The final round of the 2025 F1 Academy season took place in Las Vegas, with Doriane Pin taking the Championship. The round was a rollercoaster for Campos Racing’s Alisha Palmowski. After taking a disqualification in Race 1, Race 2 became every more important. The Brit noted how strong her opening stint felt, struggling from about a third of the way through the race.
Despite this, she believes she is aware where she is losing out, though she isn’t sure why. After all is said an done, she came home with a P2, with her teammate taking the win. She noted the amount of pressure she was under for a lot of the race.
“I felt quite good in the opening stint – the first quarter to a third of the race – but then just struggled from there. I think I know where I’m losing out, but I’m just not sure why. It obviously doesn’t matter now – we still came away with P2. I was under a lot of pressure for a long time but I kept my head together. I just want to review the data and see for next year what I was doing wrong, if I was doing something wrong, and what we can improve on for next year.”
A long overdue result
With a Campos 1-2 finally achieved for Palmowski and Chambers, the Brit described it as “long overdue”. Throughout the season, there has been opportunity for a 1-2, the duo never quite able to secure it. Palmowski was worried she may drop to P3, and miss the 1-2 yet again.
The Brit noted that as a whole, she has learnt a lot across the season, thanks to Campos. She feels comfort within her environment, with everything becoming second nature to her. The 2026 season will be approached with far more confidence. Her strongest battles will all be leaving F1 Academy, and she hopes to take the top step regularly in 2026.
“It was long overdue to be honest. We should have achieved this multiple times this year so I’m just really glad to finally make it happen. I thought I was going to ruin it and drop down to P3 when I was fighting with Maya, but it was an extremely fair battle and was just really enjoyable. I feel relief for the team, and just a big thank you to Campos for the whole season, for all the work that they’ve put in.”
She stated: “I think I’ve just learned absolutely loads, I generally feel a lot more comfortable in this environment now. I feel like it’s all becoming a bit more second nature instead of a shock to me. Every lap that I do in the car, I gain more and more confidence. I’m more and more comfortable with every race weekend, so I’ll just go in with a much higher confidence level next year. The people I’m fighting won’t be here next year so hopefully I’ll be on that top step.”
