Doriane Pin took the F1 Academy championship title in the season finale at Las Vegas this weekend as Prema Racing took the teams’ title for the third year in a row. Chloe Chambers also secured a second win on home soil along with third in the championship. Feeder Series reviews the finale of the third F1 Academy season. 

By Kaylene Lau

Pin took the championship title in race two at Las Vegas after a formation-lap incident in the first race put her championship rival Maya Weug on the back foot. The Mercedes-backed driver took the title with a total of 172 points and four wins. Pin and teammate Nina Gademan’s 1-2 finish in the first race also secured Prema the teams’ title for the third year in a row. 

Pin took the title with 172 points and four wins compared with Weug’s 157. Chloe Chambers came out ahead of Ella Lloyd for third in the championship by securing pole position on Thursday and winning the final race of the season. 

Free practice and qualifying

In the sole practice session of the weekend, Pin was fastest with a time of 2:07.967, 0.281 seconds ahead of her title rival Weug. Chambers completed the top three of the session with a 2:08.384. Chambers’ session, however, ended early after she found herself in the barriers after a suspension failure, which she later said was due to a wishbone failure when she stepped on the brakes. 

Chambers then bounced back to take the final pole position of the season, with a 2:06.538. Chambers’ teammate Alisha Palmowski was second, 0.380s behind, while Alba Larsen rounded out the top three to secure her best qualifying position since Shanghai. Title contenders Pin and Weug qualified fourth and fifth respectively, while Nina Gademan qualified eighth and therefore started from reverse-grid pole for Friday’s race.

After the qualifying session, Aurelia Nobels was handed a three-place grid penalty for both races for impeding Ella Lloyd. The Brazilian qualified 13th but had to start both races from 16th.

Race 1 

Pin took her fourth victory of the year in a dramatic race one, extending the points gap between her and Weug after the Ferrari junior suffered a crash on the formation lap. 

Conditions on track were slippery, with drivers changing from slick to wet tyres before the race started. Race control decided to start the race behind the safety car, with the originally scheduled opening lap converted into a second formation lap.

The trouble began when Emma Felbermayr, who was originally starting second, suffered a clutch issue that left her unable to get away on the original formation lap. She was brought to pit lane and dropped to the back of the grid. 

Her absence put Tina Hausmann directly behind polesitter Gademan, with Weug third and Pin fourth. Then things unravelled further.

On the second formation lap, as the safety car pulled away on the back straight to prepare to pit, Gademan continued weaving, leading Hausmann and Weug to believe she was restarting. She was not, however, and the resulting concertina effect led Weug to run into the back of Hausmann, taking both drivers out of the running and dealing a devastating blow to Weug’s championship title hopes.

The safety car stayed out while their cars were retrieved.

The safety car was brought back in at the end of the third lap, with the top three now Gademan, Pin and Larsen. At the restart, Gademan retained her lead while Pin faced pressure from Larsen for second, with the Dane managing to overtake Pin at Turn 3. 

With more grip, Larsen overtook Gademan for the lead of the race heading into Turn 10. Pin then immediately challenged Gademan for second, with Chambers also joining in the battle entering the braking zone. 

It soon became a battle for even more. Larsen made contact with the wall at Turn 16, sustaining right-rear suspension damage that sent her spinning across the track as she navigated the fast left-hander at Turn 17. Drivers were able to avoid Larsen’s spinning car, but the incident brought out the yellow flag in sector one. 

Larsen’s retirement promoted Gademan to the race lead, with Pin and Chambers completing the top three. Behind them were the battling Alisha Palmowski and Ella Lloyd. On the sixth lap, Lloyd attempted a double overtake on Palmowski and Chambers at Turn 5 but braked too late and went into the barriers, bringing her race to an early end. The safety car was brought back out again and remained on track until the end of lap eight.

Gademan got a good launch at the restart, but Pin stayed close to her. Behind the top two, Palmowski put Chambers under pressure for third, while Nobels – who started 16th – went wide at the first corner while trying to pass Lia Block for fifth. 

Palmowski managed to get the overtake on Chambers done on the inside of Turn 9, but Chambers wasn’t giving up. Up ahead, Pin also passed Gademan down the Strip heading into Turn 14, taking the lead of the race.

At the same time, Chambers got a run on Palmowski and held the outside line through Turns 14 and 15. At Turn 16, the pair made contact, sending the American spinning into the barriers and out of the race. Block just narrowly managed to avoid hitting Chambers’ car but lost three places in doing so.

The safety car was brought out to retrieve Chambers’ stricken car. With only one lap to go, Pin reported over the radio that the rain was increasing, but she never got to see how her tyres would have fared. The race ended under safety car conditions, with Pin taking her fourth win following that decisive lap nine overtake as Gademan and Palmowski completed the provisional top three. 

Palmowski, however, was disqualified after the race for a technical infringement involving an improperly configured damped shaft assembly. This promoted Nobels to third, her first podium in the series on her final weekend in F1 Academy. 

Rachel Robertson, stepping in for an injured Aiva Anagnostiadis, finished fourth on debut, scoring Hitech’s best finish in F1 Academy. Block finished fifth, while wild card entry and compatriot Payton Westcott finished sixth. Courtney Crone finished seventh, her best finish this year. Rafaela Ferreira completed the points-scoring positions with an eighth-place finish.

Joanne Ciconte was given a 10-second time penalty for contact with Ferreira at Turn 14 on lap four. Ciconte crossed the line fifth, which would have been her best result in the series so far, but the penalty dropped her to an eventual 10th. Chloe Chong was also given a 10-second time penalty for contact with Crone early on in the race, putting her 11th, while Nicole Havrda received a 30-second time penalty for failing to enter the pit lane after the formation lap and ended up 12th, the last of the finishers.  

The double podium for Pin and Gademan made Prema teams’ champions for the third year in a row. Pin also was able to extend her lead to 20 points over Weug, giving her a significant advantage in the title battle ahead of Saturday’s final race. 

Race 2 

With a 20-point deficit to Pin and 26 still on offer, Weug faced an uphill battle to try to secure the title. Weug was starting from fifth, with Pin one place ahead of her in fourth.

Chambers, launching from pole, was not only seeking redemption for Friday’s incident but aiming to secure third in the championship over Lloyd. Palmowski, who was disqualified from the first race, started second, while Larsen, who spun out from the lead on Friday, started third. 

On the formation lap, Felbermayr stalled with a clutch issue again. The Sauber-backed driver was brought back to the pit lane where she started the final race of the season. 

Chambers got a strong launch off the line, with Palmowski and Larsen also retaining their positions. Pin also got a good start and began challenging Larsen for third. 

On the second lap, Weug put pressure on her title rival Pin for fourth. Weug attempted a dive down the inside of Pin at Turn 1, but Pin was able to defend her position with the inside line into Turn 3. 

The safety car came out on the following lap following  a collision between Robertson, Ciconte and Westcott. Robertson had attempted an overtake down the inside at Turn 5 but touched Ciconte’s car, causing her to hit Westcott. Ciconte and Westcott were left stranded on track and their cars required retrieval from the marshals, while Robertson was given a 10-second time penalty for causing the collision. 

The safety car period ended at the conclusion of lap five, with Chambers retaining the lead of the race at the restart. Pin made a move down the inside heading into Turn 5 on Larsen and took third, just before Weug also passed the Dane at Turn 7 to move up to fourth. 

By the ninth lap of 13, Weug had caught up to Pin and had taken the fastest lap. The MP Motorsport driver made a move to overtake around the outside of Turn 1 on lap 10, succeeding and moving up to third. She then began a challenge on Palmowski for second, but the Briton defended her position fiercely. 

On lap 11, Weug made the move on Palmowski stick, overtaking her around the outside of Turn 14. Palmowski, however, wasn’t giving up, with Pin joining the battle as well. The Campos Racing driver retook second at Turn 1 with an over-under move, with Pin attempting to follow her through  as well. 

Despite running deep, Weug kept third, while the battle up ahead enabled Larsen to overtake Pin for fourth at Turn 5. Chambers, who was still leading the race, had built a gap of four seconds over second-placed Palmowski by this point, eking it out to take a commanding 4.895s victory in her final F1 Academy race as well as the fastest lap.

Palmowski had enough of an advantage by the final lap to cruise to second, with a visibly disappointed Weug rounding out the podium. With her fifth-place finish behind Larsen, Pin clinched the championship title with a 15-point lead, the narrowest in the championship’s three-year history. The Frenchwoman ended the season with 172 points, having scored in all 28 F1 Academy races she entered since last year.

Lloyd lost out to Chambers in the fight for third overall but secured the highest-placed rookie honours nonetheless with 109 points. The McLaren junior started race two 10th and finished sixth after coming out on top in a late-race battle with Gademan.

Hausmann finished eighth and Ferreira ninth as Nobels rounded out the points-scoring positions. 

During the race, Havrda was given a five-second time penalty for a false start. She had originally finished 15th on track, with the penalty dropping her to 16th. 

The other big battle on Sunday was for second in the teams’ standings after Prema secured the teams’ title on Saturday. While the Italian team ended with 296 points overall, Campos clinched second by a one-point margin, with their 1-2 finish in race two giving them 236 points to MP’s 235. 

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	Chloe Chambers, 2:06.538	Alisha Palmowski, +0.380s	Alba Larsen, +0.397s
Race 1 (12 laps)	Doriane Pin, 35:55.247	Nina Gademan, +0.543s	Aurelia Nobels, +1.188s
Race 2 (13 laps)	Chloe Chambers, 30:31.409	Alisha Palmowski, +4.895s	Maya Weug, +5.123s

Standings	Drivers	Teams
P1	Doriane Pin, 172	Prema Racing, 296
P2	Maya Weug, 157	Campos Racing, 236
P3	Chloe Chambers, 127	MP Motorsport, 235
P4	Ella Lloyd, 109	Rodin Motorsport, 164
P5	Alisha Palmowski, 91	ART Grand Prix, 57
P6	Nina Gademan, 74	Hitech, 20
P7	Alba Larsen, 70
P8	Tina Hausmann, 50
P9	Lia Block, 37
P10	Emma Felbermayr, 37

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