Before the Zandvoort weekend, the F1 Academy polesitter took the chequered flag first in every race but one. Similarly, the fastest lap has been taken by the frontrunner all but twice. Round four of the season was no exception. 

By Calla Kra-Caskey

Abbi Pulling and Doriane Pin have been this season’s protagonists. Pin started the year off by dominating Jeddah, while Pulling took over in Miami and Barcelona. In Zandvoort, they shared the glory; each took one win, one pole position, and one fastest lap.

Pulling and Pin control the front

Only a month out from a podium in British F4’s Zandvoort round, Pulling led both practice sessions and quickly set the fastest overall lap in qualifying. However, she failed to improve after a red flag halted the session, which allowed Pin to nab pole position for the second race. 

In the first race, Pulling built a lead of over four seconds with Pin running in second until a jump start penalty demoted her to fifth. In the second race, Pin was the one who held the lead from pole, while Pulling was overtaken by Maya Weug heading into the first corner. The weekend continued an established pattern: with the exception of Chloe Chambers’ Barcelona victory, the polesitter has crossed the finish line first. The only overtakes for first or second have taken place in or before the first corner. 

So why is overtaking so hard? Clearly, clean air is key. All but two fastest laps this year have been set by the leader, and Pulling and Pin each took the extra point while running in first.

In the cooldown room after the second race, Pulling said she had the pace to overtake Weug, but wasn’t able to due to the aero wash produced by the cars. F1 Academy runs a modified Tatuus F4-T421 chassis. The car was designed to meet FIA Formula 4 regulations, and serves as a transition from karting to formula racing for many drivers. They’re designed to produce low downforce and a minimal slipstream, making it harder to overtake cars ahead. 

Since F1 Academy isn’t an FIA series, the chassis does not need to meet the same technical regulation. As such, Tatuus collaborated with the series on the car design. Although there are slight differences in the aero kit, they are primarily aesthetic rather than performance-based, and aim to give the F1 Academy cars a distinctive shape, more similar to Formula One cars. CFD analysis by Tatuus showed that the different aero packages produced very little change, with only minor improvements in terms of downforce generated. 

The drivers’ difficulties with overtaking have several explanations. Zandvoort is a difficult track to overtake on in any level, as demonstrated by this week’s F1 race. F1 Academy’s grid is particularly small; fewer drivers on the circuit means less traffic, and decreases the chance of safety cars bunching up the field.

The series also removed the reverse grid races run by most F4 championships, meaning drivers will generally start in a position accurately reflecting their pace. The track conditions, changed by weather and number of cars on track through the weekend, also impact the running.

Wet weather shuffles the field

Zandvoort featured F1 Academy’s first ever wet running. It rained during some of practice and qualifying, and the first race had to be rescheduled due to weather conditions. Since it rained during the April Zandvoort test, as well as the British F4 weekend in which six drivers participated, everyone had some wet weather practice heading into the weekend. However, not all drivers were affected to an equal degree. 

Bianca Bustamante was the rain’s greatest casualty. Her weekend was marred by two spins, one of which knocked her out of qualifying. As a result, she started the races from 14th and 15th. Although she nearly missed the first race due to chassis damage, she was able to participate when it was rescheduled for Sunday. Nevertheless, the McLaren junior finished outside of the points in both races. 

Similarly, Chambers – a usual frontrunner – was caught out by the wet weather and mid-qualifying red flag. Although her best lap was good enough to start seventh in race one, her second best lap was only good enough for 11th in race two. After entering the weekend level on points with Pin, she heads to Singapore 30 points behind the French driver.

On the other hand, ART’s Aurelia Nobels thrived in the wet qualifying session and started the races fifth and fourth. Her pace was not nearly as strong on the dry Sunday races, but she still managed her two best finishes of the season. Through the second race, she held most of the field close behind her; she finished in fifth, 23 seconds off the lead, while the gap between her and last was just over five seconds. 

Despite the mixed conditions, the weekend was very clean. For the first time in series history, every driver finished both races.

A statement wild card performance

Nina Gademan was the series’ third wild card driver, and the first who is currently driving in another F4 series. In fact, Gademan skipped British F4’s Donington round to participate in the Zandvoort weekend, an appearance she said was “[planned] already months ago,” in the pre-event media roundtable. 

Gademan also expressed interest in participating in F1 Academy full-time next season, and she certainly made a good impression. She put her experience from the British F4 Zandvoort round to good use, qualifying sixth for both races during the tricky wet session.

In the first race, Gademan made up one position on track and was eventually promoted to fourth after Pin’s penalty. In the second race, Gademan ran in fourth through the race but was handed a 10- second penalty for causing a collision with Nobels, dropping her to tenth.

Nevertheless, the points she took away from the weekend put her 12th in the standings, ahead of permanent drivers Lola Lovinfosse, Lia Block, Amna Al Qubaisi, and Emely De Heus. Gademan is currently 19th in the British F4 standings.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency