Abbi Pulling massively extended her F1 Academy championship lead in Miami while the rest of the field shuffled behind her. Feeder Series takes a look at four critical storylines that played out in F1 Academy’s second round.
By Calla Kra-Caskey
1. Pulling soars to victory
In Miami, Abbi Pulling led nearly every session and picked up almost every point available, missing out only on the fastest lap in the first race.
Her victory on Saturday was nothing less than dominant as she turned a qualifying gap of more than five tenths into a win by more than five seconds. The second race was a similar show of force, as Pulling turned the pole position margin of four tenths into a lead of nearly four seconds at the chequered flag.
The results Pulling produced this weekend were identical to title rival Doriane Pin’s on-track results in Jeddah, though Pin’s second win in the first round was handed to Pulling after a penalty. However, Pin was not able to stick as closely behind Pulling in Miami, finishing the weekend with second- and third-place finishes.
Pulling’s efforts were impressive, but the 34-point lead in the title race isn’t indicative of how close the title fight between her and Pin has been. Without Pin’s Jeddah penalty, Pulling’s lead would be only four points.
It is yet to be seen which of the pair will come out on top, but the European leg of the series will likely tighten the gaps across the field.
2. Experience is critical
Before this weekend, only five out of 16 racers on the grid had driven on the Miami International Autodrome, with Rodin’s Abbi Pulling, ART’s Bianca Bustamante, Campos’ Nerea Martí and Chloe Chambers and MP’s Emely de Heus all racing at the circuit with W Series in 2022.
Their experience was immediately obvious: in the first practice session, all five drivers were within the top seven places. Out of four drivers who took podiums across the weekend – Pulling, Pin, Chambers and Bustamante – only Pin had no previous experience on the track.
Prema was also the only team without a driver who had previously competed in Miami, which may have contributed to some of the Italian squad’s on-track struggles. Pin, Weug and Hausmann were all off the pace compared to Jeddah, and Weug’s car looked particularly slow on the straights.
Previous experience may have helped Chambers’ and Bustamante’s success. Chambers gained four positions in each race, including a double overtake on Nerea Martí and Maya Weug on her way to a podium in the first race. After stalling from fourth on the grid, Bustamante went on a similar charge in the first race, fighting her way up to seventh before a penalty dropped her to ninth. In the second race, she fended off a determined Pin to finish second.
Drivers without previous experience on the track had to rely on the simulator for all of their pre-weekend preparation. In a press conference on Thursday, Jess Edgar told Feeder Series, “We still go on the sim when we have testing, but it’s more important without any testing. Luckily, we get two FP sessions, so that’s two 40-minute [periods] to learn the track.”
F1 Academy’s next stops are Barcelona and Zandvoort, two venues where the entire grid had tested before and during the season. The stop after that, Singapore, is another circuit where the W Series graduates have extra experience.
3. Breakthroughs on home soil
Chambers had a standout weekend in front of her home fans, finishing third in the first race and fourth in the second race. F1 Academy announced after the first race that Chambers had secured the first podium for Haas, F1’s only American team; although former Haas juniors Santino Ferrucci, Arjun Maini and Louis Delétraz had previously stood on the podium in GP3 and F2, Chambers was the first to achieve a top-three finish in the team’s livery.
Lia Block, F1 Academy’s other full-time American driver, struggled towards the back of the pack. She did not qualify within the top ten, and a spin in the first race led her to finish last. In the second race, she took the chequered flag 11th, but a post-race penalty given to De Heus for overtaking Block off track promoted the 17-year-old to 10th.
Speaking to Feeder Series before the weekend, Block, the F1 Academy driver with the least experience in single-seaters, described 2024 as a “learning year.” With the momentum of having taken her first points at her home race, Block next heads to two tracks where she has tested before, which she can try to use to her advantage.
4. Polarising results for Rodin
While Pulling coasted to victory at the front of the field and helped bring Rodin to within two points of Prema in the teams’ standings, her Rodin teammates struggled behind her.
Ahead of the weekend, Edgar said, “Something that I’ve always struggled with since moving into cars is doing a lap in qualifying. We’ll practise it in FP1 and FP2 and hopefully get up to speed as quick as possible.”
But Edgar’s qualifying woes continued as she started the races from 11th and ninth. In the first race, she climbed up to seventh. Shortly after passing Martí for the same position in the second race, she spun and fell down the order, finishing the race 14th and giving up valuable championship points.
Lola Lovinfosse, Rodin’s third driver, had a similarly difficult weekend. She started and finished the first race 10th to hold onto the last point, but her second race was marred by several incidents. At the first corner, she ran into the back of Tina Hausmann, who had to retire with a puncture; Lovinfosse received a 10-second penalty for the incident. Later, on lap seven, Lovinfosse made contact with ART’s Aurelia Nobels while the pair battled, tapping the Brazilian into a spin and receiving another 10-second penalty. The French driver is yet to have a clean weekend, as she was given penalties after both Jeddah races for collisions.
Worse news came after the race, when Lovinfosse was taken to hospital and diagnosed with a fractured wrist. The third round in Barcelona is nearly seven weeks away, which should provide Lovinfosse ample time to recover, but the injury puts her commitments with Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe in Spa this weekend in jeopardy.
Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency
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