F1 Academy started off its 2025 season at China’s Shanghai International Circuit with the return of the reverse-grid race. Maya Weug took her first pole in F1 Academy, rookie Alisha Palmowski won on debut, and Doriane Pin took her first win of the season. Feeder Series reviews everything that happened. 

By Kaylene Lau 

Shanghai hosted the season opener of F1 Academy for the first time in the series’ three-year history. Prior to pre-season testing two weeks ago, none of the drivers had driven on the Shanghai International Circuit apart from the round’s wild card entry, Shi Wei, and the 16-turn, 5.451-kilometre track was set to present them with a challenge. 

“In testing, we saw that it was really hard to follow behind,” ART Grand Prix’s Aurelia Nobels told Feeder Series at a pre-event media roundtable. “With the deg on the tyres as well… it’ll be tricky and we’ll have to adapt to driving.” 

Practice and qualifying

Prema’s Doriane Pin went fastest in Friday’s practice session, followed by teammate Tina Hausmann and Campos’ Chloe Chambers. All three enter the championship for their sophomore season, with 2024 runner-up Pin being touted as a title favourite. 

The session came to a stop with 18 minutes on the clock after a heavy crash involving Campos’ Rafaela Ferreira and ART’s Lia Block. Ferreira was weaving on the back straight to get heat into her tyres but did not see Block on a flying lap behind her. Ferreira made contact with the left side of Block’s car as she passed, sending her spinning straight into the barriers.

Ferreira was handed a three-place grid penalty for both races for causing the incident. She ended up qualifying 13th later that day but started both races from 16th with the penalties implemented. Block was also unable to participate in qualifying as the damage sustained to the car was too severe for ART to repair it in time. She was allowed to start both races. 

In qualifying, MP Motorsport’s Maya Weug took her first pole position in the series with a lap 0.497 seconds faster than second-placed Pin’s. Alba Hurup Larsen, Weug’s teammate at MP, rounded out the top three. The 16-year-old was also the fastest rookie in the session with a 2:04.006, 0.627s behind Weug.

Nina Gademan qualified eighth, putting her on pole for Saturday’s reverse-grid race. 

Heading into the weekend, Rodin Motorsport rookie Ella Lloyd said that the return of the reverse-grid race would provide ‘greater opportunities for racing and overtaking’. Lloyd has experience with reverse-grid races from racing last year in British F4, in which the grid for race two is set by reversing the fastest 12 drivers from qualifying.

“I’m used to it. You just get your head down and make moves,” she said.

“The reversed grid is good for the championship and there will be more fighting, hopefully, in the races,” Nobels said. “Just more challenge and the thing will be fun.”

Weug also said she agreed with Nobels. “Last year, especially on tracks where it’s tight and so on, it was difficult to overtake,” she said.

“But it will add an extra challenge, and I think Shanghai is a good track to overtake with the long straight especially, so I think it will be very cool for the fans to watch. Maybe you have to wake up early, but it will be good.” 

Race 1

Before the reverse-grid race started, Rodin Motorsport’s Lloyd, who originally qualified 11th, was forced to start from the pit lane as her tyre pressures were too low. 

On the first lap, Palmowski made up two places to take second from Emma Felbermayr. Shi, meanwhile, ended up beached on the inside of Turn 8, bringing out the yellow flags and later the safety car. 

The safety car came back in after three laps, with Gademan getting a good launch off the restart and maintaining her race lead. Chambers used the restart as an opportunity to overtake Felbermayr and move up to third. Weug and Pin then also overtook the Austrian for fourth and fifth respectively. 

Moments later, ART teammates Block and Nobels collided at Turn 6, triggering the second safety car. Block was given a 10-second time penalty for the collision – which saw her hit Nobels – and ultimately finished ninth. Nobels sustained a broken rear-right suspension and could not continue. 

Green-flag conditions resumed on lap eight, with Gademan maintaining her lead as Palmowski followed closely behind. Almost immediately, the yellow flag was brought out again in sector one, this time for the stranded Hitech of Nicole Havrda. Rodin’s Chloe Chong had made contact with the rear of her car at Turn 1, sending her spinning. 

During the third safety car period, Joanne Ciconte, who started third, served a 10-second stop-and-go penalty she had been given earlier for a starting procedure infringement on the grid. Doing so was against the rules and she received another 10-second stop-and-go penalty, ultimately putting her 14th in the final order. 

The final safety car period ended on lap 11, with two laps to go. Gademan got another good launch, but on the 12th lap, a technical issue caused Gademan to fall down the order and retire.

Palmowski then inherited the race lead, fighting with her teammate Chambers all the way to the chequered flag to take her first win in the series. Weug rounded out the podium. 

Another collision occurred on the last lap of the race when Hausmann, running seventh, locked up heading into Turn 14 and hit the rear of Felbermayr’s car. Hausmann received a 10-second time penalty for causing the incident.

Larsen was also given a 10-second penalty for hitting the rear of Felbermayr on lap 12. The Danish driver originally finished fourth on track but dropped down to seventh with the penalty implemented. Ferreira, who started from 16th, made up 11 positions throughout the race and finished fifth with the added penalties. 

Race 2

Race two was cut down from 13 to 11 laps. An oil spill from the SRO GT Cup race before dirtied the even-numbered grid spots, so drivers had a rolling start with three formation laps. 

Pin got a good launch off the start and overtook polesitter Weug around the outside of the opening corner complex. At Turn 6, Hausmann had attempted to make a move down the inside but made contact with the rear of Prema teammate Gademan’s car, sending both of them spinning.  

Gademan and Hausmann both got going again, but a separate four-car incident later in the lap at Turn 8 involving Chong, Ciconte, Havrda and Nobels brought out the yellow flags for the second time and the race’s first safety car period. Chong was the only driver of the four to continue in the race.

The safety car period ended on the fourth lap, and Pin maintained her lead at the restart. Gademan, who was running in last after her first-lap incident with Hausmann, made up two places on the first restart lap. 

Larsen and Chambers battled for third throughout the race, with the American driver overtaking Larsen briefly on lap eight before running wide at Turn 14 and enabling Larsen to take back third. At the opening corners on lap 10, Chambers found another opportunity to overtake Larsen again, and that time it stuck. 

Felbermayr and Palmowski also fought for fifth place on laps nine and ten, with the Austrian driver making her move on Palmowski at the same place on lap 10 as well. 

Out front, Pin took her first win of the season two seconds ahead of Weug, with Chambers rounding out the podium for race two. Larsen was the highest-placed rookie, finishing fourth.

Ferreira and Block both made strong comebacks, with Ferreira eighth from 16th and Block ninth from 18th. From the back after the collision with Hausmann, Gademan finished 10th after Chong received a 10-second penalty for causing the opening-lap incident. 

Pin now leads the championship standings with 31 points. Weug sits second with 26 points, and Chambers is third with 24. Campos leads the teams’ championship with 50 points, followed by MP with 40 and Prema with 32, as the series prepares for its second round in Jeddah in four weeks’ time. 

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	Maya Weug, 2:03.379	Doriane Pin, +0.497s	Alba Larsen, +0.627s
Race 1 (13 laps)	Alisha Palmowski, 32:24.436	Chloe Chambers, +0.206s	Maya Weug, +1.316s
Race 2 (11 laps)	Doriane Pin, 24:52.883	Maya Weug, +2.010s	Chloe Chambers, +4.536s

Standings	Drivers	Teams
P1	Doriane Pin, 31	Campos Racing, 50
P2	Maya Weug, 26	MP Motorsport, 40
P3	Chloe Chambers, 24	Prema Racing, 32
P4	Alisha Palmowski, 18	Rodin Motorsport, 19
P5	Alba Hurup Larsen, 14	ART Grand Prix, 2
P6	Emma Felbermayr, 10	Hitech, 1
P7	Ella Lloyd, 9
P8	Rafaela Ferreira, 8
P9	Lia Block, 2
P10	Aiva Anagnostiadis, 1

Header photo credit: Seb Kawka / Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Limited