As F1 Academy returns after a two-month break, the series heads to Zandvoort for a second time to solidify the middle of the season. After six races of 2024, Abbi Pulling leads the championship with a 66-point lead on 147 points while Doriane Pin in second and Chloe Chambers in third are tied on points. Parc Femme dives into the first three race weekends of the season as we prepare for round 4 in Zandvoort.

F1 Academy’s 2024 Line up

The second season of F1 Academy saw 9 of the 15 drivers from its inaugural year return to the series for a final time. Bianca Bustamante, who is supported by McLaren, made the move to ART after a year with Prema. The Italian-based reigning champions decided to house an entirely new rookie team; signing Aston Martin’s Tina Hausmann, Mercedes’ Doriane Pin and Ferrari’s Maya Weug.

Alongside McLaren development driver Bustamante, ART signed 2 further rookies in Brazilian-Belgian Ferrari Driver Academy member Aurelia Nobels who is backed by Puma and Williams-supported Academy driver Lia Block.

The sixth and final rookie, American-based Chloe Chambers, joined Campos Racing where she is affiliated with Haas. She joined Tommy Hilfiger supported Nerea Marti, who was the team’s only race-winner for 2023, and Sauber’s Carrie Schreiner who raced with ART last year.

MP Motorsport kept their entire lineup for a second year running; housing 2023 third-place finisher Hamda Al Qubaisi who is supported by Red Bull Racing, RB’s Amna Al Qubaisi and Red Bull’s Emely de Heus. All three girls are a part of the Red Bull Ford Academy Programme which Red Bull set up to support the teams F1 Academy drivers. This is separate from the Red Bull Junior Team, a development programme with drivers across Super Formula, F2, F3, FRECA, Spanish F4 and karting.

The final team on the grid is Rodin Motorsport. French driver Lola Lovinfosse moved to the British-based team from Campos where she is supported by Charlotte Tilbury. Alpine Academy’s own Abbi Pulling and American Express supported Jessica Edgar remained with the team for their second and final year.

As a part of the F1 Academy programme, selected drivers will compete as wildcards in a drive operated by Prema Racing alongside their full-time competitors. In selected rounds, a driver from the country will be able to race a full weekend and be eligible for points in the championship. This was introduced to promote regional talent while increasing the talent pool in the regions in which they race in. For round one in Saudi Arabia, GT driver Reema Juffali joined the series in Jeddah while in round two, American LMP3 and GT driver Courtney Crone raced in Miami. There was no wildcard for round 3 in Barcelona. For the upcoming weekend in Zandvoort, British F4 driver Nina Gademan will line up amongst the other girls in a wild card car supported by The Female Quotient, the first female-founded media and experiential brand to collaborate with F1 Academy.

Round One – Jeddah

Jeddah hosted round one of the 2024 F1 Academy season, joining Formula 1 for the second time. Compared to the inaugural round of the series, this year it was announced that F1 Academy would be a permanent fixture on the F1 bill, alongside Formula 2 and Formula 3. Prior to this, F1 Academy would support a number of different series including WEC, DTM, NASCAR Euro Series, P9 Challenge, and FRECA.

The season kicked off on March 7th with Doriane Pin taking pole position for both races. After an impressive showing in qualifying, Pin continued on her dominant streak to take the first race win of the season with Abbi Pulling crossing the line in second and Maya Weug in third. Rookie Chloe Chambers took P4 while returnee Bianca Bustamante rounded off the top 5. During the race, wildcard entry Reema Juffali collided with MP’s Amna Al Quabisi, leaving the pair to finish in 11th and 13th respectively. Rodin’s Jess Edgar made contact with Tina Hausmann, sustaining a puncture in the process. Edgar went on to finish 15th while Hausmann took 8 points and a 6th place position. 

Race two saw the fall of Doriane Pin’s successful weekend. After starting on pole and driving a perfect race to cross the line in first place, the French driver faced a post-race penalty for taking the chequered flag twice due to being unaware that the race had ended. With this disqualification, Pin finished in 9th place. Abbi Pulling inherited the win, promoting Maya Weug to second place. Nerea Marti, who originally finished fourth, took her first podium of the season. Pin’s disqualification wasn’t the only thing to happen during the race as Chloe Chambers clipped Lola Lovinfosse, sending her spinning. Lovinfosse went on to re-join the track in the path of Lia Block before retiring from the race. Block managed to finish in eleventh, just shy of her first points.

Lola Lovinfosse gained a five-place grid penalty for her incident which would carry over to Miami.

Round Two – Miami

2024 saw a new American track for the F1 Academy ladies as they headed to Miami. With redemption on the table for Pin, it was all to play for however, it was Rodin’s Abbi Pulling who took pole position for both races. Race one wasn’t what ART would have hoped for with Bianca Bustamante stalling from fourth as the green lights went out, before managing to recover to ninth by the end of the race. The French teams’ luck would slip once again as Aurelia Nobels received a 10-second time penalty for spinning Hausmann into the wall on the first lap, leaving the Swiss driver to retire from the race. With two drivers in difficult situations, the day only got worse for ART as on lap 7, Lia Block managed to spin but remained in the race.

For American driver Chloe Chambers, however, Miami was one to remember as she went on to take her maiden F1 Academy podium, and finished in third behind Pulling and Pin. 

Tina Hausmann’s weekend went from bad to worse as race two rolled around. Off the line, Rodin’s Lovinfosse locked up into turn one, managing to clip Hausmann for her second retirement of the weekend. This wasn’t the only time Lovinfosse locked up as into lap 8, history repeated itself however this time, she managed to hit Nobels. This collision resulted in both drivers retiring from the race. Due to her causing both collisions, Lovinfosse earned herself two 10-second time penalties. 

Lola Lovinfosse wasn’t the only Rodin car to retire from race 2 as Jess Edgar managed to spin on lap 11 and was unable to re-join the race. Thankfully for the team, Abbi Pulling kept a clean race and crossed the line for her third consecutive win of the year. Bianca Bustamante finished in second, taking her first podium of the year ahead of Doriane Pin in third.

Round Three – Barcelona

Barcelona marked the first of two weekends of the European sting for F1 Academy. Pin made her return to racing after sustaining fractured ribs which ruled her out of Le Mans and other competitions. She managed to take fourth in qualifying with Pulling taking her third and fourth pole positions. 

Title contender Doriane Pin stalled at the start of race one, managing to fight her way back up the grid to finish 7th to take vital points in the championship. Pin wasn’t the only driver to face problems in Barcelona as a safety car was deployed due to a collision between Maya Weug and Amna Al Qubaisi which saw both drivers retire from the race. Abbi Pulling went on to win her fourth consecutive race of the season ahead of Nerea Marti in second and Chloe Chambers in third. 

Pulling’s win streak soon ended in race two as Chloe Chambers managed to jump the Brit on the first lap to take a lights-to-flag win. Chambers’ win in Barcelona tied her on points with Pin and closer to the championship battle. Joining Chambers and Pulling on the podium was Hamda Al Qubaisi for the first time this season. 

Race 2 in Barcelona was the second F1 Academy race to finish with zero retirements, the first since the opening race in Jeddah.

What’s to come

After race one in Zandvoort, we’ll have officially completed half of this season. The  Dutch Grand Prix is the final weekend of the European stint for the girls as they head to Asia for Singapore, Qatar and Abu Dhabi to finish off the year. 

Abbi Pulling leads the championship with a healthy lead as we return after a two-month break, with Doriane Pin and Chloe Chambers in second and third on equal points. Nerea Marti sits in fourth with two podiums under her belt with Bianca Bustamante six points behind in fifth. Hamda Al Qubaisi and Maya Weug round of sixth and seventh as the final two drivers above 50 points this season. 

As of Barcelona, all of the permanent drivers in the championship have taken points, with Emely de Heus finishing sixth in race one. With over 200 points left to take in the championship, it’s still anybody’s championship to take at the season finale.