Safety Cars and New Championship Leads: F1 Academy China

Written by Lily Dixon

March 26, 2025

The 2025 F1 Academy season kicked off this past weekend in Shanghai, with a record-breaking eighteen drivers lining up on the grid and everything to play for. The weekend was dominated by safety cars, with many drivers taking hits over the course of three days.

Free Practice

Free Practice started with a bang when Rafaela Ferreira, one of Campos Racing’s drivers, swerved into ART Grand Prix’s Lia Block, who was on her flying lap. Ferreira was warming her tires and misjudged the gap between the two cars, sending Block’s car flying into the wall. A scary crash for the American driver, but she was able to exit her car uninjured.

Doriane Pin, F1 Academy’s Vice-Champion the previous year, topped the timesheets in Free Practice, setting a 2:04.198. Her teammate, Tina Hausmann, followed in P2, just under a tenth behind Pin, while Chloe Chambers rounded out the top three.

Block, unfortunately, wasn’t able to participate in qualifying due to her car being too severely damaged to be repaired in time. Ferreira was given a three-place grid penalty for both races, as she was deemed wholly to blame for the collision.

Qualifying

Qualifying started later that day, with Ella Lloyd setting the early flying lap benchmark at 2:06.143. Chambers and Alisha Palmowski followed suit, one-upping each other for provisional pole. They cracked into the low 2:05s before MP Motorsport’s Maya Weug set a mega lap of 2:03.781, which she later topped with a 2:03.379.

Weug’s former PREMA teammate Pin qualified nearly half a second behind her in P2, showcasing the sheer speed of Weug’s lap. Alba Larsen took P3—a great display from the Danish rookie driver racing alongside Weug at MP Motorsport. She edged out Chambers and Palmowski, who settled for P4 and P5, respectively.

Joanne Ciconte, the last of MP’s finishers, took P6 ahead of Emma Felbermayr, Nina Gademan, Hausmann, and Chloe Chong in tenth.

The cars returned to the track on Saturday with the top eight drivers lining up in a reverse grid format, followed by P9-P18. Gademan started on pole, with Felbermayr and Ciconte close behind.

Race 1

When it came time for lights out, Gademan got a great start off the line and quickly built a gap to P2, which was hotly contested behind her. Chambers wasted no time putting pressure on Ciconte, making her way past the sixteen-year-old Australian driver and continuing her charge toward Palmowski and Felbermayr ahead.

Chambers attempted to go around the outside, but with the cars bunched up, she struggled to find a safe overtaking route. This opened the door for Palmowski to take the inside line, which she capitalized on, slotting in front of Felbermayr.

Adding to the first-lap chaos, Larsen—Tommy Hilfiger’s representative for the season—was passed by Weug and Pin, dropping down the order. Weug continued her charge, gaining three positions to go from P8 to P5 over the course of the first lap.

Her momentum carried into the second lap, but Wild Card entry Shi Wei slowed the session down, bringing out a safety car after beaching herself in the gravel at Turn 7.

Gademan controlled the restart, with Palmowski following closely as the two pulled away from the chaos behind. Chambers managed to get past Felbermayr at the restart, and the Kick Sauber driver continued to struggle as Weug and Pin overtook her, dropping her to sixth. Meanwhile, Ferreira, starting from P16, charged forward toward the points positions.

A second safety car was deployed shortly after when Block made contact with her teammate Aurelia Nobels’ rear, sending her spinning on track.

The order remained unchanged as the session went green again, but only briefly. Chong attempted to make a move on Nicole Havrda but lost grip on her tires, sending her car into the back of Havrda and bringing out the third safety car of the twelve-lap race.

Once again, Gademan pulled away in her best restart of the race, and by the end of the lap, she was eight-tenths ahead of Palmowski—who seemed too far back to challenge unless the PREMA driver encountered an issue. That’s exactly what happened. Absolute heartbreak for Gademan, who was on pace to take her first win of the season when her car slowed with a problem on the penultimate lap. She was out.

Palmowski and Chambers battled on the final lap, but the rookie defended well to take the top spot on the podium, with her teammate and Weug following just a few tenths behind.

Pin and Ferreira rounded out the top five, dodging a last-minute collision between Felbermayr and Larsen. Lloyd, Larsen, and Aiva Anagnostiadis finished in the points, while several drivers took large penalty hits.

ART Grand Prix’s Courtney Crone suffered a 30-second penalty for a starting procedure infringement. Ciconte fell victim to the same issue, initially taking a ten-second penalty, but earning another ten seconds when she failed to serve it correctly. Larsen dropped to P7 after receiving a penalty for causing a collision with Felbermayr.

Weug was set to start on pole for Race 2 on Sunday, just before Formula 1’s event.

Race 2

An oil spill delayed F1 Academy’s second race. When the drivers finally hit the track, the FIA mandated two laps under the safety car before a rolling start, cutting the race to just 11 laps.

Weug dictated the pace, but Pin got the better start, going side-by-side down the straight and completing the move in Turn 2, forcing her former teammate onto the kerb. She quickly built a gap, but that evaporated when Hausmann hit her teammate Gademan before the first lap concluded.

Hausmann received a 10-second penalty, and Gademan was out of the race—a tough weekend for the Dutch driver representing Alpine.

With Hausmann and Gademan out of the mix, Chong caught up to the group, with Havrda and Nobels following closely. Unfortunately for Ciconte, who was running in the points, Chong clipped the back of her car, causing a pileup that took out Havrda and Nobels as Ciconte spun across the track at Turn 8.

Racing continued, and while Pin pulled away, battles raged further back. Crone led a fierce fight as Ferreira attempted to overtake her while Block tried to dive down the inside. Crone ultimately lost out to Ferreira, and her vulnerability led to further losses to Block and Gademan.

The most intense battle was between Larsen and Chambers for the final podium spot. The Dane initially lost out to Chambers, who had superior pace, and despite fighting back, she couldn’t reclaim the position. The Red Bull Ford driver pulled away, securing P3.

Further back, Felbermayr capitalized on Palmowski’s struggles, passing the Race 1 winner. Palmowski attempted to reclaim the position, going side-by-side with the Austrian driver, but lost out, clipping the rear of Felbermayr’s car as she slotted back behind.

Pin dominated to take the win, finishing two seconds ahead of Weug. Chambers stood on the podium for the second time that weekend, adding early points to her title campaign.

Larsen and Felbermayr completed the top five, starting their rookie seasons on a strong note. Palmowski, Lloyd, Ferreira, Block, and Gademan also scored points, with the latter three gaining positions after Chong received a 10-second penalty for her collision with Ciconte in Race 2.

Pin leads the championship early—will she complete what she started last year in her battle with Abbi Pulling, or will she struggle to overcome her former teammate Weug, who’s just five points behind?

More to come at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit for Round 2 from April 18-20.