Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Emma Felbermayr has kept her F1 Academy seat with Rodin Motorsport for a second season, while Prema has added Payton Westcott to its line-up.
The buyout of the Sauber Formula 1 team by Audi means Felbermayr’s car will carry the branding of the latter through 2026 after sporting Sauber’s colours in 2025.
As a single-seater rookie, the 19-year-old Austrian competed in four series last year. In F1 Academy and both the main and winter Spanish Formula 4 championship she raced for Rodin, and a British F4 cameo was made with Virtuosi Racing.
The all-female F4-spec F1 Academy was her primary programme, and she came 10th in the standings. There were three top-five finishes, including victory in Montreal [pictured top].
Felbermayr missed a round in both of the Spanish F4 championships, and went points-free in both. She was 27th in the winter standings and two places lower in the main championship. A 15th place was the best result of her British F4 outing, and she is currently racing for PHM Racing in UAE4 where she sits a points-free 24th with one round to go.
“Continuing in F1 Academy and to now do so as an official Audi F1 Team driver is a huge honour,” said Felbermayr.
“To be associated with a brand that has such an incredible motorsport history, and one that supported icons like Michele Mouton and Rahel Frey, is truly inspiring.”
Westcott made her F1 Academy debut in the 2025 season finale on Las Vegas’s Strip circuit, driving the Hitech GP-run wildcard entry. She finished sixth in her first race, enough to put her 18th in the points table.
For her first full F1 Academy season she will race with the branding of the Mercedes-AMG F1 team and be coached by its development driver Doriane Pin.
She and McLaren junior Richard Verschoor have been signed by Duqueine Team to share driving duties in its LMP2 Pro-Am class entry this year in the European Le Mans Series, and Duqueine has just partnered with fellow French outfit R-ace GP for that programme.
R-ace currently competes in Formula Regional, F4 and lower level LMP3 prototype sportscars, and its expansion into the latter was facilitated by working with Duqueine Automotive.
Westcott mainly drove for Van Amersfoort Racing in F4 last year, starting her single-seater career off with a points-free Formula Winter Series campaign.
She also failed to score in E4 and Italian F4, but was more competitive in her second outing with Hitech which was in December’s Saudi Arabian F4 finale. After finishing 11th on debut, she came home eighth in the next race.
The Prema-run Mumbai Falcons squad was Westcott’s next destination for an incomplete attack at the United Arab Emirates-based Formula Trophy, and she won a race to end the year 10th in the standings. Since then she has been in Prema’s UAE4 line-up, and two points-scoring races means she is 18th in the championship at present.