After a few weeks off, the F1 Academy schedule resumes this week with the second race weekend of the 2025 campaign, as the grid heads to Saudi Arabia to take on the tricky Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
While this might be the second race weekend of the F1 Academy season, it is not the grid’s first stop in Jeddah this year. The F1 Academy grid held three days of testing on the challenging street circuit earlier this month, giving the teams and drivers an early look at what to expect when the lap times count for real this week.
Here are the major storylines as the F1 Academy grid roars to life in Saudi Arabia this week.
Doriane Pin was dominant in Jeddah last year, with a catch
Last year the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix hosted the first race of the F1 Academy season, a season that saw Mercedes driver Doriane Pin enter as one of the favorites to take home the Drivers’ Championship by the end of the year. Pin held up her end of the bargain, taking the win in the first race and coming across the line in P1 in the second.
However, her dominant weekend took a turn moments later.
Due to a miscommunication with her team, Pin took the checkered flag and kept on driving, believing there was one more lap left in the race. She completed two laps a full speed until a red flag was shown, and following an investigation she was given a drive-through penalty.
Since that penalty could not be served with the race over, it was converted to a 20-second penalty. That dropped her to ninth and promoted Abbi Pulling to the win, a victory that helped launch Pulling’s championship season.
Pin enters this race weekend again as a favorite, and atop the F1 Academy Drivers’ Championship, six points ahead of Maya Weug. You can bet that she would love a bit of redemption in Jeddah this weekend.
Maya Weug heads to Jeddah on a high note
While Pin entered the 2024 season as one of the favorites for the Drivers’ Championship, she was not alone. Another favorite was Maya Weug, who entered 2024 with a long racing resume of her own, including experience in Italian F4. But a tough stretch at the Spanish Grand Prix — where she finished outside the points in both races — doomed her title chances. She scored one win last season, but it came in the final race of the year after Abbi Pulling had already clinched the title.
She began this season as she did her 2024 campaign, with a P3 in the first race of the year and a P2 in the second. But she enters this weekend’s races in Saudi Arabia with a great deal of confidence, given how she performed over three days of testing at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit earlier this month. She topped the timing sheets on the third and final day of testing and looked strong throughout the three days in Saudi Arabia, as she was second fastest on the second day.
“It’s been positive,” Weug said after testing. “We tried a lot of stuff, it’s been really hot out here. It’s a really cool track and to get it right every time is impossible, but we will have to get as consistent as possible ahead of Qualifying next week.”
Were teams playing it close to the vest during testing?
With the grid coming off three days of testing in Jeddah, the drivers should all be able to hit the ground running later this week.
That includes all the rookies, as well as 2023 returnee Chloe Chong, who drove for Prema Racing that season when Jeddah was not on the schedule.
But it will be fascinating to see if teams were hiding their true pace during testing and will take a big step forward when the lap times count for real later this week. At least one driver thinks that is the case.
“In the pecking order we’re up there,” said Red Bull-backed Alisha Palmowski, who drives for Campos Racing, after testing. “To be honest, it’s been difficult to see the true pace of everybody throughout testing because I think there’s been a few tactics — slowing down maybe in Sector 3 so that you don’t go quickest at the end of the session.
“Some people may have been sandbagging, us included. I’d like to say top three or top four, we should be around that reason. I’d love to be on pole, would love to win the races, but obviously it’s still early days in the season, so I just need to collect the points,” added Palmowski.
Alisha Palmowski a dark horse in Saudi Arabia
Speaking of Palmowski, the rookie might be a dark horse to watch later this week. She was third fastest on the opening day of testing, and moved up to second on Day Two.
She is also coming off a tremendous start to the season, as she won the first race at the Chinese Grand Prix, and took P2 in the second race. With 18 points already on the season, Palmowski enters the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend sitting fourth in the standings, behind Pin, Weug, and her Campos Racing teammate Chloe Chambers.
All three of those drivers were on the F1 Academy grid a season ago.
