Britain's Palmowski Crowned 2026 F1 Academy Champion

British driver Alisha Palmowski has won the 2026 F1 Academy championship. F1 Academy is a women-only single-seater racing series that runs alongside Formula 1 race weekends. She clinched the title at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, USA, with three races of the season still remaining.

Palmowski won Friday's opening race and then finished second behind Alba Larsen in the Reverse Grid Race. That gave her a 70-point lead over her nearest rival, Emme Felbermayr, with only 67 points left to be won.

A dominant season

The Red Bull-backed driver has won five of the 11 races held so far and taken six pole positions. She is the second Briton to win the F1 Academy title, following Abbi Pulling in 2024, and the youngest champion in the series. Earlier this year in Canada she set the biggest winning margin in F1 Academy history, then broke that record again a few races later.

She won the title in her second full season. In her rookie year in 2025 she won the season opener and added four more podium finishes. Red Bull has supported her since the start of last year, after she finished runner-up in the 2024 GB4 Championship.

Her reaction

"We did it guys! It's incredible. I don't know what to say. I'm trying not to cry!" Palmowski said. She thanked her teams, Campos Racing and Red Bull Racing, and her family, who were present in Austin. She said she has matured a great deal over the past 12 months and called the title a dream come true.

What next

Previous F1 Academy champions Marta Garcia, Pulling and Doriane Pin have moved on to other categories, including endurance racing and Formula Regional. Palmowski starts from pole position in Sunday's main race in Austin. Asked about 2027, she said conversations are taking place in the background, which she is leaving to her management team, and that she wants to climb as high as possible up the single-seater ladder.