After narrowly missing out on a top-five finish in the 2024 F1 Academy Drivers’ Championship, Chole Chambers came into the 2025 F1 Academy season with more motivation and drive for the championship title. The Red Bull Ford driver has experienced some significant highs this season with six podiums, including a victory in Montreal Race 3.
Before the 2025 F1 Academy Singapore GP weekend, Chambers was third in the championship standings and a clear contender for the title. However, she saw her chances of a podium finish in Singapore slip away after a strategy call gone wrong in Race 2 of the weekend. Chambers is now fourth in the championship standings and officially no longer in contention for the 2025 F1 Academy championship title after scoring only 6 points after the 2025 F1 Academy Singapore GP weekend. Despite the disappointment, Chambers now has her eyes set on the season finale in Las Vegas to end the season on a high.
Starting the weekend on the right foot
Chambers started the 2025 F1 Academy Singapore GP weekend on a high as she qualified P3 during Qualifying with a timing of 2:03.642, a mere 0.189s behind pole sitter Maya Weug. The momentum only continued into Race 1, where she finished P3 and her chances of yet another podium finish were looking positive for Chambers as she headed into Race 2 of the weekend.
A difficult race start
On the opening lap of Race 2 of the 2025 F1 Academy Singapore GP weekend, while Doriane Pin and Maya Weug were speeding off in their fight for the lead. McLaren’s Ella Lloyd overtook Chambers to claim P3 with Chambers dropping to P4. The American driver would come close to reclaiming the position multiple times; however, she eventually fell short.
Chambers could only summarise the race as “disappointing” as she spoke on how the race felt like a missed opportunity for more points.
“It was a very disappointing race from my side, of course,” Chambers summarised. “I think the right-hand side of the grid had a little bit less grip than the left-hand side, so both Maya and I on the right side had both lost out on one position each.“
When reflecting on the overtake in the opening lap, Chambers revealed she felt that there was nothing much she could have done. She is, however, confident that if it weren’t for the eventual rain and safety car, she would have had a higher chance of reclaiming P3, especially when tyre degradation would come into play.
“I don’t think that there was much I could have done about the start, to be honest. I was getting closer and closer to be able to make a move on Ella and was hoping that we would be able to go to the end, and then tyre degradation would come into play a bit, and I would be able to capitalise on that and force her into a bit of a mistake.”
The strategy call
A rain shower followed by Nicola Havrda crashing out of the proceedings shook up the order, with many drivers electing to stay out on the damp track rather than pitting under the Safety Car. The decision against pitting was evidently the right call as drivers who had pitted under the Safety car conditions started to drop down the order after the restart. Chambers, who had pitted to switch to wet tyres, ended up losing multiple positions at the restart and struggled to catch up with the rest of the pack.
This meant Chambers finished Race 2 of the 2025 F1 Academy Singapore GP in P11, and Lloyd overtaking her for P3 in the Drivers’ standings.
The American driver reflected on the strategy call that ultimately cost her a potential podium finish, while she felt it was the right call to make, she also spoke on how the slow pitstop had led her to struggle after the restart, which was the ultimate cost of her podium.
“It started to rain. The team and I made the call to box, and I think it was the right call. I don’t think we did anything wrong. We had a slow pitstop, which I think cost us in the end. I ended up falling behind the Safety Car leaving the pitlane, and I think that also affected things quite a bit. It just made it much harder for me to catch up to the rest of the pack for the restart.”
Reflecting on the Strategy call
However, Chambers also added that looking back, she should have thought through the call more and maybe even spoken out against it. Especially with her Campos Racing teammate Alisha Palmowski similarly losing out by changing tyres.
“This is one of the mistakes that I made in the race – I probably should have told them to hold on for just one more lap. Obviously, at that point, the Safety Car hadn’t come out yet so we were hoping to be able to keep going and keep racing on green, and I would be able to make up some time in the rain.
“I wasn’t 100% sure how much quicker the wet tyres would actually be because the track is very hot, so it was actually holding a lot of grip on the slick tyres even though it was wet. It was for sure slippery, but it was survivable on the slicks – that’s the thing that I was unsure about at the time.”
Ending her F1 Academy Campaign on a high
For the F1 Academy series, drivers are only permitted to compete in a total of 2 racing seasons. This is to ensure a constant flow of new talent, prevent drivers from dominating for too long, and push them to advance to higher-level series like Formula 3 and beyond. With the ultimate goal of promoting overall growth in women’s motorsport.
This also means that the upcoming 2025 F1 Academy Las Vegas GP weekend will be Chambers’ very last stint in the all-female series. Her goal for the weekend is simple: to finish her campaign run on a high.
“I have been thinking about things in the lead up to Vegas,” she said. “The last three have just been really, really tough on us as a whole team – all three cars this weekend have just been up and down. I just want a good round to leave F1 Academy with.”
