Rodin Motorsport leave the 2026 F1 Academy Chinese GP leading the Teams’ Standings after scoring 44 points across the weekend with strong performances.
Notably, Emma Felbermayr proved to be the team’s standout driver. The 19 year-old turned her P3 qualifying result into an impressive Race 1 P3 podium and a Race 2 victory. In the reverse-grid race, she worked her way up the podium with clean overtakes. Meanwhile, Sunday’s race saw her hold off an on-the-charge Alisha Palmowski in the closing laps to take her second F1 Academy win.
“We’re really happy” says Huntingford on Felbermayr’s performance
Reflecting on Felbermayr’s 2026 Chinese GP double-podium, Rodin Motorsport’s Team Principal Benn Huntingford shared: “Obviously this is Emma’s second year so she’s been to the circuits before, and I think that really shows in the way that she’s approaching it.”
“She’s been working really hard over the winter with her racing and her driving, doing a lot on the simulator and stuff like that. It’s all come good. We’re really happy with everything we’ve achieved over the weekend. We worked quite hard at the test when we were out here earlier this month.”
He added: “We worked through lots of things with the drivers, with different set-ups and different approaches for qualifying and the races. That’s worked out really well for us over the course of the weekend.”
Praise for Lloyd and Stevens
Beyond Felbermayr, Rodin Motorsport’s other drivers, Ella Lloyd and rookie Ella Stevens, also managed to get off to a strong start. After qualifying in P10, Lloyd made her way up into the points across both races, finishing P7 and P4, respectively.
Stevens, on the other hand, was not able to convert her P11 starting positions into points. However, there were encouraging signs, given she qualified just 0.005s behind Lloyd in only her second weekend of competing in single-seaters.
Huntingford further praised Stevens, saying: “It’s a difficult weekend here with the way the circuit is – lots of challenging corners and lots to learn for somebody doing their first race weekend, but I think she’s done an amazing job to be where she was.”
“She dropped back a little bit yesterday in Race 1 but managed to fight her way back through to where she started,” he concluded.
