Every junior single-seater driver wants to reach the top of the pyramid: Formula 1. Those who are part of driver academies have a much greater chance of doing so. This series explores the performances of driver academy members in 2025. Today, Feeder Series spotlights the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy.

By Daniele Spadi

Following the graduation of Ollie Bearman to a full-time Formula 1 seat with Haas, the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy was in need of a new star for 2025.

The academy won two titles at the FRegional level last year but still sought to have a champion in the F1 support series – F2, F3 and F1 Academy – for the first time since 2020, when Mick Schumacher won the F2 drivers’ title.

Ahead of the 2025 season, the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy welcomed two new young talents, karting stars Noah Baglin and Filippo Sala, to reach a total of seven drivers. In 2026, that number is set to grow by two again, with F1 Academy’s Alba Hurup Larsen and Italian F4’s Niccolò Maccagnani joining the programme.

• Dino Beganovic (F2, P7)
• Rafael Câmara (F3, P1)
• Tuukka Taponen (F3, P9)
• Maya Weug (F1 Academy, P2; FR Europe, P39*)
• Aurelia Nobels (F1 Academy, P13; Eurocup-4 SWC, P28; E4, P40*)
• Noah Baglin (Karting, various)
• Filippo Sala (Karting, various)

Dino Beganovic (F2, P7)

Beganovic, a member of the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy since 2020, joined Hitech in 2025 for his first full-time F2 campaign. He had already enjoyed his first taste of F2 racing last year with DAMS, when he partook in the last two weekends of the season, taking a podium in Yas Marina and two further points finishes.

The 2022 FR Europe champion struggled with consistency in the first half of the season. After leaving the first weekend of the season scoreless, he bounced back in Sakhir, finishing third in the sprint race and seventh in the feature. However, he failed to climb into the top 10 in Jeddah.

In Imola, the Swedish driver showed his potential by claiming his maiden pole position. Though he couldn’t convert it into victory, he still managed to take third on Sunday. Once again, inconsistency proved to be the weakest point in his game, as he scored two points in the following seven races.

Beganovic began racking up points more quickly from round eight onwards. He scored in 11 of the last 13 races and picked up his first win in the sprint race around the streets of Baku. Ultimately, he finished his first full-time F2 season in seventh place, helping Hitech in their quest to finish second in the teams’ standings in the process.

The Swedish driver, who is still looking to claim his second title as a Scuderia Ferrari academy driver, will stay in F2 for a second season next year, joining DAMS for the 2026 campaign.

Rafael Câmara (F3, P1)

Rafael Câmara was undoubtedly one of the stars of the 2025 season across junior single-seaters. Fresh from his title-winning FR Europe campaign, the Brazilian geared up for his rookie F3 season with Trident, the team that had just won back-to-back drivers’ championships in the series.

Right from the start of the season, Câmara showed no mercy to his opponents. A dominant showing in both feature races in Melbourne and Sakhir, paired with a third win in Barcelona, allowed him to build a promising lead in the drivers’ standings.

The Brazilian still endured some challenging moments, especially on Saturdays. He only scored four points across the first five sprints, including two retirements in Melbourne and Barcelona. His feature race efficiency likewise faltered in Monaco and Silverstone, where he went scoreless.

Despite these setbacks, he nursed that advantage all the way to the end. The 20-year-old claimed the F3 title in style with his fourth win of the year, at the Hungaroring, with one round to spare.

Câmara follows in the footsteps of both Gabriel Bortoleto and Leonardo Fornaroli by joining Invicta for his first F2 campaign after winning the F3 title with Trident. All eyes will be on him as he attempts to take back-to-back crowns just as his predecessors did. In the process, Câmara will also be trying to become the first to win the drivers’ titles in the current iterations of FR Europe, F3, and F2 in three consecutive seasons.

Tuukka Taponen (F3, P9)

A key rival of Câmara in his 2024 FR Europe campaign, Tuukka Taponen also climbed up to F3 in 2025. The Finn, who had won the Ferrari Scouting World Finals in 2022 to become a Scuderia Ferrari academy driver from the following year, joined ART Grand Prix for his first stab at full-time F3 racing. He had previously substituted for the suspended Nikola Tsolov at Spa last year.

After a scoreless debut in Melbourne, Taponen snatched his first F3 points in style with third place in the Bahrain sprint, which started a six-race points-scoring streak that also included second place in the sprint at Monaco. After that weekend, the Finn was sitting in fifth in the drivers’ standings with a 26-point deficit to Câmara.

However, Taponen then failed to score in all but two of the remaining races of the season. One bright spot came with third place in the feature at Hungaroring, but his lack of results in the second half of the season meant he dropped to ninth in the championship. Nevertheless, the 19-year-old still finished as the highest-placed ART driver at the end of the year, having outscored closest teammate Laurens van Hoepen by seven points.

Taponen is staying in F3 for a second full-time campaign in 2026, switching to MP Motorsport. He will be hoping to return to the top step of the podium, with 2025 marking his first winless solar year since he stepped up to single-seater racing in 2021.

Maya Weug (F1 Academy, P2; FR Europe, P39*)

Weug finished the 2024 F1 academy season with a stunning victory in Abu Dhabi, setting up the perfect foundation for a title run in 2025..

Having switched from Prema Racing to MP Motorsport over the winter, the 21-year-old started strongly with four podiums in the opening four races, tasting success once more in Jeddah and taking the championship lead to boot. In Montréal, however, Weug scored just eight points across the three races and slipped behind both title rival Doriane Pin and Chloe Chambers in the standings. 

Weug was back on form at Zandvoort and Marina Bay, scoring four podiums, including two victories. In particular, she made a stunning last-lap overtake on Pin in rainy conditions in race two at the latter to win – and keep her championship hopes alive.

Then, disaster struck at the finale in Las Vegas, when contact with Tina Hausmann on the formation lap of race one forced Weug to retire. This gave her a mountain to climb in her championship, and while Weug had an impressive drive to third in race two, Pin eventually won by a margin of 15 points.

Weug also competed in the Hungaroring round of FR Europe, in which she raced full-time in 2023. She finished race one in 22nd before retiring from race two.

Weug’s 2026 plans are still unknown. Thanks to her second-place finish in F1 Academy, the championship funded a test session in a Ferrari 296 GT3 at the Circuit the Barcelona-Catalunya, pointing to a potential move to sports cars.

* Partial season

Aurelia Nobels (F1 Academy, P13; Eurocup-4 SWC, P28; E4, P40*)

After a busy 2024 in which she competed in at least three races in five different championships, Nobels focused on F1 Academy for 2025. She prepared for her second consecutive season with ART Grand Prix by partaking in the first two rounds of the Eurocup-4 Spanish Winter Championship, with her best result being 14th in race one at Portimão.

Nobels, who has been part of the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy since 2023, couldn’t find her feet at first in her second F1 Academy season. She retired from both races of the opening weekend in Shanghai following two collisions and then failed to score points in Jeddah.

Her first noteworthy result came in Miami, where she placed sixth in the reverse-grid race. She scored points on four further occasions, finishing in the top 10 in three of the last four races and turning her season around after a difficult start.

Notably, the last two rounds brought her best results across her two seasons in F1 Academy. She finished fourth in race one in Singapore before taking home her first ever podium in the series in Las Vegas after Alisha Palmowski was disqualified post-race.

Ultimately, Nobels finished her campaign in 13th position, with 17 points to her name. Throughout the year, she also made an appearance in E4, racing with AS Motorsport in Mugello – obtaining a best finish of 23rd.

Nobels’ time in F1 Academy is now up following the completion of two full seasons. Her racing plans for 2026 have yet to be revealed.

* Partial season

Noah Baglin (Karting, various)

British karting star Noah Baglin joined the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy at the start of 2025 after taking multiple top-10 finishes in international OK-Junior competitions in 2024.

Staying on for another year in OKJ, the 13-year-old showed his talent once more in 2025. Baglin never left the top four in the five rounds of the WSK Super Master Series, finishing just three points off the title in second. He also competed in the FIA Karting European Championship, engaging in a season-long title fight with Williams junior Dean Hoogendoorn. Though he originally finished second overall, he was disqualified in December from the third round of the series held in Viterbo, which dropped him to third.

These frontrunning performances set him up to be one to watch for the FIA Karting World Championship at Kristianstad in September. The week before, he had clinched the Champions of the Future Euro Series title with victory at the Swedish track.

At the world championship, he took pole and quickly gapped the field to control the race’s second half. He took the checkered flag first, becoming OKJ world champion in dominant fashion. With that victory, he joined a list of winners that includes Logan Sargeant, Victor Martins and Freddie Slater and shot up to the top of the FIA’s International Karting Ranking.

Baglin ended the year by finishing second in the three-round WSK Final Cup. He will continue his karting journey in 2026, likely in senior karting.

Filippo Sala (Karting, various)

In 2025, Sala became the first Italian to join the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy since Antonio Fuoco, who had been part of the team until 2018. 

Though Sala, 14, is still too young to compete in most car racing categories, he is actively developing in the world of karting. He currently sits 10th in the FIA International Karting Rankings.

This year, Sala stepped up to the OK class of karting, finishing fourth in the WSK Super Master Series and second in the WSK Euro Series. In terms of FIA Karting events, Sala finished fourth in the European championship and 10th in the world championship. He won his final race of the year at the WSK Final Cup at Lonato.

Sala, who currently sits ninth overall in the FIA International Karting Ranking, is expected to continue in senior karting in 2026.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency