With seven races completed and seven still to go, the 2026 F1 Academy season has already produced breakthroughs, close battles, and standout performances across the grid.
While four different drivers have taken victory across Shanghai, Montreal, and Silverstone, five have stood out for different reasons. From championship contenders challenging for the title to rookies making an immediate impact, here are the five F1 Academy drivers who have impressed most so far in 2026.
Alisha Palmowski – Campos Racing (supported by Red Bull Racing)
Alisha Palmowski has emerged as one of the most impressive drivers of the 2026 F1 Academy season, with three wins, three poles, and 108 points putting her at the top of the Drivers’ Standings.
Taking on her second campaign after finishing fifth in 2025, the Briton has made a step forward in pace. Her improvement was evident in Shanghai, where she topped Free Practice and Qualifying. While finishing P5 in the Reverse Grid Race and P2 in the Feature Race meant she did not fully capitalise on her speed, the weekend was an early indication of what was to come.
Montreal was where Palmowski truly established herself as the driver to beat. The Campos Racing driver began by claiming both poles and dominated the Opening Race to take her first win of 2026. While a P10 finish in the Reverse Grid Race prevented a perfect weekend, Palmowski bounced back in the Feature Race, controlling the wet conditions from pole to take victory by a record-breaking margin of 10.956s.
Despite missing out on pole in Silverstone by just 0.177s, Palmowski made a strong launch in Sunday’s race to overtake polesitter Chiara Bättig into Turn 1. From there, she resisted pressure through a Safety Car restart to claim a home victory.
Now holding a 30-point advantage over rival Emma Felbermayr, it is clear that Palmowski’s biggest strength is her ability to turn one-lap pace into Feature Race wins. However, her reverse grid results remain the obvious weakness, with P5, P10, and P5 across the opening three rounds. If she can maintain her Qualifying pace while improving her performances when forced to fight through the field in the second half of 2026, she will be difficult to stop in her pursuit of the F1 Academy title.
Emma Felbermayr – Rodin Motorsport (supported by Audi)
Entering the 2026 F1 Academy season as a under-the-radar title contender, Emma Felbermayr has exceeded expectations to establish herself as Palmowski’s closest challenger. Currently second in the Drivers’ Standings with 78 points, the Audi junior remains the only driver to have scored in all seven races so far, highlighting the consistency that has made her one of the most impressive F1 Academy performers.
Felbermayr made an immediate statement in Shanghai, qualifying third, avoiding trouble in the Reverse Grid Race to finish P3, and ultimately taking victory in the Feature Race. Her drive from P3 to P1 proved more impressive, considering how she handled a restart with composure and held off Palmowski to the flag.
Montreal proved difficult after the Rodin Motorsport driver stalled at the start of the Opening Race before being spun in the Reverse Grid Race, leaving her with P10 and P6 finishes. While the difficult start cost her the championship lead, Felbermayr salvaged the round with P2 in the Feature Race, working her way forward on a wet track.
She later demonstrated the same resilience in Silverstone as a disappointing P8 in Qualifying left her with work to do. Starting from Reverse Grid Race pole, Felbermayr had a good launch off the line, ultimately controlling the race from lights out to the chequered flag, claiming her second win of 2026. She continued her momentum during Sunday’s race, gaining four places on the opening lap to later make a bold move on Ella Lloyd for P3.
While her ability to remain consistent maximise points has been a major strength, qualifying remains her main weakness. Improving her one-lap pace would reduce the recovery work she so often faces, while also helping her close the gap to Palmowski and the 2026 F1 Academy title.
Megan Bruce – Campos Racing (supported by TAG Heuer)
Megan Bruce has wasted little time making her mark in F1 Academy, emerging as the strongest rookie on the grid so far. Sitting P4 in the Drivers’ Standings with 39 points, level with second-year driver Lloyd, the Briton has already shown she can challenge more experienced competitors when given the opportunity.
Bruce experienced a relatively quiet Shanghai round, where she finished P12 in the Reverse Grid Race and P9 in the Feature Race. However, her potential became much clearer in Montreal, where she progressed from P3 in Free Practice to P2 in Qualifying before securing her maiden P2 podium in the Opening Race. She then followed it with another P3 in the Feature Race, demonstrating that she has the pace to consistently fight at the front when she maximises her opportunities. Round 3 in Silverstone saw a more challenging weekend, with Bruce qualifying P9 and finishing P9 in both races.
Beyond individual results, her progress is particularly notable within Campos Racing, where she is racing alongside championship leader Palmowski and more experienced Rafaela Ferreira. Bruce currently sits 12 points ahead of Ferreira, who is P8 in the standings with 27 points, making Bruce the team’s second-highest scorer despite being a rookie. That makes her early-season performance even more impressive, as she has already established herself as a valuable points scorer alongside one of the championship’s leading contenders.
While Silverstone was undoubtedly a setback, Bruce’s first two rounds have already established her as a standout rookie. Her two podiums in Montreal showed the level she can reach, and if she can eliminate the small mistakes and extract more from the car, she could become an increasingly important part of Campos Racing’s Teams’ title challenge.
Mathilda Paatz – PREMA Racing (supported by Aston Martin)
Mathilda Paatz joins Bruce as one of the most impressive 2026 F1 Academy rookie drivers, having already secured a maiden podium and, more importantly, a race win.
Paatz’s breakthrough came in Montreal, where the Aston Martin junior made the most of her previous experience at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve from her Wild Card appearance there one year earlier. After qualifying fifth on both of her fastest laps, she quickly converted her pace into a maiden podium in the Opening Race, taking P3 after benefitting from an incident between Bruce and Payton Westcott.
The result proved to be only the beginning, with Paatz carrying that momentum into the Reverse Grid Race, where she initially crossed the line in p2 before inheriting the victory following Ferreira’s time penalty. While the win was partly influenced by circumstances beyond her control, Paatz put herself in a position to benefit and remained composed under pressure during the Safety Car restart, which she had to navigate without radio communication with her engineer. Later, the German driver went on to claim P5 in the Feature Race, leaving Montreal with 35 points and Aston Martin’s first F1 Academy win. Her weekend demonstrated her ability to maximise opportunities when they arise.
However, Silverstone showed that she still has plenty to work on. After qualifying P16, she finished P16 and P12 in the two races, respectively, highlighting how much more difficult it can be for Paatz to extract performance at circuits where she lacks previous experience.
Nevertheless, becoming the only rookie winner of 2026 so far is a significant achievement. Paatz has already shown she can put herself in a position to capitalise when an opportunity arises, and if she can find greater consistency away from familiar circuits, her rookie campaign could become even more eye-catching.
Chiara Bättig – Wild Card – Hitech (supported by Wella Professionals)
Beyond the full-time F1 Academy drivers, Wild Card Chiara Bättig made a huge impression during her one-off Silverstone appearance, becoming the first Wild Card to top a session, take pole, and finish on the podium with an impressive 22 points in a single weekend.
Bättig immediately demonstrated her potential by topping Free Practice, drawing on her previous British F4 experience at Silverstone. She carried that momentum into Qualifying, setting a 2:01.775 lap to claim pole ahead of Palmowski to become the youngest-ever F1 Academy polesitter at 16 years of age.
Her inexperience in the series became evident in the Reverse Grid Race, where a slow start dropped her from P8 to P10. However, the Swiss driver quickly recovered, making several bold overtakes to fight her way into the points and finish eighth. She faced another difficult start in the Feature Race, losing the lead to Palmowski off the line. However, rather than allowing the position to slip away, Bättig remained within striking distance, applying constant pressure to the eventual winner while pulling 8.5 seconds clear of Felbermayr behind.
Her P2 finish became the highest-ever result for an F1 Academy Wild Card as she secured Hitech’s first piece of silverware in the series. While one weekend is a small sample compared to a full season for the full-time drivers, Bättig’s combination of raw pace, resilience, and racecraft made her Silverstone debut impossible to overlook. Although there remains a question mark over whether she could maintain that level of performance across a full season, her weekend marked her as one of the series’ most exciting prospects.
