DORIANE PIN & MAYA WEUG Lead Star-Studded F1 Academy 2025 Shanghai Opener

March 19, 2025

• The 2025 F1 Academy season kicks off in Shanghai with reigning vice champion DORIANE PIN (Mercedes) and third-place finisher MAYA WEUG (Ferrari) positioned as the championship favorites. We’ve got 10 rookies stepping up to full-time drives, including four impressive Wild Card graduates: COURTNEY CRONE (Haas), NINA GADEMAN (Alpine), ELLA LLOYD (McLaren), and ALISHA PALMOWSKI (Red Bull Racing) who earned their spots the hard way.
• Newcomer Hitech TGR enters as the grid’s underdog with rookies NICOLE HAVRDA (American Express) and AIVA ANAGNOSTIADIS (TAG Heuer), plus they’re running the series’ first Chinese driver SHI WEI as their Wild Card entry. Meanwhile, defending champions PREMA Racing are gunning for their third consecutive Teams’ title with PIN, TINA HAUSMANN, and GADEMAN, though they’ll need to reclaim the Drivers’ crown after losing it to Abbi Pulling last season.
• The series is bringing back reverse grid races for Race 1 – a format that’ll separate the tactical drivers from the pure speed merchants. With only the top eight finishers scoring points in the reversed race (10 points max) versus full Grand Prix points in Race 2 (25 points for the win), expect teams to play some interesting strategic games as they balance weekend points versus championship positioning.

all-female f1 academy, hitech tgr, prema racing, shanghai international circuit