The fourth Qualifying session of the 2026 F1 Academy season at Zandvoort threw plenty of challenges at Wild Card entrant Zoe Florescu’s way, as the Dirt Is Good driver rose to the occasion to secure a P7 finish on her debut weekend.
In a session that began on a wet track before rapidly drying, Florescu and Hitech switched to slick tyres in the final five minutes and found significant improvement on her final run, ultimately securing her a place inside the top eight. The result puts her in a strong position heading into both races, with the chance to fight for a strong points haul.
Reflecting on her session, Florescu said: “It’s a great starting point for the weekend. It was really tricky with the tyres and I stayed on wets very long. Then when I switched to slicks, there wasn’t a lot of temperature in the tyres, so I really had to work on getting them up to temperature.”
“I think that the last half was pretty good. I’m just happy to have a front row start and then to also have a more challenging race tomorrow.”
For the Reverse Grid Race later this afternoon, the 17 year-old will start from the front row alongside Megan Bruce.
A switch to slicks was “the right decision” for Florescu and Hitech
With differing opinions up and down the grid over tyre choices at the end of the session, the decision to switch to slicks ultimately proved to be the right call in hindsight. However, Florescu admitted that they had been unsure about which tyres to fit for the final runs of the session.
“We were definitely unsure of what to do because I felt like some areas were still wet. Sector 2 was fully dry but the last corner and then the main straight were still wet, so I was a bit unsure whether I could improve.”
“We made the right decision in the end. It was great to feel the car a lot more, handle that oversteer and put a lap together.”
With overtaking also proving challenging around this track, she believes a strong start and her consistency will put her in a good position to defend her place.
“I feel like consistency is going to be key because it’s such a tricky track. It’s very flowy, so if you do a mistake it’s really hard to focus again. I feel in myself, I’m a very good and consistent driver, which will be very helpful and just get a good start. It’s a hard track to overtake, so I know that it will be easy to defend.”
