Reacting to My 2025 F1 Academy Predictions

After recently reacting to my 2025 FIA Formula 2 Predictions, it’s now time to take a look at what I said would happen ahead of last year’s F1 Academy Season! Now I legitimately have no idea what I put, so this could go a number of different ways, but what I will say is I’ve been on a run of cursing whoever I pick to end up as F1 Academy Champion so much that they don’t even win a single Race! So, let’s see who I have to apologise to this year!

Credit: F1 Academy

P17: Emma Felbermayr

Well, this is a wonderful start! I put Emma Felbermayr to end up last in F1 Academy based on the fact that this was the 18-year-old's first year in single-seaters, so there really wasn’t anything to go off! Emma proved to be far better than I anticipated, finishing 10th in the Championship, but most impressively of all, she won in Canada! How on earth did the person I predicted to come last win a Race?!

P16: Joanne Ciconte

Joanne Ciconte did slightly better than I predicted, finishing 14th overall with 8 points to her name! Joanne’s best result was P8 in Singapore, and the only thing I really have to say on Ciconte’s season is I’m glad she partnered with Wella (having started the season as the only non-backed driver)!

P15: Alba Larsen

Alba Larsen will go down as one of my worst predictions for a while! Alba had a great season, finishing all the way up in 7th, as she finished 50% of her Races inside the Top 5! Then, to make my prediction look even worse, Larsen signed with the Ferrari Driver Academy in August, so I’m in absolute shambles!

P14: Aiva Anagnostiadis

2025 didn’t go to plan for Aiva Anagnostiadis, as she ended up finishing 17th in the standings! Aiva achieved only two points-scoring finishes all season (both P8’s), and what made matters worse is that Anagnostiadis missed the final two weekends of the year due to sustaining a fractured left foot! It just wasn’t meant to be for the young Aussie!

P13: Chloe Chong

I wasn’t a million miles off with my Chloe Chong prediction, as the Charlotte Tillbury-backed driver ended up 11th overall! It definitely feels like she performed better in F1 Academy this time around, but she was still unable to achieve a Podium finish (with P5 in Canada being her best result)!

P12: Nicole Havrda

This isn’t a good prediction either! It was very hard to get a clear picture in regards to the ability of Nicole Havrda based on her previous performances over the year, but I was confident that she’d end up as Hitech TGR’s Number 1 driver! Instead, Havrda only scored one point all season long as she ended up 20th in the standings! Yikes!

P11: Aurelia Nobels

After I went too low last year, I’ve seemingly gone too high with my Aurelia Nobels prediction this time around! Aurelia ended up finishing 13th in the Championship with 17 points to her name, but on the positive side, Nobels did manage to achieve her first-ever F1 Academy Podium in Las Vegas (something I brought up as a potential target for Nobels to try and achieve)!

P10: Tina Hausmann

Tina Hausmann once again outperformed my expectations, with the young Swiss finishing 8th overall! Tina scored points in 8 of her 13 starts in 2025 (which is pretty good going), but she still wasn’t quite able to make it onto the Podium (with 4th in Canada being her best result)!

P9: Rafaela Ferreira

2025 was quite a strange season for Rafaela Ferreira, and I’m here to explain why! On the one hand, Rafaela only managed to finish 12th in the Championship, meaning she did worse than I expected! However, on the other hand, Ferreira scored points in half of the Races, including 4 in the last 5! The problem for Rafaela Ferreira is that the highest amount of points she scored from one single result was 4, so whilst the consistency was sort of there, the big results weren’t!

P8: Courtney Crone

Well, this aged terribly! Courtney Crone did not have the season that I was anticipating from her, as she somehow managed to finish all the way down in 19th place! Courtney only managed to score 3 points all season long, but at least those points came in two of the final three Races! Not a great F1 Academy run for Miss Crone!

P7: Ella Lloyd

It was a close one to call when it came to picking who I thought would be the Rookie of the Year in F1 Academy, and I clearly got it wrong! Ella Lloyd had a great Rookie F1 Academy campaign, finishing all the way up in 4th with 5 Podium finishes across the season! Most notably, Ella achieved victory in Saudi Arabia, but it is also worth mentioning that she finished second in all three Races in Canada! Lloyd is 100% a main contender for the 2026 Title!

P6: Alisha Palmowski

I was so close with this prediction on multiple levels, and yet, I was still wrong! Alisha Palmowski started the season off in style with a victory in China, and she followed it up with Podium appearances in Jeddah, Miami, Zandvoort, and Las Vegas! Alisha ultimately finished 5th in the Championship, meaning I was one place off with P6, but the funniest part is the fact that I was correct in having Palmowski as the second-best Rookie of 2025; the problem is I predicted her behind the wrong driver!

P5: Lia Block

Unfortunately for Lia Block, she wasn’t exactly able to build off her positive Rookie year in single-seaters as she actually went backwards, finishing 9th overall! Lia did have some high moments; winning in Singapore was special, and she also had her fair share of bad luck! However, it will still go down as a disappointing year for the American, and I guess that’s why she’s decided to return back to competing in Rallying!

P4: Nina Gademan

Whilst maybe she didn’t do quite as well as I predicted, 2025 was still a positive year as far as Nina Gademan was concerned! Nina scored 74 points on her way to 6th in the Championship, with her highlight moment being a phenomenal home victory in Zandvoort despite the fact that she was declared “unfit” to Race earlier in the weekend! Now, yes, Gademan wasn’t the Number 1 Rookie like I said she would be, but I have to say, scoring points in 12 of the 14 Races is an incredible level of consistency that will serve her well moving forward!

P3: Chloe Chambers

Yay, I finally got one right! Chloe Chambers’ pace was undeniable; she achieved 4 Pole Positions (out of a possible 7), and she had 7 Podiums to show for it! Chloe also achieved two victories in both Canada and Las Vegas, so credit to her as Chambers has really improved a lot since she first appeared in the W Series!

P2: Maya Weug

Whilst Maya Weug came so close to becoming F1 Academy Champion, at least I got my prediction correct! Maya Weug had a great 2025; she achieved 9 Podiums which included brilliant wins in Jeddah, Zandvoort, and Singapore! Unfortunately for Weug, electrical issues in Canada and a Rolling Start collision in Las Vegas cost her the Title, with Maya finishing just 15 points off P1! That one will sting a lot for Maya Weug, but there’s no doubt that she has the talent!

P1: Doriane Pin

Boom, 3-for-3! Doriane Pin appeared on the Podium 8 times in 2025, with 4 of those being Race Wins! The most amazing thing (to me at least) is the fact that Doriane didn’t achieve a single Pole Position all season long, and yet she didn’t need to! Consistency wins Championships, and Pin showed that by not having a single finish outside of the Top 6 (whilst her biggest rival did come across issues)! Fair play to Doriane Pin; winning F1 Academy is a massive deal for her career moving forward!