After a big weekend last time out with F2 and F3’s season openers, F1 Academy is the only junior single-seater championship racing this weekend, supporting Formula 1’s Chinese Grand Prix.

By Feeder Series

F1 Academy’s season opener is the series’ first race weekend in China, but it will not be the drivers’ first visit. A fortnight ago, on the weekend of International Women’s Day, the series held a three-day test at the Shanghai International Circuit for the 18 drivers who will compete this weekend. Read on to learn more about them.

You likely know that F1 held its season opener last weekend, but did you know that three F1 juniors also won titles on Sunday in the WSK Super Master Series, Europe’s foremost winter karting championship?

In Viterbo, Italy, McLaren junior Dries van Langendonck has been assured of winning the championship’s OK class title, though the final standings are subject to the outcome of an appeal involving competitor Christian Costoya. Williams juniors won both junior karting titles, with Dean Hoogendoorn taking OKJ honours by just three points as Lucas Palacio secured the OK-N Junior crown with an 80-point margin and a victory in the final race.

Finally, keep reading to get a quarterly update on what we as Feeder Series have done in the first few months of this year. Thank you to those who’ve been along for the ride for all those moments!

1. F1 Academy: Round 1, Shanghai 
2. Feeder Series quarterly round-up: Winter 2025
   1. Social media
   2. Editorial
   3. Broadcasting

F1 Academy: Round 1, Shanghai 

Circuit: Shanghai International Circuit, 5.451 km

Schedule: All times local (UTC+8)

Friday 21 March

• 9:10–9:50: Free Practice
• 14:05–14:35: Qualifying

Saturday 22 March

• 13:50–14:25: Race 1 

Sunday 23 March

• 10:45–11:20: Race 2

How to follow: Live timing is available via the F1 Academy website. Sessions are streamed on F1 TV and on F1 Academy’s YouTube and X accounts.  

Weather forecast: Dry and sunny all weekend. 

What to know: F1 Academy’s third season and second under the F1 support bill begins this weekend in Shanghai, which hosts the all-female series for the first time. 

Hitech join the championship as the sixth team, fielding two drivers and the wild card entry. The reverse-grid race also returns this year, with the top eight drivers from qualifying reversed to set the grid for race one. 

Mercedes junior Doriane Pin, the runner-up from last season, will contest her sophomore season in the series with Prema Racing. Her 2024 teammate Maya Weug, who finished third overall last year, also returns  but with MP Motorsport. Qatar wild card entrant Alisha Palmowski, the 2024 GB4 runner-up, will contest her maiden season withRed Bull Racing backing as fellow wild cards Ella Lloyd, Courtney Crone and Nina Gademan make their full-season debuts, respectively. Shi Wei, who finished 19th in Chinese F4 last year, will be the Shanghai wild card entry. Find out more about this year’s grid in our season guide.

Report by Kaylene Lau

From the cutting room: In November, we published the latest edition of our piece profiling the young women, including several 2025 F1 Academy drivers, who we thought were most likely to end up in F1 in the future. Ahead of the season opener, we’ve brought this piece to the screen in multimedia form. Watch it here!

Feeder Series quarterly round-up: Winter 2025

The March equinox marks the end of winter in the northern hemisphere and the end of summer in the southern hemisphere – the perfect time to reflect on our biggest highlights from the past few months. Our three main department heads write in.

Social media

Feeder Series is still a social-first platform, and we aim to give you the best coverage possible across all our channels.

First of all, we exceeded 70,000 followers on X (formerly Twitter) last weekend! We could never have thought this was possible when we started six years ago. We need to thank each and every one of you because we could never have gotten this big without your support.

In the weeks leading up to the first F2 and F3 rounds, we asked you on X and Instagram to vote for who you thought would be the top driver within each team. Check out the results of the F2 polls here and the F3 polls here.

Lastly, we have returned to TikTok! Over the past few weeks, our social team – Jordy van de Bunt, Alice Cook, Grace Crispin, Hanne Scheepers, Amy Schulz and Maddie Tanabe –  introduced you to all the 2025 F1 rookies by looking at their junior careers and talked you through how several junior single-seater championships work. Follow us on @feederseries to discover even more content. We are closing in on 1,000 followers, so if you want to brag to your friends about how you followed us before we were big, now is your chance!

— by Jordy van de Bunt, head of social media

@feederseries

Editorial

The article you’re reading right now is just one example of the most notable addition to our 2025 editorial output: weekend-by-weekend previews to look at everything coming up and reviews to cover everything that went down. They’re all part of our mission to bring you the most comprehensive junior single-seater content anywhere.

Wintertime in the northern hemisphere meant cold temperatures, but several winter series brought the heat to Southern Europe, the Middle East and Oceania. You were evidently most excited to learn more about the Eurocup-3 and Eurocup-4 winter series: Seb Tirado’s season guides for each were our two best-read pieces of coverage this winter.

We kept up with the winter series post-season too. In the past two weeks, we published feature stories on FRegional Oceania and Formula Winter Series featuring interviews with championship organisers and key figures from both series. Those interviews, by Kaylene Lau and Finjo Muschlien respectively, were all conducted on the ground. Kaylene’s visit to Highlands even marked our first race weekend as accredited media in a New Zealand paddock!

On the other side of the Tasman Sea, F2 and F3 finally returned to support F1 in Melbourne, and plenty of penalties and precipitation rained down on the paddock throughout the weekend. Our hardworking quartet of reporters and this editor navigated nighttime press conferences, FIA decision documents, and race cancellations without cracking – or quacking – under the pressure. We learned a lot too, as you can read in our separately published F2 and F3 weekend recaps.

— Michael McClure, head of content

Broadcasting

This year represents a new era for the video side of Feeder Series. There was no Transfer Weekly this winter as we instead went for a team-by-team preview of each outfit in F2 and F3. Transfer Weekly’s host and F2’s new commentator Chris McCarthy led the discussions, with series editors Martin Lloyd, Calla Kra-Caskey, Daniele Spadi and Tori Turner sharing their expert opinions ahead of the season opener.

We sent off the departing F2 commentator too. Alex Jacques has felt like the grounding rock amid the waves of drivers coming and going in  F1’s immediate support series. It felt right to bring him on to the podcast to reflect on his career highlights and memories, with audience favourite Josh Revell joining him. The episode marks the return of the podcast after an eight-month hiatus, with more episodes already planned.

The engagement and reach of these videos have seen the YouTube channel tick over the 3,000 subscriber mark – mere moments before I typed these words, in fact. It’s a milestone to be proud of, and the broadcast team already has more content on the way. In the meantime, like, comment and smash that subscribe button so you can see those new videos and more.

— Jim Kimberley, head of broadcasting

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency