F1 Academy Free Practice took place in Shanghai, China today. Doriane Pin topped the time sheets for the first session of the weekend. With a tidal wave of new drivers joining the series alongside several returning drivers from years past, this inaugural session gave us both insight and drama from the start. Here’s everything that you need to know.
Opening Gambits
Ella Lloyd was the first driver out on track for the 2025 F1 Academy Season. The conditions at the Shanghai International Circuit were dry with the early morning sun slowly warming up the track.
There was a slow start to proceedings. The drivers out on track took their time to get bedded into the circuit. While F1 Academy did have three days of pre-season testing here, many have gone and raced elsewhere in the interim.
Wild Card driver for the weekend, Shi Wei, is the only driver to have raced here in the past. She did so last year in Chinese Formula 4.
There was a small piece of drama in the early stages of practice. Ella Lloyd’s rear end stepped out onto the grass around turn five thanks to the cold tyres on her car. But the McLaren backed driver saved the car from getting out of her control and was able to continue. The Britain then went to work as she immediately went about putting more heat into her tyres. Not long afterwards, Lloyd brought out a yellow flag briefly at turn nine. This time, she spun off the track, losing the rear end of the car on the entry into the corner.
Elsewhere, Doriane Pin appeared to have been slightly impeded by Rafaela Ferreira, with the latter moving out of the former’s way just before turn 11. This moment was quickly eclipsed by the drama to follow.
Red Flag
There was a massive moment of drama not long afterwards. With 18 minutes to go, the red flag was thrown, and the session stopped. Down the long back straight of the racetrack, Lia Block and Rafaela Ferreira had crashed into one another, sending both cars off track with severe damage.
Block appeared to have tried to go past Ferreira but as she did so, there looked to have been a miscommunication between the American and the Brazilian. Both drivers seemed to be on differing strategies to warm up their tyres with Ferreira driving into the back of Block as a result.
Both Lia Block and Rafaela Ferreira got out of their cars unhurt. But the question remains as to whether or not their cars will be fixed and ready in time for qualifying. The incident itself will be investigated after the session.
Green Flag Running Resumes
F1 Academy Free Practice went back to green flag conditions with less than ten minutes to go on the clock. Every driver now rushed out onto the track to get as many laps in as possible.
Shi Wei brought out a yellow flag with under six minutes left as she spun off the track at turn one briefly but was able to continue. The Chinese driver had a bit of an oversteer coming into the corner.
As the session drew to a close, drivers were pushing hard, and both Chambers and Palmowski locked up one after the other into turn 14 on their last flying laps.
F1 Academy Free Practice Session Results
Doriane Pin topped the time sheets for the one and only Free Practice Session in Shanghai. Tina Hausmann was in second place, just 0.099 seconds back. Chloe Chambers rounded out the top three, with Weug and Gademan completing the top five – the latter taking the honours of being the highest placed rookie driver in this session.
Ella Lloyd, Joanna Ciconte, Emma Felbermayr, Alisha Palmowski and Chloe Chong made up the remainder of the top ten.
Alba Larsen finished in 11th with Aurelia Nobels, Aiva Anagnostiadis, Nicole Havrda, Courtney Crone, Shi Wei, Lia Block and Rafaela Ferreira making up the rest of the field on the timing sheets.
Feature image credit: Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team
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