

“Honestly, I think I got a bit spoiled with her being my first driver,” she shares. “It set a very good foundation and a benchmark for the standard you have to work to. When you have a driver that committed, you need to step up as an engineer too.”

Their shared motivation proved invaluable, but it also reinforced a hard truth about motorsport: human intuition requires adaptability. Not all drivers operate in the same way. Some want their data to arrive to them in a certain manner, while others have their own communication style.

Managing a rookie, though, presents a different challenge. Teaming up with Mathilda Paatz in the #8 Aston Martin car, the partnership has already delivered results in Montreal with the German racer bringing home her first podium in the Opening Race, followed by her maiden win in the Reverse Grid Race later on the same day.

“It’s been quite good working with Mathilda,” she says. “I think the main thing when it’s your rookie year is to take it step by step, get the fundamentals right, and try to adapt as much as you can.”

This measured approach serves as a vital shield against the unique environment of F1 ACADEMY. With direct ties to F1 teams and tremendous media visibility, external pressure can easily overwhelm drivers the moment they enter the paddock.

By framing year one purely around foundational growth, Eimear helps her driver filter out the noise, building the resilience needed to truly deliver when year two arrives. She adds: “Coming into a team like PREMA Racing, we have a lot of good references, especially historically from the past three years for us. It’s a good place to be learning.”

Different Times For The House of Champions

Since the start of F1 ACADEMY, PREMA Racing has been the undisputed powerhouse. They claimed the Teams’ Championship for the first three seasons and housed drivers like Marta Garcia and Doriane Pin, who went on to become Drivers’ Champions.

But 2026 presents a new reality. Currently sitting fourth in the standings, the Italian outfit is navigating a different challenge: fielding an entirely rookie lineup. This shift has required a complete recalibration of what success looks like.

“We have performed in some events; we haven’t performed in others. That can happen,” she explains, pointing out the steep learning curve for rookies tackling new tracks.

Moving away from the expectation of guaranteed sweeps, the focus has shifted to laying solid foundations and managing morale. The pressure to perform in a team like PREMA Racing remains intense, but Eimear shields her drivers by tempering the immediate demand for wins.

“We’ve had to adapt our mentality a little bit for having drivers who are newer to the championship,” she notes. “I think we’re on the right track now to level out the points a bit and try to fight for a few more podiums.”

Fostering A Genuine Bond With Drivers

The mental side of race engineering is often invisible, and Eimear’s approach stems from an unexpected place: a decade of coaching in volleyball. That background, alongside mentorship courses, gave her the tools to read, relate, and empathise with people from different backgrounds.

That relationship continues outside of the boxes and paddock. While there is a level of professionalism race engineers have to maintain, the line is never set in stone as everyone spends so much time together racing from the start of the season.

What that looks like in practice for a race engineer is maintaining a set of personal standards and expectations. Empathy dictates Eimear’s rhythm, right down to post-session debriefs. “I always chat with the drivers at the start of the season and my rule is normally: After a session, I’m not coming to you. You come to me when you’re ready.”

Handing the driver control over when they process a rough qualifying run or when things do not go their way on track gives them freedom to internalise any emotions they may be feeling before heading into a debrief.

Eimear’s protective instinct over her drivers also extends to the systemic hurdles they face. Reflecting on Maya Weug’s struggle to find a full-time seat in single-seaters, Eimear points to a broader frustration.

The upside is that F1 ACADEMY graduates have gone on to achieve remarkable feats: 2025 Drivers’ Champion Doriane Pin became a Development Driver for the Mercedes F1 Team, 2024 Drivers’ Champion Abbi Pulling became the first woman to win a race in GB3, and 2023 Drivers’ Champion Marta Garcia received a fully funded seat to race in the 2024 Formula Regional European Championship.

Still, the traditional pipeline to F3 and F2 remains heavily restricted. “Seeing people progress to FRECA or to GB3, which is a more technically demanding, high-powered car, is a step in the right direction, but it’s the sustainability of keeping them there,” she adds.

“Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of support from external sponsors at the moment. I don’t know what we can do to change it honestly, but it does need to change. We need to see girls getting to F3 at a minimum.”

Finding The Final Tenth

Eimear has come a long way since her days with Imperiale Racing as a Data Engineer. Now in her third season as a Race Engineer in F1 ACADEMY, she knows her job is an exercise in duality.

Telemetry provides the undeniable facts: where a driver is losing time, how the tyres are degrading, or what setup changes are needed. It gives you the baseline to build a fast car.

But extracting that speed requires something a screen can never show — human intuition. And once the racing starts, control shifts to the cockpit. Eimear has to trust that the mental foundation she builds in her drivers is strong enough to handle chaos.

Montreal proved exactly why that matters. A radio failure severed her connection to Mathilda Paatz during a late Safety Car period, forcing the German rookie to navigate the restart purely on gut feel. It was only later that O’Connor managed to restore contact and relay the decisive update about Rafaela Ferreira’s penalty.

As Eimear puts it: “You need to understand your driver quite well to know what they want.”

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17-year-old Payton Westcott entered her second Italian Formula 4 campaign this season as one of the leading female talents in junior single-seater racing. After missing out on the Women’s Trophy title to her now teammate Emily Cotty in 2025, the American has her sights set on going one better in 2026.

Westcott has a packed schedule in 2026 as she is also making her full-time F1 ACADEMY debut competing for PREMA and Mercedes alongside her F4 commitments. As the teenager makes huge strides in her career this year, can she balance the two and achieve some level of success in one or the other, or even both?

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Payton Westcott’s Journey So Far

Westcott began karting at six years old and quickly built an impressive résumé in the United States, earning success in the United States Pro Kart Series, California Pro Kart Challenge, and Challenge of the Americas. Her performances led to selection for the inaugural F1 ACADEMY Discover Your Drive programme, paving the way for her move into single-seaters.

Her maiden F4 season, racing for Van Amersfoort Racing (VAR), showcased her versatility across the Formula Winter Series, Italian F4, and the UAE F4 Championship. She claimed the Formula Winter Series Female Trophy, secured multiple Women’s Trophy victories in Italian F4, and became the first female driver to win outright in the UAE Trophy, converting pole position into victory in Dubai.

Alongside her F4 commitments, Westcott impressed in F1 ACADEMY. After topping the Rookie Test, she earned a Wild Card entry in Las Vegas and scored points on debut before securing a full-time 2026 seat with PREMA, backed by Mercedes. She has also benefited from the mentorship of reigning F1 ACADEMY champion Doriane Pin.

F1 ACADEMY Round 1: Shanghai (13-15 March)

In the opening round of the 2026 F1 ACADEMY season, Westcott kicked off her maiden campaign with a strong P6 finish on Saturday. The Mercedes junior then returned on Sunday to claim her maiden F1 ACADEMY podium with an impressive P3, behind Emma Felbermayr and Alisha Palmowski.

The American was one of only two rookies to score points in both races during the opening round in China, making an encouraging start to her rookie campaign.

F1 ACADEMY Round 2: Montréal (22-24 May)

It was another podium finish for Westcott in Canada, who had a quietly successful weekend. In the Reverse Grid Race, she was promoted to the final step on the podium, marking two podiums in the opening two rounds of the season. She then completed the weekend with a respectable P4 in the Feature Race, further strengthening her impressive start to the campaign.

F1 ACADEMY Round 3: Silverstone (3-5 July)

Last time out, at F1 ACADEMY’s first-ever visit to Silverstone, Westcott and PREMA endured their most challenging weekend of the 2026 season. After only managing 10th in Qualifying and missing out on the reverse-grid positions, the Mercedes junior was handed a five-second penalty for a false start in Saturday’s race, dropping her to 14th in the final classification.

A slight improvement followed in Sunday’s Feature Race, where she crossed the line in 11th, narrowly missing out on the points to end a 2026 F1 ACADEMY weekend empty-handed for the first time this season.

Up Next: Zandvoort (21-23 August)

Despite disappointing results at Silverstone, Westcott remains firmly in contention as the Championship battle begins to take shape. Following Round 3, she sits on 36 Championship points, placing her sixth in the Drivers’ standings. Despite dropping two positions, she remains one point ahead of teammate Mathilda Paatz.

However, the season has only just reached its halfway mark, and with a lengthy summer break before the series returns for Round 4 at the iconic Zandvoort Circuit, everything remains to play for as the midfield battle continues to tighten.

Can Westcott return to the podium? Or, even better, can she write her name into the history books by producing a drive worthy of her maiden F1 ACADEMY victory?

2026 Italian F4 Championship

Alongside F1 ACADEMY, Westcott has returned to Italian F4 for 2026. Joining Emily Cotty at R-ace GP, Westcott looks to build on her growing experience and establish herself as a regular contender in one of the world’s most competitive junior championships.

After the opening three rounds, let’s see how her 2026 Italian F4 campaign is unfolding.

Italian F4 Round 1: Misano (May 10th)

Westcott faced a challenging start to her campaign at Misano. Results of P17, P16 and P21 reflected the strength of the field, but also provided a solid foundation for her to build on as the season unfolds. After the opening round, the American occupied P32 in the Championship standings.

F4 CEZ Round 2: Salzburgring (29-31 May)

Rather than competing at Vallelunga in Italian F4, Westcott temporarily shifted her focus to the F4 CEZ Championship, a single-seater series based across Central and Eastern Europe. Making her debut with CRAM Motorsport during the second round of the season at Austria’s Salzburgring, the American gained valuable experience against a different group of competitors, many of whom she could encounter again as she progresses through the junior single-seater ranks. Competing on a circuit that was largely unfamiliar also provided another valuable learning opportunity, helping Westcott continue to develop her adaptability and broaden her experience.

Despite a disrupted weekend that ended with the final race being cancelled due to adverse weather conditions, Westcott made an encouraging debut in the F4 CEZ Championship. A second-place finish in the Women’s Trophy in Race 1 was followed by a respectable P8 in Race 2, adding another positive chapter to what has already been a busy and impressive 2026 campaign for the teenager.

Italian F4 Round 3: Monza (June 21st)

rReturning to Italian F4 for Round 3, Westcott continued to build momentum in the Women’s Trophy battle with a series of determined performances at the Temple of Speed. Despite receiving a three-place grid penalty after Race 1 and finishing P26 in the final race, the American impressed with a strong P15 finish in Race 3, missing out on the Women’s Trophy victory by just 0.073 seconds to Felbermayr. She also completed the Women’s Trophy podium in the final race, crossing the line less than three-tenths of a second behind Rosanne den Drijver.

Up Next: Mugello (July 26th)

Following Round 3, Westcott sits third in the Italian F4 Women’s Trophy standings with 134 points, firmly in contention as the season progresses. In the overall Drivers’ Championship standings, she occupies P44 with a single point.

However, Felbermayr’s hat-trick of Women’s Trophy results at Monza moves the PHM Racing driver above Westcott by six points, meaning the American faces pressure to outperform the Austrian and regain second place next time out on track at Mugello.

The Women’s Trophy battle is beginning to really heat up after just three rounds. If you haven’t already made your predictions, now is the time to do so. All five women competing this year are worthy winners of the Women’s Trophy for their achievements in the sport so far.

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When you picture a Grand Prix weekend, the first thing that probably comes to mind is the glamour of it. The grid walk, the paddock club, the drivers stepping out under the cameras like the whole thing was built around them. Behind the scenes, it looks like something else entirely.

There’s a reason Formula 1 has been called “the big circus” for decades, and it’s not only about the entertainment. It’s a travelling sport, a small city that gets built, run, and taken apart in the same four days, over and over, on five continents. F1 ACADEMY runs on the same logic, just at a very different scale. As a single-make series built around junior driver development, the outfits are far more condensed than a Formula 1 team. Fewer people, doing more, in less space.

For Round 3 of the F1 ACADEMY calendar, the all-women series landed in Silverstone for the first time. It’s an iconic and historic track that drivers and fans love. The British Grand Prix was busier than usual, as they were not racing alone — Formula 1, Formula 2, and Formula 3 also had their rounds throughout the weekend. With so much happening at once, and it being the series’ first time on this circuit, what does it take for a weekend like this to run smoothly? We headed to the paddock and asked around.

Getting ready ahead of the race weekend

Because it was a new circuit, a new paddock, and a busy schedule with long hours between sessions, the teams had nothing to fall back on from the year before. Everything needed extra attention. Luckily, the weekend offered fairly comfortable and warm summer conditions.

Neus Santamaria is Deputy Race Director for F1 ACADEMY, working alongside Silvia Bellot. With no history at Silverstone to draw on, they have to go back through F2 and F3 records at the same track instead, mapping out what could go wrong before it does. They arrive on Tuesday, and because racing alongside Formula 1 and the supporting categories means being first on track and last to leave, the mornings start early.

On Wednesday, they run through everything with the local team — getting all the ideas in sync, like how transfers work, schedules, and any track-specific procedures, so they can settle in and get their bearings before things start. Wednesday is also time for the trackwalk with everyone from the FIA, which helps them get a proper look at the track and flag anything that needs identifying. That way, by Thursday — well ahead of the drivers’ briefing — there’s enough time to organise all that information and spot any problems that need solving.

“Thursday is always the longest day, because it’s the last day of preparation, and it always feels endless. Then, on Friday, we’re straight onto the track, and unfortunately, racing alongside F1 means we’re always the first to start and the last to finish. So Friday always means we’re here very early and without breakfast, and we’re the last ones to leave,” Neus told us.

It’s just her and Silvia running it, alongside a local director and two operators. If one of them can’t carry on, the other has to be able to take over everything without a gap. “In China, one year Silvia got sick, this year it was me,” she said. “It’s about being able to say, this one’s yours, I’m getting up and I’m leaving, and the other person just keeps going.” They’ve worked together since F1 ACADEMY’s first season, and it’s the years of shared routine, she said, that make a handoff like that possible without anyone outside race control ever noticing.

Preparing the drivers

The procedures deliberately mirror Formula 1, Formula 2 and Formula 3, because the drivers and teams here are heading into those categories next, and teaching them a completely different system now would only cause confusion later. That consistency sits alongside a lot of patience with drivers who are new to all of it: a full day of what Neus calls Sporting Training before the season starts, repeated for every Wild Card who joins for a single weekend, and an informal round of every garage after each session, specifically so nobody has to go looking for an answer.

Before the season starts, they dedicate a full day just to Sporting Training, during the academy’s test days and also when they run the rookie test. “Poor things, I always tell them it’s my ‘nagging day’, because I spend the whole day there explaining regulations and procedures, and going through incidents with them — things that happened in previous seasons that we didn’t like, even if they weren’t penalised at the time, but things we don’t want to see,” Neus said.

The goal is to get them to recognise what they’ve done wrong, or things they don’t want happening again. “We’re pretty relentless about it,” Neus told us. They even have what they call a Brief Presentation for each calendar event, which means the drivers can always go back and review everything, and they run that same training with every Wild Card who joins the grid for a race.

“It’s a paddock that’s very close-knit, both with the drivers and with the teams. Whenever they have any kind of doubt, they always show up at the office to ask, or we do a round of all the teams once each session ends,” Neus told us. “It’s always very easy for them to ask anything. There’s always a lot of communication, and that’s something we really appreciate.”

For Neus, communication is precisely what makes the weekend go smoothly, no matter what happens on track. And that starts from the day they arrive and do the briefings, through to free practice and race day.

Preparing the cars

While Neus is juggling briefings, procedures, and the race itself, Nekane Muros and Adriana Gallardo are elbow-deep in one of the cars on the grid. As first mechanic and second mechanic for Rafaela Ferreira at Campos Racing, they’re responsible for the car — keeping it in good condition, fixing any problems, and making sure everything functions. They also arrive early in the week so they can build the box and prepare it.

They have a couple of days to service the car, review what’s most important, and then prepare it — and the team — for the race weekend. Their paths cross with Neus’s during meetings to discuss alternative routes for moving the cars, how to get to the paddock, and even which equipment they have access to, like a buggy or a trolley.

The staffing behind each car is more layered than it looks. “Right now, the structure at F1 ACADEMY for each team is three first mechanics, two second mechanics, a head mechanic, three engineers, and then the team manager. At the end of the day, with an F4 car, which is fairly straightforward, you can manage with one mechanic, but it always helps to have a second one for when you need a hand, or simply because four eyes always see more than two,” Nekane told us.

Fans know qualifying as one of the defining moments of a race weekend, but it’s just as high-stakes on the other side of the pit wall. For Nekane and Adriana, it’s one of the most stressful parts of the job too.

“Qualifying is where you put everything on the line,” Nekane told us. “In a race, you can always make up ground or lose it, but qualifying, at the end of the day, is what determines where you start. And that’s pretty important when it comes to knowing whether you’ll be at the front or the back of the grid.”

For Adriana, pit stops to switch to wet tyres are also quite stressful. “If it starts raining and all the cars have to come in to switch to wet tyres, we end up doing pit stops for three cars back to back, and that’s when it gets complicated. We’re short on hands,” Adriana told us.

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Working while everyone watches (and touches)

The British Grand Prix is closer to a festival than a race weekend, and it showed. Fans were on site from Thursday, which meant the F1 ACADEMY paddock had waves of visitors and curious kids from the very start. Thursday, specifically, was Discover Your Drive day, the series’ initiative for bringing young girls into motorsport. Dozens of them moved through the paddock that morning, asking questions, meeting drivers, looking at the cars up close. Over the rest of the weekend, hundreds of fans also had free access to the paddock. This can sometimes be troublesome for the teams.

“A lot of people aren’t aware that, at the end of the day, we’re there working, and it’s great that they come, that they visit us, that they ask us things — I love it,” Nekane told us. “I’m someone who, if you ask me something, I’ll answer, no problem. But that’s if I’m in a calm moment. If I’m under pressure... beyond the work itself, it’s also about respecting the work the mechanic is doing.”

Nekane compared this issue to how you wouldn’t go to a hairdresser and touch the scissors while they’re cutting someone else’s hair. “Earlier, we were setting up the car, with the scales checking the weights, and there were people removing the foam where the steering wheel sits. And in the end, if for whatever reason we’re looking at the scale and someone’s touching the car, we might not even notice.” The risk is that the mechanic might assume something’s wrong with the car, throwing off the whole process. On top of that, there are people within the teams who aren’t allowed to touch the cars at all, so an innocent gesture like that can turn into a sanction.

A recent example happened at Spa, where F2 driver Noel León was disqualified from the Belgian Feature Race after a Campos guest mistakenly picked up a headset during a red flag period. The Mexican driver was stripped of his race result, and Campos received a suspended 25-point championship deduction.

Despite it all, there’s one principle Nekane and her team never let go of: staying calm.

”If you work fast but calmly, you’re always going to do things better and with a clear head. So I think that for a weekend to go smoothly, it’s about keeping things under control and being aware of what you’re doing,” Nekane told us.

The drivers’ job before the job

What Neus, Nekane, and Adriana work for is to make things go smoothly so drivers can compete. And while competing is a very important part of their job, what’s easy to forget when watching from the stands is that getting there is its own job entirely, separate from the driving.

Across Thursday and Friday, especially, F1 ACADEMY drivers move through media commitments, content shoots, brand appearances, autograph sessions, and an open paddock that puts them in direct, sustained contact with fans, creators and journalists for hours at a stretch. None of that is incidental in the job. It’s part of what the series is built on. But it does mean a driver shows up to race already having spent full days doing everything the job requires except actually driving.

Some drivers had other things pulling at their attention that same weekend. Nina Gademan, for one, had her seat fitted only days earlier for an F1 car she was due to drive at the Goodwood Festival of Speed — a rare opportunity most drivers her age never get, and the kind of thing that’s hard not to think about. However, when her team offered to walk her through the procedures for it, she asked them to hold off. “Tell me after the weekend,” she said. And that’s not a driver overwhelmed by everything stacked on her calendar. It’s the opposite: a driver making a deliberate call to protect her own focus, choosing exactly what to let in and when, so that nothing due later in the week could pull her attention away from the job in front of her at Silverstone. Not even driving a Formula 1 car.

As the week progressed, things ease off slightly. On Saturday and Sunday, there are fewer commitments and a sharper focus, both days building toward the races. And during the British Grand Prix, the stands were packed: not just with fans in general, but with people who’d shown up specifically for F1 ACADEMY, despite session times squeezed into some fairly unglamorous slots around a jam-packed weekend. It says something about both how far the series has come and about a country that has always taken its racing seriously.

Watching it all happen at once, Neus and Nekane’s words made sense: none of it felt hectic. Underneath the noise — the fans, the people building the paddock, the people running the sessions, the people keeping the cars alive, the drivers themselves — was the same thing, over and over: calm and communication. That’s the part fans never see, and what actually makes an F1 ACADEMY weekend run smoothly.

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For as long as motorsport has existed, Brazil has given the world numerous noteworthy and outstanding racing drivers over the years. Emerson Fittipaldi. Ayrton Senna. Rubens Barrichello. Gabriel Bortoleto. The list goes on.

Could Rafaela Ferreira be another name to add to this list in the future?

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Growing up in Brazil, Rafaela Ferreira had a motorsport role model that she looked up to - Bia Figueiredo. A former Brazilian racing driver herself, she competed in the Formula 3 South American Series for a full season in 2006, finishing in fifth overall in the Championship. That year, Figueiredo stood on the podium four times, including three second-place finishes, the last of which came in São Paulo. Bia also drove for Formula Renault in Brazil for three years and became the first woman ever to win in Formula Renault.

Figueiredo went on to compete in Indy Lights (the precursor to Indy NXT) where she won twice and was on the podium a further six times before competing across four seasons at the top of American single seater racing in IndyCar.

So when she began on her motorsport journey, Rafaela already had what many young women and girls don’t have yet - someone to aspire towards that shows them their dream is possible.

Like many motorsport drivers, Rafaela Ferreira’s career began in karting. From the start, the Brazilian was destined to leave a mark as she became the first woman to score a pole position in the history of the Copa Brasil de Kart Championship back in 2022. Rafaela would go on to finish fourth in the championship that year.

Ferreira then competed in Brazilian Formula 4 in both 2023 and 2024. Here too, she made history - this time by becoming the first woman to stand on the podium in the series, with a third-place finish at Interlagos in the penultimate round of the season.

The Brazilian driver then racked up 10 podiums across 2024, finishing P3 in the first race at the Autódromo Velo Città. Her podium tally also included three wins, one also at the Autódromo Velo Città and another at the Autódromo Oscar y Juan Galvez. Rafaela’s final victory came at Interlagos.

Early in 2025, Rafaela Ferreira competed in the Formula Winter Series for a few rounds, alongside a number of drivers that would join her on the next leg of her motorsport journey as she joined F1 Academy.

F1 Academy Debut

Competing with Campos Racing and supported by the Racing Bulls Formula 1 Team, Rafaela started her foray into F1 Academy with a bang - just not the kind she would have wanted. An incident with Lia Block in the very first practice session of the season in China heavily compromised Ferreira’s qualifying there. But the Brazilian driver immediately went to work to demonstrate what she was capable of when put on the back foot. Starting down in P13 for both races that weekend, Ferreira calmly and methodically made her way through the field and survived the chaos around her in both races, finishing in an impressive P5 in the first race of the year and in P8 in the second.

The second round in Jeddah didn’t quite go to plan either. P13 was as high as Ferreira could get in both races there. But the Brazilian bounced back in a rain-laden Miami, where she was able to finish in eighth place in the sole race that took place there. In what looked like the formation of an unwelcome pattern, the next round in Canada was another weekend where Ferreira would be subjected to character-building races. A DSQ, a DNF and a P12 across the three races did nothing to help her kickstart her season. But the series of unfortunate events did give Rafaela the perfect springboard from which to launch herself back onto the scene after the summer break.

In motorsport, the importance of building and carrying forward positive momentum is often a topic of discussion - but the same can be true of negative momentum. When drivers and teams are attempting to get away from this, a break from proceedings can work wonders and for Ferreira, this was the case in the second half of her debut F1 Academy season.

In Zandvoort, Ferreira qualified just outside the top ten. But she was able to rise as high as P8 by the end of the second race after a P11 result just outside the points in the opening race of the weekend. In Singapore, it looked like her bad luck may have returned as she DNFd in the first of the two races. But what followed in the final race, and then the final round of the season in Las Vegas, were her strongest showings of the year. Back-to-back P9, P8 and P9 finishes across the two venues would be how Ferreira rounded out her season. She finished in P12 overall, just ahead of fellow Brazilian and second season driver Aurelia Nobels.

F1 Academy in 2026

Returning to F1 Academy in 2026, again with Campos Racing and supported by the Racing Bulls Formula 1 Team, Rafaela has already put everything she learned in her first year to good use. Immediately in China, Rafaela achieved her best result in the series so far when she finished in fourth place. In the second race of the opening round, she backed this up with another solid performance, finishing in sixth place.

Canada would be the location for the second round of the season and would once again be a three-race weekend. Here, Rafeala would equal her best result of fourth straight out of the gates. A P8 and P10 followed, meaning that heading into the third round of the season in Silverstone, Ferreira was one of only two drivers to score points in every race of the year. However, that streak was not to continue due to a P11 result and a DNF across the British Grand Prix weekend.

Outside of F1 Academy

Alongside her F1 Academy duties in 2025, Rafaela also competed for a single round of the Spanish Formula 4 Championship, held in Jerez on that occasion. While the results weren’t particularly notable, the weekend was an excellent way for Rafaela to get more seat time and experience in single-seater machinery.

It’s something that she’s repeated already this year by taking part in the third round of the Italian Formula 4 Championship with Cram Motorsport - sporting a brilliant green livery on both her car and her overalls.

Like in Jerez, the weekend didn’t go to plan with two twenty-third position results and a DNF from the three races she contested in that weekend. But also like Jerez, it was another chance for Rafaela to get more time in the car and hone her craft - especially in such a stacked field such as Italian Formula 4. The results matter less at times like this as each extra race under her belt, gives her more information to work with when attacking the next race on her calendar.

Carrying the Brazilian Torch

Alongside developing her career in single-seater racing, Ferreira’s also been spending time with Daniel Ricciardo as part of her collaboration with Enchante. Not only is it helping to raise her profile off track, but it also gives Rafaela access to someone in Riccardo who knows what it takes to make it in the world of Formula 1 – and how to operate successfully outside of it. In a time when managing yourself off track is at least equally important to your performance on track, learning from one of the best is sure to help Ferreira.

In time, Rafaela can build herself into a similar position that Bia Figueiredo had for her when she was growing up - and hopefully surpass it. With so many other male Brazilian drivers on the rise in motorsport at the moment, it’s important for the young girls and women in the country to see that it’s possible for them too - and that’s the audience that Rafaela is catering towards.

Blazing the Trail for Brazilian Motorsport

Since competing outside of Brazil, it can be argued that it’s been a tough time for Rafaela Ferreira on track. But as Charles Leclerc so handily reminded everyone following his victory at the British Grand Prix, tough times don’t last but tough people do. Ferreira is developing a lot of resilience which is crucial when attempting to build a career of longevity in a sport as brutal as motorsport. Three rounds remain in this season of F1 Academy and her future in the series and outside of it beyond that final round in Las Vegas is currently unknown. At twenty-one years of age, there’s still plenty of time for Ferreira to make her way further up the motorsport ladder, be that in Europe or over in the United States like her childhood role model. Either way, each step she takes continues Figueiredo’s legacy while also helping to establish Ferreira’s own and reaffirms the commitment and talent Brazil has when it comes to producing racing drivers. We can’t wait to see what’s next.

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Previously used as an airfield during World War II, the Silverstone Circuit was used for the very first Formula 1 Grand Prix, hosting the inaugural World Championship round on May 13th 1950. Giuseppe Farina won the race in his Alfa Romeo 158, with Luigi Fagioli in second place and British driver Reg Parnell in third.

Fifty-Nine British Grand Prix have been held at the Silverstone Circuit in total, with it becoming the main venue for the event every year since 1987. Prior to that, the British Grand Prix was also held at Brands Hatch and at Aintree. Lewis Hamilton holds the record for the most victories at this circuit (nine) while Ferrari holds the most wins for a Constructor (eighteen). The venue has seen countless memorable moments throughout the years too. Examples include Hamilton and Verstappen’s opening lap melee in 2021, Nigel Mansell’s dominant drive in 1992 and Nico Hulkenberg’s debut podium in 2025.

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F1 Academy hasn’t raced at Silverstone before but its spiritual predecessor, W Series did, supporting Formula 1 in 2021 and 2022. In the first of those two events, Alice Powell won with Fabienne Wohlwend in second and Jamie Chadwick in third. In 2022, it was Chadwick who came out on top with Emma Kimiläinen in second and Abbi Pulling in third.

This year, it will serve as the location for F1 Academy’s third round of its 2026 Season. The 3.6 mile circuit boasts eighteen corners, including the iconic Copse, Maggots and Beckets combination as well as Vale and Woodcote. Max Verstappen currently holds the lap record of 1:27.097 which he set back in 2020.

Being Britain in the summertime when F1 Academy visits, good weather is not guaranteed. Both gloriously sunny days and rain drenched weekends have taken place in July’s gone by, as well as suitably mixed conditions, as we saw in 2024. All of these elements combined with the nature of the circuit should provide the F1 Academy drivers with one of their most intriguing and enjoyable challenges yet.

F1 Academy Preview

British driver Alisha Palmowski leads the Championship heading into this round of F1 Academy with 78 points to her name. Emma Felbermayr sits in second place on 53 and Megan Bruce rounds out the top three on 37 points. Palmowski and Bruce are two of five British drivers on the F1 Academy grid this year. Ella Lloyd, Ella Stevens and Rachel Robertson complete that set of five and gives British fans of the series plenty of opportunities to realise at least some glory when F1 Academy goes racing at Silverstone.

Palmowski won two of the three races last time out in Canada with Mathilda Paatz winning the third. Will Palmowski strike again on home soil or will either one of the other Championship contenders or someone new best her in single seater combat?

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Following a statement of intent from Emma Felbermayr at the opening round of the 2026 F1 Academy Season in Shanghai, it was the turn of Alisha Palmowski this time out as the all female racing series went racing in Montreal. But F1 Academy’s time in Canada was more than just an occasion for the Championship hopeful to fire a return serve. Across the weekend, we saw consistency, close calls, records being broken, heartbreak and moments of pure joy. In only its second year hosting F1 Academy, the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve will surely now be a fan favourite that most will hope remains on the calendar for many years to come.

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Alisha Palmowski on Top

Alisha Palmowski may not have had a dream start to the season in Shanghai but Montreal certainly saw the British driver take everything up a level. Through a combination of almighty dominance that was sprinkled with a dash of bad luck for Felbermayr, the Red Bull backed driver was able to fight back against the Audi supported driver with two statement drives in Montreal.

First, Palmowski took Pole Position. She then controlled the opening race of the weekend from start to finish, adding a bonus point for the fastest lap of the race to her tally too. But Palmowski didn’t just win comfortably, she dominated, annihilating the record set by Maya Weug last year for biggest race winning margin. What before had been a record of around seven seconds obliterated as Alisha reset the record at ten seconds.

A frustrating reverse grid race saw Alisha all the way down and out of the points in P10. But that was the only anomaly in her weekend. Come Sunday’s Feature Race and Palmowski was back on top. Once again, she demonstrated her impressive capabilities with an outstanding drive that allowed her to break her own newly set record of biggest race winning margin. The record now stands at 10.995 seconds. What makes that even more impressive is that she achieved this new feat in wet conditions.

Leaving Montreal, Palmowski leads the Championship standings with a healthy gap back to Felbermayr of twenty-five points. If the battle between these two alone can continue like this, we’re in for a brilliant Championship fight this season.

Megan Bruce on the Rise

There were a number of fresh faces at the top of the field last weekend in Canada. One of these was British driver Megan Bruce as she put in her best F1 Academy performance so far. She didn’t do badly in China as she scored her first points in the series, following her time as a Wild Card Driver last season in Singapore. But in Montreal, much like Palmowski, Bruce stepped things up a notch. Two podiums from three races in the form of a P2 and P3 finish was an incredible achievement. Moreover, in the reverse grid race, Bruce still finished inside the top ten with a P7 result. Bruce was easily one of the standout drivers of the weekend.

Promising Potential from Paatz

Mathilda Paatz reached a major milestone moment in Canada too. At the venue where she made her F1 Academy debut in dramatic style last year as a Wild Card Driver, Paatz gave Aston Martin their first win and podium of 2026.

In the opening race, she secured her first podium with a P3 finish just behind Bruce. But it was in the reverse grid race that the German driver reached the top spot. It was her first win in the series and a result that she followed up with a fifth place finish in the feature race on Sunday.

Having not scored any points in the series until this weekend, it was one heck of a turn around for the young German driver.

Consistency is Key

Nina Gademan, Payton Westcott and Natalia Granada had relatively anonymous weekends in Canada. But none of these three will necessarily complain too much about that. The only really dramatic thing to happen to any of them was Gademan’s DNF in the reverse grid race, spoiling what was a clean weekend up to that point. With solid points on the board for all three and another podium for Westcott, her second of the season, they are each building upon the foundations of their season from Shanghai and keeping themselves within touching distance of the hunt for the Championship ahead of them.

Another driver being incredibly consistent is the Brazilian driver Rafaela Ferreira. While she may not have stood on the podium yet this season, she’s certainly a driver that her fellow competitors should take note of. Ferreira is the only driver apart from the two drivers of Palmowski and Felbermayr at the top of the Championship to score points in every race so far this year.

She equalled her best result of P4 in Canada and while sitting in seventh place overall, is only ten points away from P3 in the Championship. Missing out on the race win in the reverse grid race due to a penalty for a false start, one has to wonder how much closer she’d be to the top with those additional points. With an extra season of experience under her belt than most of her competitors, Rafaela is definitely one to watch for the rest of the season.

Drama Throughout the Pack

Alba Larsen’s maiden podium ultimately continues to elude her. Crossing the line in second place in the reverse grid race and getting to stand on the podium as a result, Larsen was then penalised for causing a collision with Felbermayr. She lost her first podium and the points to go with it, dropping down to P11 as a result. That will have stung for sure for the Danish driver but should hopefully serve as an excellent motivator moving forwards.

A P5 and a P6 finish in the other two races in Canada was good to see but the contact shows that there is still a lot of learning that needs to be done. Speed is nothing without control and so far in her F1 Academy career, Larsen has shown that she can get close, but not quite close enough.

Further down the order, Ella Lloyd had another lacklustre qualifying performance. But the Welsh driver didn’t let this deter her in the races. The McLaren backed driver fought hard throughout and finished in the points in both the opening race and the feature race. If she can fix her qualifying efforts moving forwards, she may even enter the conversation as a late starting Championship contender.

Finally, there is the Haas backed driver of Kaylee Countryman. The sixteen year old American had a tough start to the year back in Shanghai. She left the opening round without any points to her name. In Canada though, she turned things around immediately. A P7 finish in the opening race saw her hit the milestone of first F1 Academy points. She then bettered that result with an outstanding P2 finish in the reverse grid race. She jumps up to P11 in the standings overall and has already scored more points than previous Haas backed driver Courtney Crone in the entirety of last season.

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F1 Academy returns for Round Three in Silverstone, Great Britain from July 3rd-5th.

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Constructed on the man-made Notre Dame Island in the middle of the St Lawrence River, the island was originally created for the 1967 Expo World’s Fair. Once the expo, and the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics that followed, were over, an idea was hatched to use the island in a different way. The Formula 1 circuit that we know and love today was born.

The inaugural Formula 1 Grand Prix to be held in Canada was back in 1978. It was the final race that season and took place on October 8th - a far cry from the modern place on the calendar of May/June. French driver Jean-Pierre Jarier claimed Pole Position while Alan Jones took the fastest lap. Fittingly though, it was home hero Gilles Villeneuve who won the Grand Prix, with Jody Scheckter in second place and Carlos Reutemann in third.

Forty-Four Grand Prix have been held in total at this circuit since then and it’s seen some incredibly memorable moments throughout the years. These include the modern classic that was the 2011 edition of the race where Jenson Button stole victory from Sebastian Vettel on the final lap of the race as well as the iconic podium in 2023 of Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Adrian Newey.

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F1 Academy’s History at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve

F1 Academy first visited the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve last season - and it gave us one of the best rounds that the series has had in its entire history to date. Normally, there are two races held over an F1 Academy weekend - but on this occasion, there was a third added due to the cancellation of the second race in Miami at the previous round due to adverse weather conditions.

Chloe Chambers claimed Pole Position while Chloe Chong took Reverse Grid Pole.

The first race was full of drama as the two Campos Racing teammates of Chambers and Palmowski collided as they were battling for the lead early on. Mathilda Paatz, then a Wild Card Driver in the series, made contact with the infamous Wall of Champions and a chain reaction of incidents at the end of the race led to the event ending behind the Safety Car. The incidents in question were Ferreira and Chong colliding while behind them, Ciconte and Crone did the same in an attempt to avoid the incident unfolding in front of them. Doriane Pin won the race, with Ella Lloyd in second and Nina Gademan in third.

The second race of the weekend was filled with close battles throughout, some of which were too close for comfort at times, and resulted in Emma Felbermayr taking her maiden win in F1 Academy. It was quite the whirlwind for the Austrian driver as she’d been disqualified from the first race for having an underweight car. Once again, it was Ella Lloyd in second and Nina Gademan in third.

Anagnostiadis and Paatz made contact with one another early on in the final race of the weekend. Nina Gademan received a ten second time penalty after colliding with Felbermayr in the turn 10 hairpin but both drivers were able to continue. Lia Block then ran into the back of Ferreira (who was having the very definition of a bad luck weekend) and brought out the Safety Car once more. Nobels also had to retire as a result, having collided with Ferreira too. The third and final race of the F1 Academy weekend would again end under Safety Car conditions with Chloe Chambers winning from Ella Lloyd in second place and Doriane Pin in third.

It was also confirmed over that weekend of F1 Academy racing in Canada that the series would return to race there until at least 2028.

Circuit Details and Weather Expectations

Valtteri Bottas still holds the lap record at the 2.7 mile circuit which he set back in 2019 when he was driving for Mercedes. The legendary circuit boasts fourteen corners, including the famous hairpin at T10, where Robert Kubica crashed spectacularly in 2007 and the long back straight that ends with the final chicane of T13 and T14 with the Wall of Champions on the outside of the last corner.

Being held in June, the chances of good weather are rather high. But as has been proven a number of times before, such as in 2011 and 2023, the rain will happily come along to challenge those out on track. Once again, three races will be held across the weekend when F1 Academy returns to Canada. This time, it’s due to the cancellation of the original second round of the season, which was to be held in April in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

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That is how Mony Turki, a motorsport fan born and raised in Jeddah, describes the moment the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was officially called off. She had been holding onto the race weekend as a fixed point of normality amid a time of conflict in the region. It was a date in the calendar that felt solid when much else did not. When it disappeared, so did that anchor.

The 2026 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix had been scheduled to run from April 17 to 19 at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, marking Round 5 of the Formula 1 season and Round 2 of the F1 Academy championship. Just over a month before, Formula 1 confirmed that neither it nor the Bahrain Grand Prix would go ahead. Airspace restrictions and closures across the Middle East and Gulf region, combined with the security risks involved in transporting the vast logistical infrastructure required for a Formula 1 weekend, made the decision, in the end, unavoidable. The Formula 2, Formula 3, and F1 Academy rounds scheduled for both weekends were cancelled alongside them.

“While this was a difficult decision to take, it is unfortunately the right one at this stage,” said Stefano Domenicali, President and CEO of Formula 1, in the official statement.

Nobody serious is arguing otherwise. But the right decision and the painless decision are rarely the same thing.

Jeddah was more than ready

Saudi Arabia’s second-largest city sits along the Red Sea — known locally, with some affection, as the Bride of the Red Sea — and it carries that energy into everything it does, including race week. The Jeddah Corniche Circuit is one of the fastest street circuits on the Formula 1 calendar, threading along the waterfront at speeds that make it unlike almost anywhere else the championship visits. The city doesn’t make much effort to be understated, and neither does its Grand Prix.

The race had grown, over five editions, into something considerably more than a sporting event. Last year, Saudi Arabia won the award for Best Event Spectacle among all Formula 1 rounds, and this year was set to surpass even that. Shakira, Pitbull, Kygo, Tyla, and Marwan Moussa had been confirmed as headliners for the trackside concerts. The grandstands, Mony tells us, were already going up. The support garages were in the process of being built. The city, in every practical sense, was ready.

What made this particular round meaningful for F1 Academy fans went beyond the headline acts. Unlike many rounds on the calendar, the F1 Academy paddock in Saudi Arabia operates as an open paddock, being genuinely accessible without the tiered credentials that gate off so much of the sport’s inner world. Younger fans could walk in, stand close to the cars, speak to drivers not much older than themselves, and leave with something harder to quantify than a photograph: the sense that the distance between aspiration and reality is shorter than it appears. “Preparations were pretty far along,” Mony says. “Everyone was ready and excited.” That excitement, when it had nowhere to go, became something heavier.

Gigi, another Jeddah-born-and-raised local fan and content creator, points to something broader still.

The true cost of cancelling a Grand Prix

Formula 1 has lived through this before, though never quite comfortably. In March 2020, the Australian Grand Prix was called off on a Friday morning, hours before first practice, as it became clear that a McLaren team member had tested positive for Covid-19 and the pandemic could no longer be managed around a race weekend. By the time the decision was made, around AUS $50 million had already been spent on the event.

In 2022, the Russian Grand Prix was terminated in the immediate aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine, swiftly and without hesitation, though the financial dispute between Formula 1 and the Russian promoter over who owed what to whom dragged on for years. And in May 2023, the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix was cancelled mid-week as catastrophic flooding overwhelmed the region around Imola; the race’s hosting fee, understood to be around $20 million, was waived under force majeure, and Formula 1 donated a further million euros to the regional relief effort.

Each of those cancellations left its own particular shape of damage. What they share is a financial and human cost that tends to disappear into the administrative language of official statements.

The numbers involved in Jeddah are considerably larger. Jeddah’s hosting fee is among the highest on the calendar, and that is before accounting for the revenue Formula 1 loses from trackside sponsorship activations, hospitality packages, broadcasting adjustments, and the commercial infrastructure that makes a Grand Prix weekend function. Both the Saudi and Bahraini events attract substantial corporate hospitality demand, and that world, invisible to most fans, represents a significant portion of the sport’s commercial ecosystem. The combined financial impact of the two cancellations is expected to run well beyond $100 million.

But it is not all about money, and perhaps the more important truth is that the financial figures, large as they are, do not capture what a cancellation actually takes from the people who were preparing to live it. For Mony, the personal impact was immediate and specific. “I had so many plans,” she says. “So many friends were coming in for the race, and I made a lot of new friends via the local community. We all had so many plans for that weekend.”

Those plans did not entirely disappear — the local community in Jeddah is now organising to mark the weekend together anyway, a quiet act of loyalty to something they love. But the shape of the weekend has changed entirely.

The part that isn’t being said

For fans watching from outside the region, the cancellation registers primarily as an inconvenience: a gap in the calendar, a shift in the schedule, a longer wait until Miami. That response is understandable. For most of its global audience, Formula 1 fandom experiences the season at a distance, and the season's rhythms matter. But Mony is direct about what gets lost in that framing.

Day-to-day life in Jeddah has not changed dramatically in the ways that might be imagined from abroad. The city is not the conflict. But the mental weight of proximity is real, and the cancellation sharpened it. “It’s been a bit somber,” Mony says. “Everyone was so excited for the race. Mentally, it’s taken a toll on a lot of people.”

For Gigi, it is more of a quiet disappointment. “People aren’t making a big scene about it, but you can tell it affected the vibe. Conversations shifted, and that excitement kind of faded instead of building,” she says. The distinction between physical disruption and emotional weight is easy to lose from a distance. It is worth slowing down enough to register it.

What happens to F1 Academy

For Formula 1, absorbing a calendar gap, however costly, is a structural inconvenience. For F1 Academy, the mathematics is harsher. The series competes on a smaller canvas, with fewer rounds and less margin for loss. Every race represents competitive track time that cannot easily be recovered, and for drivers whose careers are still being built, the cumulative effect of fewer opportunities is not trivial.

However, F1 Academy responded quickly and creatively. Earlier this month, the series announced the introduction of a new three-race weekend format at two upcoming rounds — the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal and the Circuit of the Americas in Austin — adding a brand new Opening Race to the existing Reverse Grid Race and Feature Race. The change restores the calendar to 14 races.

The Opening Race will be set using each driver’s second-fastest qualifying time, adding a strategic dimension to the sole 30-minute qualifying session: drivers will need to produce not one but two strong laps, with full championship points on offer. It is a format that rewards consistency under pressure, and it emerged from close collaboration between F1 Academy and the promoters in Montreal and Austin, whose willingness to make space for additional track time has shaped what the replacement rounds can be.

“Introducing the Opening Race at select rounds underscores our commitment to building a platform where the most talented can thrive by maximising competitive track time,” said Susie Wolff, Managing Director of F1 Academy.

It is a considered response to an impossible situation — more racing, more visibility, more opportunity for drivers who deserve the chance to be seen.

Will F1 Academy return to Jeddah?

The locals hope so. Both Mony and Gigi are clear about why it matters, and about what is at stake in the question.

“We absolutely love F1 Academy here,” Mony said. “I love seeing not only girls, but even boys, being inspired by the amazing ladies behind the wheel.”

That image — young fans in an open paddock, standing close enough to feel the weight of the sport, watching drivers who are their own age competing on the world’s biggest stage — is exactly what F1 Academy was built to create. It is the kind of experience that cannot be replicated through a screen, and it is precisely the kind of experience that Jeddah, with its open paddock and its gift for hospitality, delivers particularly well.

Both the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation and the Saudi Motorsport Company have affirmed their commitment to the partnership with Formula 1 and their readiness to welcome the sport back as soon as circumstances allow. The Saudi contract runs until 2030, and the infrastructure, the appetite, and the community that has grown around the race are all still there, waiting.

But a conflict is not a weather event. It does not pass in a week, leave its damage visible on a map, and recede. What comes next for the region is uncertain in ways that no contract term can resolve. The sport will, eventually, have to ask itself whether its return to Jeddah, when it comes, is driven by genuine confidence in the safety of everyone involved, or by the pull of a hosting fee that ranks among the largest on the calendar. The grandstands can go back up quickly. Whether the sport returns for the right reasons is a question worth sitting with considerably longer.

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Formula 1 welcomed Mickey Mouse to the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix, with the iconic character dancing in front of the Bellagio Fountains before a flurry of fireworks lit up the skies. Now, following the thrills of the Shanghai Grand Prix and the exhilarating start of the 2026 F1 Academy season, Disney has announced the extension of the ‘Fuel the Magic’ campaign.

The entertainment conglomerate has expanded its partnership with F1 to include F1 Academy, set to premiere later this Spring. The project will bring the classically beloved Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck into the series to promote the representation of women-led partnerships and encourage young girls to pursue new passions in motorsports. Exclusive merchandise, character experiences and new original content will also be unveiled, offering an exciting gateway into the world of racing.

Managing director of F1 Academy Susie Wolff has commented,

“By bringing together two worlds united by creativity, ambition, and a belief in what’s possible, we’re building pathways that inspire and empower future fans, drivers and leaders to shape the future of our sport.”

Disney’s decision to deepen its involvement in motorsports comes as F1 Academy enters its fourth year, announced just shortly after a new partnership with Sephora. Sharing the same goals of increasing visibility and boosting confidence, these initiatives present the growth of women’s motorsports and the series’ rising popularity.

When F1 Academy first launched in 2023, it offered a launchpad for women to compete in a male-dominated sport, despite previous challenges with Formula Woman and the W Series. Since then, F1 Academy has expanded in both scale and reach to showcase incredible talent and unique stories. Innovations such as bringing in Wild Card drivers for specific weekends have created a truly global community, opening further opportunities to break into racing and captivate audiences worldwide.

Additionally, the involvement of major sponsors - including all F1 teams to fund cars and drivers - demonstrates a newfound commitment to greater diversity and a dedication to the growth of women in motorsports. This level of support was lacking in F1 Academy’s predecessors, resulting in limited opportunities and their eventual closure.

Disney and F1 Academy’s collaboration also indicates a wider shift in the way motorsports are embracing new tech in sports media. The introduction of interactive digital content and the wide adoption of social media indicate that sports are moving past traditional broadcast models that separate athletes and fans. This enables audiences to step directly into the action through immersive experiences, fostering deeper engagement and connection.

The success of Formula 1’s own media strategy, with the release of Netflix’s Drive to Survive, led to an impressive boom in global viewership. The show revealed a behind-the-scenes look into drivers’ lives and team dynamics to captivate a new generation of fans - an approach that F1 Academy now hopes to replicate. The debut of their own Netflix series, F1: The Academy, last year displayed the inner workings of the sport, alongside the efforts made to bring women back to the F1 grid.

F1 Academy’s partnership with Disney aims to promote women’s stories and provide an accessible platform for young girls to hear the inspirational narratives of female drivers. Chief commercial officer for F1, Emily Prazer, said,

“Disney is a global storytelling powerhouse that unites young and old generations alike, while celebrating individuality. It’s therefore a natural step as part of our collaboration for it to support F1 Academy, a series that champions women, encourages them to get involved in our sport and ultimately thrive. It marks another momentous step in how we continue to build impactful integrations that not only deliver enormous fan engagement, but underline the values of our wider sport.”

More information about Disney and F1 Academy’s partnership is expected to be released in the coming months, but the collaboration has already set out clear goals. The two organisations hope to engage new audiences and increase female participation in motorsports, delving into creative storytelling and fan-driven campaigns to support women and girls in the years to come.

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With three seasons of F1 Academy now in the rear view mirror, the all-female racing series has seen a plethora of drivers graduate from it and go off to pastures new. But what have those drivers been doing and where are they now?

It’s Race Week! takes a look at six of F1 Academy’s alumni and how what they’re doing now is not only benefiting themselves but also paving the way for other women entering motorsport in the future.

Marta Garcia

For many general and die-hard motorsport fans, Marta Garcia will already be a household name. The 25-year-old Spaniard is someone who oftentimes comes across as having been around for a lot longer than she actually has been. Such is the breadth and depth of her career so far.

Joining F1 Academy in its inaugural season in 2023, Marta notched up seven race wins from the twenty-one races. On top of that, she scored five additional podiums, five pole positions and six fastest laps. Garcia finished P1 in the Championship by the end of the year with 278 points, 56 points clear of Lena Buhler in P2.

After winning in F1 Academy, Garcia moved over to the Formula Regional European Championship, where she raced with Iron Dames in 2024. This came about as part of F1 Academy’s prize for winning the Championship. At the same time, she competed in the Ligier European Series for four races, an endurance racing series, also with Iron Dames. Two wins in this series in Spa and Portugal came Marta’s way, and her transition into endurance racing looked to have gone very well indeed.

The move from single-seaters to endurance racing is not an uncommon one in motorsport. Many single-seater drivers do it not only to stay afloat in the racing world when competition for seats is especially high, but also to further develop their overall racecraft abilities. The more different disciplines of racing one competes in, the more rounded a driver becomes and their ability to adapt from one racing series to the next becomes more and more impressive.

We’ve also seen drivers use this pathway to return to single-seater racing. When Mick Schumacher left Formula 1, he spent time racing in the World Endurance Championship with Alpine before securing his seat for the 2026 IndyCar Season with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. While it may come across as frustrating to some fans to see the pathway towards higher classes of single-seater racing appear to become closed off to a driver like Marta, it’s a door that is not as firmly shut as it may seem.

Iron Dames and Formula E Debut

In 2025, Marta teamed up once again with Iron Dames to compete in the Le Man Cup GT3, a support series for the European Le Mans Series. She finished in P4 overall. This was made even more impressive due to the fact that she had a massive shunt at the season opener in Barcelona and also had to miss racing at Le Mans due to her teammate being injured. On her comeback in Spa, however, she hit the ground running with a podium finish. Marta then followed this up with a victory in Silverstone, her first win in this category of racing, and a solid P5 finish in Portugal.

Marta also made her Formula E debut back in 2024, taking part in the rookie test with ERT - now Cupra Kiro. Later that same year, she tested with Porsche in the pre-season women’s test. She then switched teams again, partnering with Lola Yamaha ABT in this season’s pre-season women’s test. Experience across multiple teams allows Marta to enhance her skills at transitioning into different working environments, learning and adapting to differing procedures and not letting these behind-the-scenes changes negatively impact her performance inside the car. Being involved with Formula E consistently like this also helps her to keep the door ajar to the single-seater world.

While we don’t yet know what Garcia’s plans are for 2026, it’s clear that a number of options are open to her. There’s also the potential to switch things up entirely again and explore a new corner of the motorsport landscape.

The Al Qubaisi Sisters: Amna & Hamda

Following her two seasons in F1 Academy, the elder Al Qubaisi, Amna, also moved over into endurance racing. She competed in the Ligier European Series JS P4 with Team Virage in 2025. It was a unique situation as her sister, Hamda, was also racing with her as her teammate. Amna achieved multiple P3 results in Barcelona, Spa and Silverstone.

Amna would go on to finish in P4 overall in the Championship, just eleven points behind P3. Earlier this year, she doubled down on her endurance racing potential by competing in the 2025–26 24H Series Middle East at the Dubai Autodrome. During the race, she was running very solidly in the podium places before contact with another car resulted in her having to retire from the race.

Like Marta, perhaps Amna is honing her craft in another way aside from in single-seater racing. But her participation in the endurance race at Dubai could suggest that she’s looking to develop her skills in this discipline of racing, perhaps with an eye on the European Le Mans Series or even the World Endurance Championship in the years to come.

Hamda, the younger Al Qubaisi, joined her sister in the Ligier European Series JS P4 with Team Virage after her stint in F1 Academy. The move from single-seaters to prototype machinery is not always a straightforward one, but it’s not the first time that members of her family have competed in this type of racing, with her father being a well-known endurance racing driver in the past.

Both Hamda and Amna have expressed interest in competing alongside and against their father in a race, so perhaps the sisters’ delve into this style of racing is leading them closer to realising that dream. Hamda is also two years younger than Amna, and while age shouldn’t make a difference, drivers are often judged on this, and younger drivers are often prioritised over older ones - even if the gap is only a couple of years.

By switching disciplines and being able to learn both from her father and her sister, Hamda is laying a solid foundation to ensure a lengthy career in motorsport.

Nerea Marti

In 2025, Nerea moved across to Endurance Racing. Part of the BMW M Racing Academy and racing for BMW España, Nerea competed in the Supercars Endurance Championship. She competed in the series back in 2024 too, where she got onto the podium three times. In 2025, Nerea built on that success by winning a race at Jarama. She then repeated this feat by winning in Valencia too and would finish the season in P5 overall in the GT4 Pro Class. Just six points stood between her and third place.

Nerea also transitioned into the E1 Series with Team Alula for the final two rounds of the 2025 season. She joined the team again for the opening round of 2026 in Jeddah, where she finished in third place. It wasn’t the only electric racing series that she would be involved in though as Nerea went on to become an ambassador for Andretti. She tested with the team in the Formula E pre-season women’s test, having tested with them in 2024 too.

When you combine her sublime single-seater ability (P4 overall in both seasons of F1 Academy, along with a solid stint and string of results in W Series) with her proven adaptability to both endurance racing and electric racing, Nerea presents herself as a strong and reliable competitor who is an exciting prospect to any team on the lookout for a new driver signing.

A proven winner and podium finisher across all forms of racing she’s competed in in recent years, Nerea is reminiscent of more traditional, old school racing drivers who used to compete in just about anything. Being able to not only do that but also deliver results makes her someone to watch with great interest not only for the rest of the year, but into 2027 and beyond.

Bianca Bustamante

Following a less-than-stellar second and final season of F1 Academy in 2024, it was unclear as to where Bianca would land in 2025. Post F1 Academy, though, Bianca was able to secure a seat in the GB3 Championship with Elite Motorsport. Bianca scored points in seventeen of the twenty-four races and finished in P22 overall.

This year, Bianca has once again doubled down on making it in single-seater racing, rather than pivoting into an alternative racing category. The Filipino has signed with Palou Motorsport to compete in the Euro-Cup 3 Series. In the opening round in Portugal, Bianca had a highest finish of P13. An unfortunate error in the final race sent her tumbling down the order after having made significant progress up through the field prior to that.

Still, at only twenty-one years of age, much of the racing that Bianca is doing is to help her gain more and more valuable experience inside the car out on track. Seat time is difficult to come by in racing, regardless of the category and on paper, results often don’t tell the full story, leading to drivers being judged too harshly too soon into their careers. But by committing to single seater again for another year, Bianca is demonstrating how seriously she’s taking the challenge and that she wants to succeed.

Moreover, Bianca has also been signed up as a development driver in Formula E with Cupra Kiro. The first major duty she had to undergo for the team was representing them at their rookie test in Berlin and then again in the pre-season women’s test in Valencia. Much like Marta Garcia, Nerea Marti and Abbi Pulling, her place there both helps to normalise the presence of women in single-seater racing, gives them an opportunity to develop their skills in different machinery and opens up another potential pathway for them to compete in a high level of racing in the future.

Abbi Pulling

Having raced in British F4 for a number of races in 2024 alongside her F1 Academy duties, where she won a race alongside two further podiums, it was only natural for Abbi to move into GB3 in 2025. The F1 Academy Champion had the highest result of P3 at Brands Hatch, becoming the first woman to do so in the series since its formation. She would go on to finish in P10 overall that year. In 2026, she’ll return to that series for her second full season, competing once again for Rodin Motorsport.

But that’s not all. In 2025, the Nissan Formula E Team signed Pulling to be their test and reserve driver. She took part in the Formula E rookie test in Berlin back in July as well as the women’s test held in Valencia back in October and the series’ recent rookie practice session in Miami.

While not a full-time seat racing in the series, Abbi’s role here, as with Bianca’s too, is steadily normalising young women taking on these roles at teams and further paving the way for a woman to get the opportunity of competing in the series on a regular basis in the near future. By driving in Formula E too and having a consistent relationship with one of the teams further captures her intent to make single seater racing her prime focus of where she wants to compete in not only this year, but in the future.

Like Bianca, Abbi has appeared to pick her path and is determined to throw everything she has at it until she succeeds. That kind of commitment hopefully won’t go unnoticed, along with the results she’s achieving to back up the potential many know her to hold.

Doriane Pin

Pin finished her rookie season of F1 Academy in an impressive second place overall with only the unstoppable force of Abbi Pulling being able to beat her to the title.

However, in 2025, it was Pin who took that mantle and quite simply dominated. The Mercedes-backed driver won four races and collected a further four podiums with a lowest result all season of P6. She stood 15 points clear of Maya Weug at the end of the year, sealing the 2025 Championship in Las Vegas.

Prior to the finale in Las Vegas, Pin hinted that whether or not she won the Championship would ultimately decide if she continued along the single-seater ladder or returned to endurance racing. With the Championship now in her back pocket, many thought a seat in GB3 or something similar was on the cards for the French Driver. Instead, it’s been revealed that Pin will, in fact, return to her endurance racing roots as she competes in the LMP3 category of the European Le Mans Series with Duqueine Racing. Alongside this, though, Doriane has also been given the role as a test and development driver for the Mercedes F1 Team - hinting that her future in single-seater racing may not be done quite yet.

Having both pathways open to her will be a huge relief for Pin, as she’ll be able to continue exploring both properly without risking compromising a future in either for the sake of the other. As much as it may seem like an obvious point to make, Pin getting this chance also helps set the standard for other women looking to compete in both categories in the future. The more examples of it that are seen, as demonstrated by Pin, Pulling, Bustamante, etc. the less reason there will be to deny that to others in the future.

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The opening round of the 2026 F1 Academy Season got underway last weekend in Shanghai and gave fans a tantalizing glimpse into what we’ve got to look forward to for the rest of the season. With two race winners, two rookies on the podium and over half of the field scoring points in the opening round, let’s take a look at what we learned from F1 Academy’s trip to Shanghai.

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Experience Delivers Results

Only six drivers on the grid this season competed in last year’s Championship full time. Of those six, all currently sit inside the top ten places in the Driver’s Championship, with three of them locking out the top podium spots.

Felbermayr, Palmowski and Gademan lock out the top of the standings and their consistency across the weekend was remarkable. Felbermayr impressed the most as the Austrian driver converted P6 to P3 for Race I and then took the win on Sunday for Race II after having started in third place following a strong qualifying effort.

Palmowski finished in fifth in the first race, but then finished in second place on Sunday, adding the accolades of Pole Position and Fastest Lap to her name to boot. Gademan meanwhile won Saturday’s race while under constant pressure throughout before finishing in a solid P4 on Sunday. Just nine points separate all three drivers as F1 Academy departs from Shanghai.

“I really liked Gademan - she stood out for me.” - Jenny Craig, Inside F2

Elsewhere, Rafaela Ferreira had her best weekend yet in F1 Academy, finishing in P4 and P6 across the weekend. Ella Lloyd finished inside the top ten in both races too while also getting the fastest lap of the race on Saturday. Experience is always key in motorsport but in this season of F1 Academy, it looks set to give us an extremely exciting and tightly fought Championship as a result.

Speed is Nothing without Control

The last of the experienced drivers to return full time in 2026 is Alba Larsen. Now backed by Ferrari, there is a large spotlight on the young Danish driver. Across the race weekend in Shanghai, Larsen demonstrated once again what she did all of last year - that there’s a lot of potential within her. But an unfortunate racing incident (along with a questionably late call from the team to return to the garage to fix damage to the car) ruined her race on Saturday.

On Sunday, Larsen had a blistering start and launched herself into the lead going into T1. But trouble came for her again after a Safety Car period. Taking too much kerb on the exit of the final corner on the Shanghai International Circuit, Alba found herself on an unplanned trip through the gravel trap on the opposite side of the track and haemorrhaging positions as she tumbled down the order. In the end, Larsen had to settle for P8.

Following both races, Larsen was quite critical of herself and rued the ultimate outcome of the weekend. But the seventeen year old has time on her side and appears to have the right kind of support around her. Such lessons are always tough in motorsport but they are ones that can be learned from if approached correctly. With a significant gap until F1 Academy goes racing again in Canada, it won’t be surprising if Larsen does all she can to ensure she doesn’t repeat the same mistakes again next time out.

Rookies on the Rise

Eleven rookies are on the grid full time this year. Three stand out in particular after the first race weekend in Shanghai. The first of those is, of course, Natalia Granada. Announced just days before the series hit the track in China, the opening round marked Granada’s first time competing in single seater machinery. What a fantastic story it was then when she proceeded to finish on the podium in P2 in her debut race. For a driver who just a short time ago had no idea if she’d even have a racing future, it’s a simply astounding turn of events.

Having finished in a respectable P6 on Saturday, Mercedes’ latest signing, Payton Westcott made her way onto the podium on Sunday by finishing in P3. The American was a Wild Card entry in Las Vegas at the end of last season and was only one of two rookies to score points in both races in China. The second of those was Lisa Billard. While a podium finish eluded her on this occasion, P8 and P7 were both excellent starting points for the French Driver’s full time debut in F1 Academy.

Last year, rookies such as Lloyd, Palmowski and Gademan impressed everyone up and down the grid. Might we be seeing more of that as we head into the 2026 season? It certainly looks like it.

More Action on Track

Even with six returning drivers, there was an air of rebirth about F1 Academy at its season opener. For dedicated fans, many of the names and faces on the grid, rookie or veteran (as much as one can be in this series) will have been familiar. But for the most part, there won’t have been any household names - and that’s a good thing. For the first time since F1 Academy made its debut back in 2023, it feels like it’s showcasing a full complement of unknown drivers that fans can embrace and support for the first time.

This freshness has transitioned into action out on track too as all eighteen drivers last weekend seemed hungry to prove themselves.

“There seems to be a lot more overtaking than usual and the series feels like it’s a lot less dominated.” - Jenny Craig, Inside F2

Without the presence of a dominant driver such as Marta Garcia or Abbi Pulling, it felt truly as if it was anyone’s game. All drivers, both rookie and experienced, had a legitimate chance to win the race or get onto the podium. Both podiums on Saturday and Sunday proved that by who was standing upon them. Even when moves didn’t go the driver’s way or rookie mistakes happened, such as Jacquet’s collision with Kosterman, it still felt more organic and more action packed than we’ve seen in past seasons. Tight battles throughout the field - and crucially the pressure on the drivers out in front - came across more naturally and it became harder to predict who would win. It’s what a series like F1 Academy needs and it’s brilliant to see.

Less Domination in 2026?

As mentioned, so far in 2026 there doesn’t appear to be a runaway driver in terms of the Championship. Sure, Felbermayr looks very strong but coming into the weekend, most people’s money would have been on Palmowski, Lloyd or Larsen. To get this shake up so early is a brilliant sign and a potential tease for the remainder of the season.

“I enjoyed both races actually quite a lot, it was more competitive and there were less crashes.” - Jenny Craig, Inside F2

In 2023 and 2024, it was all but a sure thing from the word go that Marta Garcia and Abbi Pulling would win their respective Championships. Last year, we knew it would be between Pin and Weug and despite it going down to the final round, it was all but guaranteed to be Pin’s time as top dog. That’s not the case in 2026 - at least not yet. The favourites had a mixed weekend and a different standout rookie from last season took the reins instead, while fresh rookies wasted no time in making names for themselves.

Can Felbermayr keep this momentum up and run away with the Championship or will one of the plethora of other drivers steal it away from her? We just don’t know. Isn’t that fantastic?

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F1 Academy returns May 22nd in Montreal, Canada.

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In April 2003, a marshland area in the Jiading District of Shanghai was earmarked for a future in Formula 1. Eighteen months later, at a cost of roughly $450 million, the state-of-the-art Shanghai International Circuit was completed. Formula 1 was about to make its debut in China.

The Chinese Grand Prix has thus been on the calendar since 2004. Rubens Barrichello won the inaugural race at the Shanghai International Circuit on that occasion for Ferrari, with Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen finishing alongside him on the podium. Since then, we’ve had a further seventeen Grand Prix held at this venue, including Formula 1’s 1000th Grand Prix back in 2019.

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But F1 Academy only made its debut in China for the first time last year. It was the first race of the series’ third season. Maya Weug claimed Pole Position for Sunday’s Race by half a second from season long rival, Doriane Pin. Meanwhile, then rookie, Nina Gademan took Reverse Grid Pole for the first race, which would be held on Saturday.

The races themselves were dramatic and the action even began before the racing got underway, courtesy of a significant crash in practice between Ferreira and Block. Collisions continued into the first race as Block and Nobels made contact on Lap 5 while Chong and Havrda came together five laps later. Gademan did a brilliant job to maintain the lead of the race, despite having to successfully navigate the challenge of three Safety Car race restarts. But a gut-wrenching issue with the car on the penultimate lap took the win away from her and instead saw fellow rookie Alisha Palmowski take her maiden win.

In the second race, Pin overtook Pole sitter Weug at the very start. But the Mercedes-backed driver wasn’t able to gain much of a lead. The Safety Car bunched up the pack when it came out because of a collision between Gademan and Hausmann. Nobels and Havrda were again involved in an incident, this time with each other, while Chong made contact with rookie Ciconte as she attempted to avoid this incident. Pin would go on to win the race though, with Weug keeping her honest in P2 and Chloe Chambers rounding out the podium in third.

This year, F1 Academy returns to kick off its brand new season. The Shanghai International Circuit is 5.451km long with sixteen corners, including the famous twisty opening three corners and the long back straight that leads drivers from T13 to T14.

Being held in March, the climate should be mild and comfortable, but prone to change. Shanghai usually has an average annual temperature of 17.5 °C (63.5 °F) and with rain occurring 111 days each year, there is a chance that we may see some for the opening round of the F1 Academy Season.

If you’re reading this and you’re also trackside in Shanghai, check out the Fan Stage if you want to see the drivers themselves from F1 Academy making an appearance this weekend.

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With the end of the 2025 season came a major reset in F1 Academy. The series’ two-season limit means that a wave of drivers have now graduated, opening the door to a new generation ready to step in. The 2026 F1 Academy Grid is now closed and ready to race.

Each rookie will be looking to make their mark early on and set themselves apart from the established drivers that are returning to the championship this year.

With the new season kicking off this weekend in Shanghai, let’s meet the young women competing alongside Formula 1 and who hope to make it there one day.

Meet the 2026 F1 Academy Grid

PREMA

Payton Westcott

Payton Westcott demonstrated her abilities enough to earn herself a full time seat in the 2026 Season after participating as a Wild Card Driver in 2025 on the final round in Las Vegas. Backed by the Mercedes F1 Team, Payton brings experience from the UAE4 Series, the Italian F4 Championship, and the Formula Winter Series.

Mathilda Paatz

Another 2025 Wild Card Driver, Mathilda made her F1 Academy debut last year in Montreal following stints in the French F4 Championship and the Formula Winter Series, amongst others. For 2026, she’s back full time, making the switch from Hitech TGR to PREMA and will be supported by the Aston Martin Formula 1 Team.

Natalia Granada

The final piece of the F1 Academy 2026 puzzle - Natalia completes PREMA’s line-up, announced just days before the season gets going. The seventeen year old Spaniard will be supported by the Sephora brand, a French multinational make-up and beauty brand. It has also teamed up with F1 Academy directly as an Official Partner and the Official Beauty Retail Partner of the series.

Natalia began racing when she was eleven years old, in local and regional karting championships. She became the first Junior Driver selected by Iron Dames, and was mentored by Miguel Molina, Ferrari factory driver and Le Mans winner. Last year, she explored the world of GT racing while also testing in Formula 4.

Campos Racing

Megan Bruce

The first of the drivers to be announced to be competing with Campos Racing for 2026, Megan Bruce will be a familiar face for F1 Academy fans. She made her debut in the series at last season’s round in Singapore, where she finished in P12 and P13 across the two races of the weekend. This year, she’ll be backed by one of F1 Academy’s partners, Tag Heuer. Previously, Bruce has competed in Saudi Arabian F4, GB4 and the Caterham 270R Championship.

Rafaela Ferreira

Hailing from Brazil, Rafaela enters her second full season of F1 Academy in 2026. Last year, she finished in P12 overall with a best result of fifth which came at the opening round in Shanghai. Prior to that, Ferreira has competed in both the Formula Winter Series and the Brazilian F4 Championship. In the latter, she achieved ten podium finishes, including three wins - the last of which occurred in Interlagos.

Alisha Palmowski

Palmowski also enters her second full season of F1 Academy this year, once again competing for Campos Racing. Finishing in fifth overall with three podiums to her name, including a win in China, the Red Bull Junior Driver impressed many up and down the paddock. This came off the back of her F1 Academy debut as a Wild Card driver in 2024 in Qatar, where she finished in fifth place.

The nineteen-year-old British driver moved into single-seater racing for the first time in 2024, after racing in the Ginetta Championship in the UK. She competed in both the GB4 Championship and the Formula Winter Series.

MP Motorsport

Nina Gademan

Last year, Nina made her full time F1 Academy debut after having joined the series in 2024 as a Wild Card Driver at her home event in Zandvoort. She finished the year in P6 overall with four podiums to her name. This included a home win in Zandvoort, racing on the same weekend as Formula 1.

Switching to MP Motorsport from PREMA in 2026, Nina is once again backed by the Alpine Formula 1 team and enters the 2026 season as one of the favourites for the title.

Alba Larsen

After a solid foundation in racing, which included karting and competing in the Indian Racing League, Alba Larsen moved into F1 Academy for her rookie season in 2025. Supported by Tommy Hilfiger and racing for MP Motorsport, she finished her debut season in P7 overall. Larsen got close to the podium on several occasions and scored points in all but four races in 2025.

Now backed by the Ferrari Formula 1 Team (and part of the Ferrari Driver Academy), Alba is a driver many will be keeping a close eye on this year as she looks set to be one of the Championship contenders.

Esmee Kosterman

An immediate fan favourite from her Wild Card debut in F1 Academy last year in Zandvoort, Esmee returns in 2026 to compete in the entire Championship. While racing with MP Motorsport, she’ll be backed further, not by an F1 Team, but by Lego. Prior to F1 Academy, Esmee competed in British F4, the Indian Racing League and the Ford Fiesta Sprint Cup Benelux.

Rodin Motorsport

Ella Lloyd

Lloyd was announced as part of the McLaren Driver Development programme ahead of her debut season in F1 Academy. She hit the ground running and finished the year as the highest placed rookie, in P4 overall with a victory in Jeddah to her name. Returning to race for Rodin Motorsport again in 2026, as the highest returning driver, Ella looks set to be the main title contender.

Ella only began her competitive racing career in 2022, making her debut in the Ginetta Junior Championship. She finished in the points in 15 of the 25 races before graduating to the Ginetta GT Championship in the following year. The Welsh driver became vice-champion that year in a highly competitive field. Lloyd has also competed in the Formula Winter Series, achieving the Female Driver Trophy several times, and in the British F4 series where she stood on the podium several times.

Ella Stevens

McLaren announced a second female driver to their development programme last year in the guise of Ella Stevens. Ella is a double English KZ2 Champion as well as a British BirelART Cadet Champion and the 2025 British KZ2 Vice-Champion, along with being the first woman to win in the UK’s premier karting class.

Ahead of being announced by McLaren last year, Ella topped the time sheets in the F1 Academy rookie test held in Spain.

Emma Felbermayr

Emma made her F1 Academy debut in 2025, backed by the Kick Sauber Formula 1 Team. Emma finished the year in P10 overall, with a victory in Canada to her name, along with several other top ten finishes. In 2026, she’s backed by the new Audi Formula 1 Team and will once again compete for Rodin Motorsport.

Emma’s racing journey began when she was just seven years old, making her karting debut. Emma has since competed in the Micro, Mini, and Junior Classes of karting and finished as runner-up in her first international race in the 2021 ADAC Ladies Cup. In 2023, she qualified 23rd out of 119 drivers in the KZ category of the World Championship in Wackersdorf, Germany and in 2024, Emma competed in all major shifter karting events, including WSK-Karting and the World and European Championships.

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ART Grand Prix

Lisa Billard

Lisa made her F1 Academy debut last year in Singapore, where she was backed by F1 Academy partner Gatorade. She moves up to the series full time this year with ART and once again backed by the drinks company. This follows two seasons in French F4 and six years of competing in a number of karting championships.

Jade Jaquete

The sixteen-year-old French driver arrives in F1 Academy after competing in both the French Junior Karting Championship and in French Formula 4, having only driven a single-seater car for the first time back in 2024. As Lia Block heads away from single-seater racing, Jade replaces her as the driver to be backed in F1 Academy by the Williams F1 Team.

Kaylee Countryman

Sixteen-year-old Countryman hails from the great state of Arizona and will be backed by the original American F1 Team in 2026 - Haas. Countryman began racing three years ago, competing in a four-stroke Briggs & Stratton-powered kart in the LO206 J2 class. Kaylee competed in the North American-based USF Juniors as one of three female drivers in the 22-driver field, scoring four top-10 finishes. She’ll be competing in this Championship again in 2026, alongside her F1 Academy duties.

Hitech

Rachel Robertson

Taking over from an injured Aiva Anagnostiadis at the final round of F1 Academy last year, Rachel finished in an almighty P4 on her debut. This was more than enough for the Scottish driver to secure a full time seat in the series for 2026. She’ll be backed by one of F1 Academy’s partners, PUMA, this season and enters the series after competing in both the Radical Cup UK and the Saudi Arabian F4 Championship.

Ava Dobson

Another of F1 Academy’s Wild Card Drivers, Aba Dobson didn’t get a fair shake of the stick in 2025 as she was only able to compete in one of two planned races across the Miami Grand Prix weekend, due to the treacherous wet weather conditions leading to the cancellation of the second. But consistent performances across GB4, the USF2000 Championship, US Juniors and the US F4 Series have enabled Ava to find her way onto the F1 Academy grid full time in 2026, supported by American Express.

F1 Academy Wild Cards

Part of F1 Academy’s weekends is introducing a Wild Card Driver for each event. This is in addition to the season-long drivers that are competing for the Championship. The aim of the Wild Card driver is for them to showcase their abilities, possibly with an eye on securing a seat on the grid for the following season. These drivers are announced quite close to the commencement of each race weekend, which is why at present we only know the Wild Card Driver for the opening round in China - Wei Shi.

Wei Shi

In some ways, now the ultimate Wild Card Driver, Wei Shi was the Wild Card driver at last year’s opening round of F1 Academy in Shanghai. The Chinese Driver didn’t fare well, unfortunately, with a DNF in the first race and a P14 finish in the second.

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