The Ferrari Driver Academy has announced a new addition to their 2026 academy—F1 Academy’s Alba Larsen. Despite only just being announced, this isn’t necessarily a new, or unexpected concept.
In 2023, Alba Larsen was crowned the winner of the Girls On Track Rising Stars Programme. The winner of this program is usually granted a place within the Ferrari Driver Academy. This has seen with the likes of Maya Weug and Aurelia Nobels join the Academy. This followed them winning the programme in their respective year of participation.
This is where the original thought of Alba Larsen in the Ferrari Driver Academy began. Ferrari mentioned that due to her age—14 at the time—they would watch her carefully in 2024 instead.
Following this, Larsen made her debut in single seaters, taking part in a few rounds of Indian F4. The Dane took part in the first two rounds of the season, P6 her highest finish. F1 Academy announced Larsen for the 2025 season following this debut. At this point of the season, she sits in P6 in the Championship Standings.
Larsen has scored points in every race of the F1 Academy season so far excluding the single race in Miami. At the mid-point of the season, she has accumulated 46. This is a mere 26 points behind Ferrari Driver Academy, and Ferrari backed driver, Maya Weug. After quite an impressive debut season, it is no wonder that Ferrari signed Larsen to their academy for 2026.
The decision to work with Larsen
Larsen has made regular visits to the Headquarters in Maranello. The Ferrari engineers have now decided that they are ready to begin working with the Dane. Maya Weug, who is currently backed by Ferrari, is in her final season of F1 Academy. This leaves the question of whether Larsen will be backed by Ferrari in her second F1 Academy season, in 2026.
