F1 Academy is back for a new season this weekend and you can watch every race in 2025 live on Sky Sports F1.
After Doriane Pin came out on top in a thrilling battle against Maya Weug, attention turns to who will become champion in 2026
F1 Academy creates a smooth transition from karting up the F1 feeder series ladder, with the possibility of a woman racing in F1 in the future.
The last female driver to take part in an F1 weekend was F1 Academy managing director Susie Wolff for Williams at the 2014 British GP, when she took part in Practice One.
Lella Lombardi is the last driver to race in the Grand Prix itself, in 1976, and she’s the only woman to score points when she finished sixth at the 1975 Spanish GP.
What is F1 Academy?
F1 Academy was launched in November 2022 by Formula 1 with the aim of preparing and developing female drivers to enable them to progress to higher levels of competition.
The category is designed to “give more access to track time, racing and testing, as well as support with technical, physical, and mental preparations”.
It is hoped the F1 Academy will provide the experience to progress to Formula 3, and help provide Formula 2 and Formula 1 opportunities in the future.
Susie Wolff heads up the series as managing director.
What car is used in F1 Academy?
F1 Academy will see all drivers race in identical cars – a Tatuus T421 chassis that is also used in Formula 4.
The cars are powered by turbo-charged engines supplied by Autotecnica and capable of 174 horsepower, while Pirelli supply the tyres.
The cars will have a top speed of 240kph (149mph).
F1 Academy have used the same car Tatuus F4-T421 since its inaugural season in 2023
What happened in 2025?
After dominant championship-winning campaigns for Marta Garcia in 2023 and Abbi Pulling in 2024, last year provided the fiercest F1 Academy title fight yet between Doriane Pin, Maya Weug and Chloe Chambers.
Pin won the main race in Shanghai to end the opening weekend as the championship leader but a second place and victory in Jeddah gave Weug the lead after two events.
In Miami, Pin stuck back with a superb performance from sixth, then torrential rain cancelled the main race, meaning there were three races in Montreal.
And the weekend in Canada produced huge drama with several collisions and incidents. Amid the chaos, Weug suffered electrical issues so failed to score points in two of the races and only finished sixth in the other. Pin took the championship lead and Chambers was now a title protagonist following her main race victory.
On home soil at Zandvoort, Weug began to mount a championship comeback from 36 points adrift with pole position, a dominant main race win and third in the reverse grid race.
The Dutch driver continued her great form into Singapore with second in the reverse grid race and a third win of the season after a last-lap overtake on Pin in mixed conditions, meaning Pin led Weug by just nine points ahead of Las Vegas finale.
The season finale was anticlimactic as Weug crashed on the formation lap of the first race, which Pin won, and the French driver finished fifth in the last race to secure the title.
Maya Weug crashed into the back of Tina Hausmann in the F1 Academy season finale
F1 Academy 2026 line-up and teams
The top three from last year’s championship – Pin, Weug and Chambers – are not in this year’s field since there is a two-season limit on competing in F1 Academy.
F1 Academy features six teams – ART, Campos, Rodin Carlin, MP Motorsport, Prema and Hitech – each entering three cars for every event to make up an 18-strong grid.
Prema are the defending teams’ champions and have a new 2026 line-up in the form of Germany’s Mathilda Paatz and USA’s Payton Westcott.
Britain’s Alisha Palmowski might be one of the title contenders in F1 Academy this year (Credit: Red Bull Content Pool)
British drivers Ella Lloyd and Alisha Palmowski, who both finished last year’s Drivers’ Championship in the top five, return for a second campaign, as do Netherlands’ Nina Gademan and Denmark’s Alba Hurup Larsen. They could be among this year’s title contenders, given the one year of experience.
Megan Bruce, Ella Lloyd, Ella Stevens and Rachel Robertson are the four other Brits on the grid in their rookie season.
F1 Academy 2026 calendar
F1 Academy continues to take place on Formula 1 weekends this season with seven rounds, starting in Shanghai at the Chinese Grand Prix this weekend on March 13-15.
Jeddah follows on April 17-19, before Montreal on May 22-24 and a first event at Silverstone during the British Grand Prix week on July 3-5.
Following a mid-season break, Zandvoort gets the action back under way on August 21-23, before F1 Academy returns to Circuit of the Americas on October 23-25 for the first time since 2023.
Las Vegas will host the final race weekend again on November 19-21.
F1 Academy weekend format and points system
A maximum of 39 points can be won over a race weekend by a single driver. There is normally just one practice session for the drivers to get up to speed, before heading into on Friday afternoon.
Race 1 on Saturday afternoon is a reverse grid race where the top eight in Qualifying are flipped to determine the starting grid. Those who qualify ninth to 18th will start in those positions for both races.
Race 2 will take place on Sunday morning with the starting grid set by the results of Qualifying.
Two points are awarded for pole position and one point is given for the fastest lap in each race, if you finish in the top eight for Race 1, or top 10 for Race 2.
The reverse grid race will have less points on offer, so only the top eight will score points: 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1.
Race 2 uses the same points system as F1, so the top 10 will score points: 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1.
Watch every round of the 2026 F1 Academy season, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime
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