Race 1 at round 1 of the 2026 F1 Academy season at the Chinese GP is in the books, view the championship standings here.
Back for a second season in the category, Red Bull-backed driver Alisha Palmowski dominated practice and qualifying to take pole in her Campos. She was 0.4s quicker than Ferrari and MP Motorsport’s Alba Larsen. The polesitter for Sunday won in Shanghai last year and made the perfect start to try and do it again in 2026.
Emma Felbermayr rounded out the top 3 as the returning drivers showed their experience in Shanghai.
Lead rookie was Payton Westcott in 4th, just ahead of Rafaela Ferreira. The next two in their first full seasons in F1 Academy were Lisa Billard and Natalia Granada. Not for the first time, Nina Gademan secured P8 on the grid.
Intriguingly, such was Palmowski’s dominance in qualifying, the gap between P2 to P8 was closer than the distance between the Brit and the Dane.
Ella Lloyd, impressively consistent and 4th in points in 2025, had a very disappointing qualifying. She could only manage P10.
Top 8 reversed
For a F1 Academy Sprint Race, the top 8 gets reversed. That meant Nina Gademan was on pole from Granada, Westcott, Billard, Ferreira, Felbermayr, Larsen and Palmowski.
A Safety Car was thrown on lap 7 as Alba Larsen broke her front wing after trying a rather ambitious move on Emma Felbermayr into turn 3. The gap was always going to close and the inevitable touch happened.
2026 F1 Academy Drivers’ Championship standings after Race 1 at Chinese GP
- Gademan 10
- Granada 8
- Felbermayr 6
- Palmowski 6
- Ferreira 5
- Westcott 3
- Lloyd 3
- Billard 1
- Dobson 0
- Robertson 0
- Stevens 0
- Bruce 0
- Jacquet 0
- Paatz 0
- Kosterman 0
- Countryman 0
- Shi 0
- Larsen 0
2026 F1 Academy Teams’ Championship standings after Race 1 at Chinese GP
- PREMA Racing 11
- Campos Racing 11
- MP Motorsport 10
- Rodin Motorsport 9
- ART Grand Prix 1
- Hitech 0
