Lia Block

Lia Block is an American rally and off-road driver who has also spent time racing single-seaters. 

She began her career very early, entering her first rally not long after her 15th birthday. This wasn't event her motorsport debut: she had already tried out drag racing aged fourteen and was one of the youngest drivers ever to be granted an NHRA license. The rally was the Oregon Trail; which she managed most of the first leg before her "Hoonigan" Ford Fiesta R2 succumbed to engine problems. Still with co-driver James Matthew and a different Fiesta, she fared better in her first full season in 2022. By June, she was into the top ten, securing ninth place in the Southern Ohio Forest Rally. This was one of two top-tens that year, the second being another ninth in the Susquehannock Trail Rally. She was twelfth in the ARA championship and fifth in the 2WD class.

Top-ten finishes became the norm for her in the 2023 ARA series. She was driving a Subaru BRZ which seemed to suit her. Her best finish was fourth in the Oregon Trail Rally and she won the 2WD class in all but one of the rallies she finished, leading her to the ARA Open 2WD championship. At 16, she was the youngest champion in ARA history. She was fourth in the main championship. The only real disappointment that year was a non-finish in the Lake Superior Performance Memorial Rally, where she was trying out a Ford Escort Cosworth. 

Her ARA performances had begun to draw attention and 2023 was a busy year for her. In July, she was signed by Carl Cox Motorsport to replace Christine GZ in their Extreme E team. She joined Timo Scheider for the Sardinia and Chile races, earning a best finish of fifth in Sardinia. She was fourteenth in the championship.

She had already been running a dual campaign in the Nitrocross rallycross series in the States, driving for the Swedish OMSE team in the NEXT class. After a part-season, she was fifth in the NEXT championship, not helped by two disqualifications at MidAmerica and Utah, for rejoining the main circuit unsafely. She had won the Utah race. Her best recorded finishes of the year were two second places at Wild Horse Motorsports Park and Glen Helen. At the end of her 2023-2024 season, she was offered Travis Pastrana's car for the Group E races at Glen Helen. This is the highest level of Nitrocross. She was eighth in her race.

After this year, her career began to take multiple directions at the same time. She drove for the Dreyer & Reinbold team in the shortened 2024-2025 Nitrocross season, again in Group E. She was eighth this time after four rounds, with Utah being her best circuit. She was fifth.

Rallying had been put to one side for the moment. She only did one ARA event in 2024, the Lake Superior Performance Rally. She and navigator Keaton Williams had been running in third place and had won their last completed stage when they crashed out in their Subaru. 

Late in 2023, she had made the surprise announcement that she would be moving into single-seater racing, despite having little circuit experience. She was signed up for the 2024 F1 Academy season, driving for ART Grand Prix as the Williams supported entry. As prep, she did the Spanish-based Formula Winter Series with GRS. This was very much a learning experience and her highest finish was a 25th place at Ricardo Tormo.

Her first F1 Academy year was also a tough one, with several races affected by mishaps and unavoidable contact with other drivers. Her home races in Miami were a case in point and she could only manage 15th and tenth. Her best finishes were two fourth places in Singapore, and she was eighth overall.

Her second F1 Academy season had more high points. She won her first race at Singapore mid-season after keeping her lead in the reverse grid race, having started from pole. This came off the back of her first podium at Zandvoort. She had overtaken Tina Hausmann for second place, behind Nina Gademan. Both times, the second race was nowhere near as good for her, and she received a penalty at Zandvoort for starting from the wrong grid position after Chloe Chambers pulled out. She was ninth in the championship after a very up and down season.

Another big moment for her in 2025 was when she was asked to drive an ex-Keke Rosberg 1982 Williams Formula One car at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Her two-year term in F1 Academy came to an end then and she decided to leave single-seaters and return to rallying. She had done one event in 2025, the Boone Forest Rally in a Ford Fiesta, finishing third overall and winning her class. It was time to get back out.

Her first rally of 2026 was in the Fiesta, in Rally3 spec. She and new co-driver Alessandro Gelsomino were excluded from the Snodrift Rally's Powerstage for receiving outside assistance, having led at the time. Lia decided to switch to a more powerful Rally2 car, a Hyundai i20, and was immediately fourth in the 100 Acre Wood Rally. This improved to third in the Olympus Rally and a close second in the Southern Ohio Forest Rally. She is also returning to rallycross in 2026.

She is the daughter of the late Ken Block, of Gymkhana fame. Her mother Lucy, sister Kira and brother Mika also compete in rallying.

(Image from rallyx.se)

Emma Felbermayr

Emma Felbermayr is an Austrian single-seater driver who rose to prominence competing in the all-female F1 Academy.

Her senior racing career only began in 2025, when she was announced as an F1 Academy driver for Rodin. Previously, she had done karting in Europe. The team entered her into the Spanish-based Eurocup 4 Winter series, which was her first-ever time in a single-seater. During the first round at Jerez she improved her finishes from 28th, through 20th to a best of thirteenth. In the next round at Portimao, she was 20th, 21st and 31st. As she missed the last round, this left her 27th in the championship, second of Rodin's three drivers, ahead of Kyuho Lee who did a full season.

She also drove in the main Spanish F4 championship, racking up almost a full season as part of the same team. It was rather an inconsistent year ending in 29th overall, with her best finish being another thirteenth at Catalunya. In contrast to her Jerez result, which was aided by a string of crashes and some judicial penalties, this one was more on her own efforts.

Her debut season in F1 Academy was a very mixed bag of results. Driving a Rodin-run car with the backing of the Sauber F1 team, she was dropped to eleventh in the first race at Shanghai after contact with Tina Hausmann's car on the last lap. She was fifth in Race 2. There was more contact and disappointing results at Jeddah and Miami, then she made a breakthrough at Montreal. On the track, she was third in Race 1, but was later disqualified due to her car being underweight. She made it up in Race 2 with her first win. 

For the rest of the season, there were no more podium finishes, although she came close in Singapore with fourth. She was tenth overall.

Her 2026 season began with a run in the UAE F4 championship, driving for PHM Motorsport this time. Her best finish was a twelfth place in the third round at Yas Marina and she was 26th overall. 

Sauber became Audi for at the beginning of 2026 and Emma was retained as their F1 Academy driver Rodin also kept her on in F1 Academy, although she continued to race for PHM elsewhere. Her programme included selected rounds of the Italian F4 championship. In May, she also joined the British F4 championship with Virtuosi Racing. She picked up one top-twenty finish at Silverstone and did slightly better in the Italian series, coming in 15th once at Misano and fourteenth at Monza.

The F1 Academy season began well at Shanghai. Emma was third in Race 1, in spite of contact from Alba Larsen. She then won the second race after a mistake by Larsen, who was leading, dropped her to the back. Alba Larsen remained somewhat of an albatross for Emma; she spun during the reverse grid race at Montreal after a small collision with her car.  She had stalled on the grid during Race 1, but earned a second place in Race 3.

She is the daughter of sportscar racer Horst Felbermayr Jr. He has expressed a desire to race at Le Mans with his daughter and son in the future. Emma has said she would like to compete at Le Mans some day. 

Her career has been aided by Allan McNish, who now runs the Audi academy.

(Image copyright Jun Da Tan)

Alba Larsen

Alba Hurup Larsen is a Danish single-seater driver currently racing internationally in F4.

She came to prominence when she joined the all-female F1 Academy in 2025, driving for MP Motorsport in a Tommy Hilfiger-sponsored car. She was only 16 years old and this was her first full season in cars. 

Alba's family were friends with Jan Magnussen and his family and she was close to his two younger children growing up. Naturally, this led to an interest in motorsport and to competitive karting from the age of twelve. She travelled around the world to race and won a junior championship in New Zealand in 2023.

She got her big break with the FIA Girls on Track scheme, also in 2023, when she was selected from hundreds of girls who had taken part in Girls on Track events. The assessments included a kart slalom course. The final test for the chosen drivers was timed laps in an F4 car, which was difficult for her as she had never driven anything with a clutch before. She managed another round of testing and assessment despite being unwell.

In 2024, she began her senior career in F4 India, also run by MP, driving for the Speed Demons Delhi team. She did the first two rounds at Madras and Chennai. Chennai was the better circuit for her and she was sixth and eighth. 

During the winter season, she competed in the Formula Winter Series, for the first three rounds. Her best finish was fourteenth at Aragon and she was 32nd overall. 

Her first F1 Academy season began well, qualifying third at Shanghai, but she was not always able to convert pace into results, particularly at Shanghai when she was penalised for colliding with Emma Felbermayr. Her best results were two fourth places in the first and last rounds of the year, at Shanghai and Las Vegas. She was seventh overall. 

Away from F1 Academy, she raced in British F4 for about two-thirds of the season. This proved more challenging, and she could only manage two eleventh places at Silverstone and Thruxton as her best finishes. She was 23rd overall.

For 2026, she was selected as the Ferrari representative driver in F1 Academy, still with the MP squad. She had joined the Ferrari Driver Academy a couple of months earlier. 

Her racing year began with a part-season in the UAE F4 championship, driving for Evans GP. She did the first three rounds, held at Yas Marina and Dubai, with a best finish of tenth, at the Abu Dhabi circuit. Her 22nd position in the championship was the second-best performance in her team.

The 2026 F1 Academy season was disrupted by war in the Middle East, which meant the second round in Saudi was cancelled. Alba qualified second for the first race of the year at Shanghai, but it was a reverse grid and she crashed into Felbermayr again. She did better in the feature race, finishing eighth after a good start.

From a very early stage in her career, Alba has supported other girls wanting a career in motorsport. Her Alba Academy was set up to do this.

(Image copyright F1 Academy)

Aurelia Nobels

Aurelia Nobels is a Brazilian-Belgian driver born in the USA, who began racing in Danish Formula 4 in 2022, when she was fifteen. She has competed under both a Belgian and Brazilian license.

Her first race in the Danish championship at Jyllandsringen gave her a seventh place, which she improved to a sixth the next day. In an unusual move, she also entered the Brazilian F4 championship, picking up a twelfth place as her best finish at Mogi Guacu. Back in Europe, she joined the Spanish F4 series for its Spa away round, but was not competitive, only managing one 23rd place.

In July 2022, she was selected as a senior driver for the FIA’s Girls on Track initiative. This led to a run in the Italian F4 championship in 2023, along with its related Euro4 championship, for Prema. In addition to this, she was signed by the Ferrari driver academyShe was unplaced in both series. Her best finishes were two eleventh places, one in each series, at Imola and Catalunya. In Italy, she had to miss some rounds, including two of the Misano races. She had an accident in the first race and had to sit out the rest of the weekend.

In 2024, she joined Sainteloc Racing for the UAE F4 championship, in preparation for a season in F1 Academy. She was linked with a Ferrari-backed seat. Her UAE races didn't go brilliantly, with a 19th at Yas Marina her best result. She then did some Saudi F4 races and earned one third place at Losail. This was enough for eleventh in the championship.

Most of 2024 was taken up by F1 Academy, where she was twelfth for ART Grand Prix, despite several top-ten finishes, including a fifth at Zandvoort. She also found time for guest spots in Eurocup-4 and British F4, at Monza and Zandvoort. Her best finish at Zandvoort was 16th, and Monza, fourteenth.

Like many of her F1 Academy rivals, she did the 2025 winter season in Spain, competing in the Eurocup-4 winter series. ART Grand Prix ran her and two other F1 Academy drivers for a part-season. She was the best of the three, finishing 28th overall, with a best finish of fourteenth. Later in the year, she did the Mugello rounds of the Euro4 championship for AS Racing, finishing 23rd twice and 33rd once.

Her F1 Academy season, supported by Puma, was up and down, beginning badly with two DNFs at Shanghai, but ending with her first podium, a third place at Las Vegas. She was thirteenth overall and this was her last season of F1 Academy.

She left the Ferrari Driver Academy at the end of 2025 and her future plans are unknown.

(Image copyright Aurelia Nobels/Ferrari)

Nerea Marti

Nerea Marti is a Spanish driver who graduated from karts to cars at the beginning of 2019. She has raced in both F1 Academy and W Series and gone on to compete in endurance.

Her first steps in cars were in the 2019 Spanish Formula 4 championship, with the Praga Espana Formula de Campeones team. In her second-ever race at Navarra, she was classified second overall due to ten drivers being penalised for not reacting quickly enough to a red flag. The rest of the year was inconsistent and led to championship 16th, with top tens at most of the tracks the series visited, but often followed by more disappointing results. She previously competed for the same team in karting from 2015 to 2018.

After the first season of the all-female W Series concluded in 2019, she was selected for a race seat in the next edition. However, the season was cancelled due to coronavirus and Nerea returned to karting for a time once motorsport began again.

She did get to race in W Series in 2021, and was named as one of the series' Academy drivers, who were exempt from elimination for a season. She impressed with a third place at the Hungaroring and was a regular top-ten finisher, coming fourth in the championship. She also tested an FIA F3 car with a group of female drivers, although no further drives came out of it.

In 2022, she was invited back to race with W Series, joining the Quantfury team alongside Belen Garcia, who had been a rival in the Spanish F4 championship. She was seventh in the championship, despite podium finishes in Miami and Paul Ricard.

After the collapse of W Series in early 2023, she signed for Campos Racing in the all-female F1 Academy, following two races in the Formula Winter Series at Valencia. Despite a first-round disqualification, she was fourth in F1A, winning once at Paul Ricard. She combined F1A with a run in the Spanish GT Championship, winning the GT4 class in a BMW Spain-supported M4 shared with Jose Manuel de los Milagros, who had also won a Catalan Endurance title with her in 2022. She had fit her CER races around her W Series commitments, and picked up six wins from eight races, finishing second in class. In 2023, they were ninth overall, with one outright podium finish.

In 2024, she was fourth in F1 Academy again, with third places at Jeddah and Abu Dhabi. She also had a few guest races in Spanish and NACAM F4. Even though she won a NACAM race at Mexico City (alongside two second places), her career began to move again towards sportscars, probably because she would not be allowed another year in F1A. More BMW Spain support helped her to fourth place in the GT4 class of the Supercars Endurance Championship. She also tested an Andretti Formula E car in the series' Women's Test at Estoril.

Sportscars were her focus for 2025, and she did almost a full season of the Supercars Endurance Series in a BMW M4, sponsored by BMW Promotion. Nerea and her team-mate Juan Maria de los Milagros won one race at Valencia, but they were only 15th in the championship as their other results were not as stellar.

(Image copyright Jason Vian/Vogue)

Ella Lloyd

Ella Lloyd is a British driver who races single-seaters, most famously in the all-female F1 Academy championship.

She began her motorsport career in 2022, racing in Ginetta Juniors at the age of 16. She got into motorsport through the FIA’s Girls on Track karting challenge in 2018, having never done any karting before.

Her best results at the start of the 2022 season were three 16th places, achieved at Brands Hatch and Knockhill. Later, she improved, picking up an eleventh place at Thruxton. She was 21st overall.

The first year of her senior career, 2023, ended with a runner-up in the Pro class of the Ginetta GT5 Challenge, after a series of wins. She had 17 podium finishes from 25 races, ten of those being wins in the Pro class.

She then switched to single-seaters in 2024, first in the Formula Winter Series, then in British F4. Rodin entered her for the last two rounds of the Winter Series, taking over from Bart Harrison. It was a cautious start and she only got in the top 20 once, although she also scored more points than Harrison or some drivers who did a full season.

She was eleventh in the F4 championship, impressing many with her pace, despite her limited single-seater experience. The work she had put in over the winter had started to pay off. During the year, she scored three second places, at Silverstone, Knockhill and Brands. This led to a wildcard entry for the Singapore rounds of F1 Academy, where she was ninth and seventh. Later in the year, she took part in the Formula E Women's Test at Jarama, recording the seventh-best set of times. As a result, she was invited back to test again for the McLaren team at Berlin Tempelhof in 2025.

For 2025, she was signed by the Rodin team as McLaren's supported driver in the series. To prepare, she entered the Formula 4 Middle East Trophy. This wasn't a huge success; in the five races she did, her best finishes were 17th places at Yas Marina.

F1 Academy itself was more successful. In the third race at Jeddah, she scored her first win, following it up with three second places later in Canada. A third place at Singapore kept her fourth in the championship, the most successful Rodin driver that year. She will be retained for a second season.

At home, she did most of the British F4 season, where it did not clash with F1 Academy, also with Rodin. She was a regular visitor to the top ten and was 14th in the championship. Her best circuit was Zandvoort, where she was seventh, third and fourth, earning her only podium of the year.

She is from a motorsport family - both parents and her older brother compete - and she has won junior championships in both downhill skiing and showjumping.

(Image copyright F1 Academy)

Alisha Palmowski

Alisha Palmowski began her racing career in Ginetta Juniors in 2022, aged 15. She was the winner of the Ginetta Junior Scholarship and her prize was a full season’s racing in the championship. She describes this win as a turning point in her career; without it, she might never have switched to cars from karts.

Her scholarship followed six years of karting, during which she finished strongly in two junior categories. Although she quickly became competitive, she had no great interest in doing sports as a child, and only watched motorsport on TV.

Her best results were two eighth places at Knockhill in July and the challenging Brands Hatch GP circuit, in October. This was one of six top-ten finishes she earned that year and she was thirteenth in the championship. A run in the Ginetta Winter Series followed; the four-round series was held at Brands Hatch and she picked up one second and one third place.

In 2023, she was fifth in the championship, with ten podiums from 24 races. She was third in her second race of the season at Oulton Park, then second twice at Silverstone, setting herself up for a strong run in her final year as a junior racer.

Switching to single-seaters, she entered the GB4 championship in 2024 and was immediately on the pace again, winning the first round at Oulton Park, one of her best circuits. This was one of three wins that year, which gave her second in the championship, with eight additional podium finishes.

Impressing many onlookers by getting to grips with GB4 so quickly, she was selected as a wildcard entry for the Bahrain F1 Academy round and finished fifth in the one race which took place. This led to a full-time Academy seat in 2025, driving for the Campos team as Red Bull's supported driver. She has spoken openly about being quite star-struck in the F1 paddock, but it did not affect her performance.

At the end of 2024, she took part in the Formula E Women's Test at Jarama, driving for the Envision team with Alice Powell.

To prepare for her upcoming season, she entered the Formula Winter Series at the start of 2025, alongside her Campos team-mates, Chloe Chambers and Rafaela Ferreira. All three did two rounds each, with Alisha taking the first two at Algarve and Ricardo Tormo. She was the highest-placed of the three, coming in 23rd in the championship. Algarve was her best circuit; she was thirteenth twice and twelfth once.

She could not have hoped for a better start to her 2025 F1 Academy season. An incident-strewn first race at Shanghai meant that a calm and determined Alisha was able to take her first win. She followed it with a sixth place, and was then third and fourth at Jeddah, and second at Miami. Later highlights were second places at Zandvoort and Las Vegas, the latter making up for a race one disqualification due to her car failing scrutineering.

She has been retained by her team for the 2026 season.

(Image copyright Red Bull)

Rafaela Ferreira

Rafaela Ferreira races single-seaters in Brazil. She began her senior career in 2023, after several years in karting and some tests in F3 and F4 cars. She had been active in karting since the age of eight, inspired by her father who raced and built karts.

After a couple of races in Formula Inter in the States, which uses the same car as US F4, she took away two fourth places, and was ready to tackle Brazilian F4.

Her first race at Interlagos in Brazilian F4 led to an 11th place, then a sixth and a ninth. At the time, she was the first female driver to race in the championship.

In 2023, she gradually improved over the season, taking her first podium in December with third at Interlagos. She was thirteenth in the championship.

She entered the 2024 F4 Brazil series a stronger driver. The first race of the season ended in a third place for her at Velo Citta, followed by a seventh and then a second. A couple of indifferent races at Interlagos followed, but when the championship returned to Velo Citta, she scored her first win. She won again at the away round in Buenos Aires, as well as picking up a second place, one of nine podiums during the year. Inerlagos had always been something of a bogey track for her, but by the end of the season, she even managed a second there. She was fourth in the championship.

At the end of 2024, she was signed by Racing Bulls for their 2025 F1 Academy entry, driving for the Campos team. F1 Academy was her chief focus for the year, but she began by getting some seat time in the Formula Winter Series, held in Spain. Campos entered her for two of the four meetings, the same as her future team-mates, Chloe Chambers and Alisha Palmowski. It wasn't her best run in any series, and her best finish from six races was twelfth at Aragon.

She started well enough in F1 Academy with a fifth and eighth place at Shanghai, but then her season became inconsistent, not helped by a series of penalties and getting caught up in others' blunders. She was normally in the lower reaches of the top ten and was twelfth in the championship.

She did much better in the non-championship Brazilian F4 races that supported the Brazilian Grand Prix. After fifth place in Race 1, she won race 2 in front of her home F1 crowd. She was then fourth in Race 3.

(Image from Brazilian F4)

Tina Hausmann

 

Tina Hausmann is a Swiss driver racing single-seaters in Europe.

Her first experience of car racing, after some success in karts in Switzerland, was in the 2023 Formula Winter Series, a Formula 4 championship based in Spain. She surprised many with a fourth and third place in her first-ever events at Jerez, but the next round at Ricardo Torme was a disappointment for her, with a pair of DNFs. She only did half of the eight-race championship.

During the 2023 summer season, she contested both Italian F4 and its associated Euro4 championship but did not score any points. Her best finish was 16th at Paul Ricard. A Race 1 accident on the second lap at Misano led to her wthdrawal from the rest of the round, although she did return for the next races at Spa.

For 2024, she signed up for both the UAE F4 series and the all-female F1 Academy. Aston Martin selected her as its supported driver for F1A and she was part of the Prema team. Her team-mates Doriane Pin and Maya Weug had considerably more experience, with Doriane having raced at Le Mans and both having competed in FRECA. She started well with a sixth place at Jeddah, but was unable to match it until the end of the year, when she was fourth at Abu Dhabi. Usually, she was a top-ten finisher, but she has not yet got near the podium. Technical problems have played their part in this.

Her UAE campaign ended up being one round at Yas Marina, driving for Xcel Motorsport. She finished two of her three races, in 27th and 21st place.

Still with Prema, she concentrated exclusively on F1 Academy in 2025. In her second and last season in the series, she improved on her 2024 results, finishing more consistently in the top ten. Her best finish was fourth again, in Canada. She did have some regrettable accidents, including taking out Maya Weug on the formation lap at Las Vegas, but she also set a fastest lap in Canada.

Tina was previously active in karting and esports.

(Image copyright F1 Academy)

F1 Academy

F1 Academy is the latest in a long line of female-only development championships, launched in 2023. 

It was brought forward by the FIA after the demise of W Series and unlike W Series, has the support of the FIA and its Women in Motorsport Commission.

The championship uses F4 cars with an uprated aero package. There are five independent teams, each running three drivers each. All five are major players in global junior single-seater competition. Drivers must have an appropriate license and be aged between 16 and 25 at the start of the year. They are recruited by the teams privately. Each driver has to bring about £150k in funds to compete, but this is considerably less than it costs to take part in the equivalent mixed F4 championship in their region. Each race seat is subsidised by the teams and the FIA. The championship's CEO is Susie Wolff.

As well as seven meetings with three races (reduced to two in 2024)  at each, F1 Academy drivers have access to 15 official test days throughout the year, giving them a large amount of track time for their investment. 

The aim of the championship is progression, so the winner each year has to move on. No-one may spend more than two seasons in the series.

Prema, one of the Academy teams, offered a Formula Regional Europe (FRECA) race seat to 2023 winner Marta Garcia. Teams who sign any F1 Academy driver finishing first, second or third into FRECA are allowed to run a fourth car for that driver.

2023 Results

1. Marta Garcia (Prema)

2. Lena Buhler (ART Grand Prix)

3. Hamda al-Qubaisi (MP Motorsport)

4. Nerea Marti (Campos)

5. Abbi Pulling (Rodin Carlin)

6. Amna al-Qubaisi (MP Motorsport)

7. Bianca Bustamante (Prema)

8. Jessica Edgar (Rodin Carlin)

9. Emely de Heus (MP Motorsport)

10. Lola Lovinfosse (Campos)

11. Carrie Schreiner (ART Grand Prix)

12. Chloe Grant (ART Grand Prix)

13. Megan Gilkes (Rodin Carlin)

14. Chloe Chong (Prema)

15. Maite Caceres (Campos)

2024

The second F1 Academy season increased its links with Formula 1. Each F1 team chose an Academy driver to support, meaning that two-thirds of the grid ran with F1-related liveries. The race weekends were run alongside seven F1 rounds. Instead of three races, two would be held.

An extra car for a wildcard driver from the country the race is held in was provided for some rounds.

The non-F1 affiliated cars attracted some high-profile sponsors, including Tommy Hilfiger and Charlotte Tilbury cosmetics.

There were six new full-time drivers, after Marta Garcia and Lena Buhler moved into FRECA, with Buhler ageing out of the competition. Megan Gilkes retired from racing and Chloe Chong, Maite Caceres and Chloe Grant went to race elsewhere.

2024 Results

1. Abbi Pulling (Rodin/Alpine) 

2. Doriane Pin (Prema/Mercedes)

3. Maya Weug (Prema/Ferrari)

4. Nerea Marti (Campos)

5. Hamda al-Qubaisi (MP Motorsport/Red Bull)

6. Chloe Chambers (Campos/Haas)

7. Bianca Bustamante (ART Grand Prix)

8. Lia Block (ART Grand Prix/Williams)

9. Carrie Schreiner (Campos/Sauber)

10. Tina Hausmann (Prema/Aston Martin)

11. Emely de Heus (MP Motorsport)

12. Aurelia Nobels (ART Grand Prix)

13. Jessica Edgar (Rodin)

14. Lola Lovinfosse (Rodin)

15. Amna al-Qubaisi (MP Motorsport/Racing Bulls)

2025

The series continued in the same format in 2025, with an additional two-car team run by Hitech, who also ran the wild card entries. Hitech regular driver Aiva Anagnostiadis suffered a foot injury and missed the last two rounds of the season. She was replaced by wild card drivers Megan Bruce and Rachel Robertson.

Nine of the 2024 drivers either aged out or came to their two-season limit, meaning the grid looked quite different in 2025. The championship came down to the final race at Las Vegas, with Doriane Pin taking the crown with one win and a fifth place. Maya Weug, her closest rival, was taken out on the formation lap by Tina Hausmann in Race 1. 

2025 Results

1. Doriane Pin (Mercedes/Prema)

2. Maya Weug (Ferrari/MP Motorsport)

3. Chloe Chambers (Campos)

4. Ella Lloyd (Rodin/McLaren)

5. Alisha Palmowski (Red Bull/Campos)

6. Nina Gademan (Alpine/Prema)

7. Alba Hurup Larsen (MP Motorsport)

8. Tina Hausmann (Aston Martin/Prema)

9. Lia Block (Williams/ART Grand Prix)

10. Emma Felbermayr (Sauber/Rodin)

11. Chloe Chong (Rodin)

12. Rafaela Ferreira (Racing Bulls/Campos)

13. Aurelia Nobels (ART Grand Prix)

14. Joanne Ciconte ((MP Motorsport)

15. Esmee Kosterman WC 

16. Rachel Robertson WC (Hitech)

17. Aiva Anagnostiadis (Hitech)

18. Payton Westcott WC

19. Courtney Crone (ART Grand Prix)

20. Nicole Havrda (Hitech)

21. Mathilda Paatz WC

22. Megan Bruce WC (Hitech)

23. Ava Dobson WC

24. Shi Wei WC

25. Farah Al-Yousef WC

26. Lisa Billard WC

Maite Caceres

 

Maite Caceres is a Uruguayan driver who has done most of her racing in the USA. 

She entered the 2022 US F4 championship, driving for International Motorsport, after testing an F4 car as part of an event organised by W Series. She was not selected to go further with W Series testing. Her best result in US F4 was a twelfth place at Road America. She missed several races in the middle of the season. 

As well as F4, she entered the last part of the USF Juniors championship, managing eleventh places at Road America and COTA. 

Previously, she raced in the Uruguayan F4 series, beginning in late 2021. She scored one third place at El Pinar. She was ninth in the championship.

For 2023, she competed in the all-female F1 Academy F4 championship, driving for Campos Racing with Nerea Marti and Lola Lovinfosse. It was not a good year for her and she was 15th in the final standings, out of 15 drivers. Her best results were two eighth places, achieved at Monza and Paul Ricard. 

As preparation, Campos had entered her into the Formula Winter Series at the beginning of the year.

Her time in F1 Academy was limited to a single season and she moved into the Ligier JS F4 series in the States, driving for the International Motorsport team. This proved to be a good move; she was second and third in her first two races at NOLA, on her way to championship third with three more third places.

Despite impressing in the Ligier F4 car, sportscars were her next destination. She raced in the MX-5 Cup in the States, which supports IMSA events. She drove for the RAFA Racing team, sharing a car with Jem Hepworth. Her best circuit was St Petersburg, where she was eleventh and thirteenth. she was 27th in the championship. 

Her brother is Juan Caceres, who raced in Champ Car.

Image from rginternetpress.com

Bianca Bustamante

 

Bianca Bustamante is a Filipina single-seater racer who began racing cars in 2022. 

She was selected for the third season of the all-female W Series and finished 14th overall, scoring a couple of points for the W Academy team. This followed some guest appearances in the 2022 USF Juniors championship and a spot in the FIA’s Girls on Track shootout in 2021. She did the first two meetings in USF Juniors with IGY6 Motorsport and had a best finish of tenth. 

Later in the 2022 season, she drove for the Bangalore Speedsters in the Indian Racing League and was 17th in the individual standings. The Speedsters were fifth out of six teams. 

Moving back to F4, she joined the Prema team for the 2023 UAE F4 series. Although she was usually a backmarker, she did manage a tenth and ninth place at Kuwait and Dubai. This was preparation for a season in the 2023 F1 Academy with Prema, another all-female championship using F4 cars. She won two races at Valencia and Monza. F1 Academy coverage shows her combative and determined driving style, although she also had some scares, including a collision with Chloe Grant’s flying car at Monza. She was seventh in the championship.

Her second part-season in USF Juniors gave her a pair of ninth places at Circuit of the Americas, driving for Exclusive Autosport. In a busy year, she also replaced Aurelia Nobels for one round of the Italian F4 championship, finishing 19th twice and 25th once at Spa.

For the 2024 season, she switched teams in F1 Academy, moving to ART. She was also chosen as McLaren's supported driver in the series, despite some controversy at Christmas over some tweets about Lance Stroll. She wasn't quite as strong this year, finishing seventh overall with just one podium finish, a second place at Miami. 

ART entered her in some rounds of the Italian F4 championship and its associated Euro4 series at Monza, where she managed three finishes in Euro4 but only one in Italian F4. She was deputising for Aurelia Nobels. Earlier in the season, she had entered the Formula Winter Series with the GRS team, scoring a best finish of 17th at Aragon. She was also a guest in British F4 at Zandvoort, picking up one eighth place, an 18th and a 17th.

Her time in F1 Academy was up at the end of 2024, but she joined winner Abbi Pulling in the GB3 championship for 2025. She was driving for Elite Motorsport, while Abbi was with Rodin. Bianca's GB3 season was not a stellar one. Again, one of her best circuits was Zandvoort, where she was thirteenth, and a further away round at the Hungaroring also offered some promise; she was fourteenth, thirteenth and thirteenth in her three races. She tailed off in the second half of the season and finished 22nd in the championship. 

Before switching to cars, she raced karts with some success in the Philippines and the USA throughout her childhood. 

(Image copyright Vogue Philippines)

Lena Buhler

 

Lena Buhler is a Swiss driver who races single-seaters, mainly in Europe.

She moved into cars from karting in 2020. Her first experience in senior motorsport was racing in Spanish Formula 4 for the Drivex School team. She was fifteenth in the championship and her best finishes were two fifth places at Aragon and Barcelona. These fifth places were among six top-ten finishes she achieved from 20 starts. She could be quick but was quite inconsistent at times. 

In 2021, she raced in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine, as part of the R-ace team. It was a tough year for her and she earned her best finish of the year, a 23rd place, in the last round at Monza.

During the off-season, she travelled to Arizona in the USA to take part in the W Series F4 tests and was invited back for its Barcelona F3 tests, but she was not offered a seat.

The R-ace connection continued in 2022, with three more FREC races and one finish, a 26th place in Monte Carlo. This followed a part-season in the FR Asian championship, which gave her a best finish of twelfth at Yas Marina. 

She stepped back down to F4 for 2023, entering the UAE championship. Not long after, she was the first driver announced for the FIA’s F1 Academy, an F4-level women-only series, driving for the ART GP team. Lena was one of the oldest drivers in the series, having only started karting at 17 and competing seriously in 2017. She was second in F1 Academy with two wins at Catalunya and Monza. As she was already 25, this would be her only F1 Academy season.

Her 2024 plans were initially unclear, although she became an affiliated driver with the Sauber F1 team as a result of her F1 Academy performances. Later, it was announced that she would be racing in FRECA alongside F1 Academy champion Marta Garcia, although driving for ART again. It was a challenging year and her best finish was 22nd at Paul Ricard. She pulled out of the championship after that.

There was no more single-seater racing for her in 2025, but she did find a seat in a Ligier prototype for the Le Mans Cup. She drove for the French 23Events team, alongside Matteo Quintarelli. It was a very competitive season, with the six potential wins being shared between four teams. The Buhler/Quintarelli pairing was one of these winners, picking up the victory at Le Mans. This was the first time a female driver had won at the Sarthe circuit.

Their other best results were three fifth places, which was enough for championship seventh.

(Image copyright formula1.com)