Season summary
Round 1: Shanghai
The season started off at Shanghai International Circuit. After a collision between Rafaela Ferreira and Lia Block in free practice, Block was unable to compete in qualifying and Ferreira was given a 3-place grid penalty for both races. Maya Weug took pole position by nearly half a second from Doriane Pin. [37]
During the first race, Shi Wei spun out on lap two, while Block and Aurelia Nobels made contact on lap five. Chloe Chong also tagged Nicole Havrda on lap ten, resulting in a 10-second penalty. Nina Gademan started on reverse-pole position and lead the race, overcoming three safety car starts caused by the aforementioned incidents. Due to an issue on the penultimate lap, she retired from the race and allowed Alisha Palmowski to take her maiden win, after starting from third on the reverse-grid. Chloe Chambers finished in second, resulting in a 1-2 finish for Campos Racing as Weug finished in third. [38]
The second race began with two extra formation laps and a rolling start after an on-track oil spill, caused by the SRO GT Cup prior to the race. [39] Once the race began, Pin managed to overtake pole-sitter Weug, leading by nearly three tenths before a collision between Gademan and Tina Hausmann on the first lap, resulting in a safety car being brought out and the latter being given a 10-second penalty. Nobels and Havrda also collided, forcing both to retire while Chong clipped Joanne Ciconte in trying to avoid contact. After the safety car restart, Pin led the rest of the race and ultimately won, as Weug stayed in second and Chambers finished in third. The trio left Shanghai as the championship's top three, in the order of their Race 2 finishes. [40]
Round 2: Jeddah
At the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Block clipped the inside wall of the final corner and red flagged the qualifying session. Chambers then took her maiden pole position being two tenths and half a second ahead of championship rivals Pin and Weug respectively. [41]
During the first race, Ella Lloyd seized first place from her teammate Emma Felbermayr before leading the race by nearly 3 seconds ahead of Palmowski, who had overtaken Felbermayr too. Block was then tagged by Courtney Crone, and while Block was able to recover, Chong was caught in the crossfire and forced to retire, bringing out a safety car. During this safety car, Farah Al Yousef was given a 5-second penalty for a false start and Crone was given a 10-second penalty for the incident with Block, retiring afterwards. Lloyd maintained the lead over Palmowski despite the safety car restart, who was then overtaken by Weug for second place, allowing Lloyd to take her madein win as Palmowski finished third. [42]
Chambers held first place in the second race before coming wheel-to-wheel with Weug, who had overtaken Pin for second place. On lap 2, Ferreira tagged Felbermayr and was given a 10-second penalty and after an incident on lap 4 where she forced Weug off the track, Chambers was given a 5-second penalty. Though being given the penalty, Chambers remained first on track and began to extend her lead from the rest of the pack in an attempt to keep as many positions as possible. [43] This resulted in a second-place finish, 5.1 seconds ahead of Pin on track, who came third, while Weug inherited first place and her first win of the season. [44] This left Weug as the championship leader, with Pin falling down to second and Chambers staying in third place. [45]
Round 3: Miami
The Miami International Autodrome featured another pole for Chambers, who narrowly claimed it from Palmowski, Pin and Lloyd, all separated by a mere 7 hundredths. Championship leader Weug, was left in tenth after being caught in traffic. [46]
During the first race, reverse-polesitter Felbermayr nailed her start before Lloyd collided into the back of Ferreira, resulting in a safety and early retirement for the latter. In the chaos, Pin able to slip into second place and later claim first after a multi-lap battle with Felbermayr that began at the safety car restart. After being overtaken by Pin, Felbermayr slipped down to sixth place while Palmowski and Nobels fought for second, a fight that was squandered by a safety car, caused by a three-wide battle between Ciconte, Chong and Havrda that ended in the latter two making contact. After the second safety car restart, Pin pulled away from Palmowski, claiming fastest lap and the race win with Chambers was able to overtake Nobels for third. [47] [48]
Inclement weather resulted in several formation laps behind the safety car, but after the rain worsened and multiple cars had slid off the track, the red flag was drawn. [49] ACCUS local regulations stated the circuit in no condition for racing and Race 2 was postponed to the next round in Montreal. Weug left Miami leading the championship by a single point over Pin as Chambers maintained third. [50]
Round 4: Canada
The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve hosted the rescheduled Miami Race 2, with starting grid already set from Miami qualifying. As a result, the two originally scheduled races were held afterwards. Montreal's qualifying session determined the grid for Race 2 (reverse-grid) and full points were awarded for Race 3. [35] Chambers qualified in first once again, her third pole-position of the season and three tenths ahead of Palmowski, in second. Pin qualified third whilst Weug was left in fifteenth, following electrical issues. [51] [52]
After qualifying first in Miami, Race 1 started with Chambers on pole-position, but contact with teammate Palmowski resulted in Pin gaining the lead of the race and Lloyd claiming second. Whilst Felbermayr and Gademan fought for third, Weug's weekend got worse as her electrical issues continued and eventually caused her retirement. Two safety cars followed, with Mathilda Paatz hitting a wall and Ferreira making contact with Chong in an attempt to re-join the track, but nothing could stop Pin from claiming the win. [53] Lloyd and Felbermayr finished second and third on the road, but after Felbermayr was disqualified from the race due to weight regulations, Gademan was promoted to the podium. Palmowski and Ferreira were also given penalties resulting in a drop from eighth to twelfth, and ninth to fourteenth, respectively. [54]
Race 2 saw Chong taking reverse-pole-position. Chong didn't hold the lead for long though, as Gademan dove down the inside of her for the lead, with Lloyd and Felbermayr following suit. As Lloyd defended against Pin, Felbermayr overtook the pair and Chambers, in an attempt to make a move on the Mercedes junior, spun-out into fourteenth. Gademan had pulled a 1.4-second gap over Felbermayr, though the latter began to eat away at it. A late safety car was called for contact between Anagnostiadis and Havrda, the latter of whom was penalised for the incident and forced to start from the back of the grid for Race 3. [55] With the grid bunched together, Felbermayr was able to overtake Gademan with a few turns to spare, claiming redemption for her previous disqualification and the race win, as teammate Lloyd finished in second, Rodin Motorsport's first 1-2 finish of the season. [56]
The third and final race saw a Campos front row lockout, as Chambers and Palmowski started on pole and second, respectively. Palmowski was later overtaken by Lloyd for second, though contact between the pair sent the former into a spin, with Pin's front wing knocked in the commotion. Paatz then crashed into the path of Anagnostiadis causing the safety car to be brought out. Normal racing conditions started up as Felbermayr flew through the field, though Gademan made contact with her; the latter received a 10-second penalty. Weug attempted to salvage the unlucky weekend before a collision between Block and Ferreira collected Nobels, forcing another safety car to be called. The race restarted again but contact between Crone and Felbermayr saw the final return of the safety car. The 30-minute time-limit approached as the race ended. Chambers took the top step of the podium, with Lloyd and Pin standing beside her in second and third. After two races without any points and one sixth-place finish, Weug left Montreal third in the standings; Pin and Chambers jumped to first and second. [57]
Round 5: Zandvoort
Weug claimed her second pole of the season, outqualifying Palmowski by a mere 0.039s at her home round, held at the Circuit Zandvoort, whilst championship leader Pin was left fifth behind Lloyd and Chambers. [58]
Prema locked out the front row for Race 1, with Gademan on reverse-pole position and Hausmann alongside her. Following the race start, Chambers was pushed off into the grass by championship leader Pin, dropping to eight and a few laps after being overtaken by Block for second, Hausmann ran wide and crashed into the barriers, bringing out the safety car. At the restart, Gademan maintained her lead while Pin ran wide, allowing Lloyd to go through. Pin was forced to defend against Weug, with the latter eventually passing, also overtaking Lloyd for a podium finish. Block finished in second to achieve her first podium in the series. Gademan led the race from start to finish for her first win, becoming the seventh driver unique driver to achieve a race win. [59]
Race 2 saw Chambers stuck on her grid box at the beginning of the formation lap, eventually retiring from the race due to a technical problem. This led Block to pull into Chambers' grid box before reversing back, resulting in a 10-second penalty. Lloyd was later given a 5-second penalty for a false start, demoting her from of the podium. This led her to finish fourth, promoting Palmowski and Pin to. Block's penalty dropped her out of the points to twelfth, promoting Ferreira, Alba Hurup Larsen, and Chong. Weug won the race by 7.3 seconds—the second-largest winning margin in F1 Academy history. Dutch driver Esmee Kosterman became the first wildcard entry to earn championship points since 2024. [60]
