Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
F1 Academy, the all-female Formula 4 championship that runs exclusively on Formula 1’s support bill, has named a group of drivers who will be on the grid next year.
The first two are Campos Racing duo Alisha Palmowski and Rafaela Ferreira, who will be remaining with the team for a second season. They currently sit fifth and 13th in the standings ahead of tonight’s season-ending race in Las Vegas.
Palmowski has scored a win and three other podiums this season, and was 2024 GB4 runner-up. Ferreira’s best race result in F1 Academy is a fifth place, and last year on home soil she came fourth in Brazilian F4 with three victories.
The pair will run with the liveries of F1 teams Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls next season, as they have done this year.
ART Grand Prix has signed Lisa Billard for 2026, with the 16-year-old having made her debut last month in Singapore as the wildcard driver with Hitech GP. She finished 16th in the second race there.
Her main programme through 2025 has been French F4, where she came 19th in the standings with two top-10 finishes.
Esmee Kosterman was also announced as having landed a full-time F1 Academy seat for next season, but with no mention of which team she will race for. She scored points on her debut this year, as the wildcard driver in her home round at Zandvoort.
Prior to that she had done three British F4 rounds, and currently sits eighth in the Saudi Arabian F4 championship where Hitech runs all the cars. Last year she cameoed in Indian F4.
All 10 of F1’s constructors lend their liveries to a driver and their car in F1 Academy, and next year Cadillac will become the 11th team in the pitlane at every grand prix.
They will join F1 Academy’s livery initiative in 2027, at which point the rest of the teams will be committed to doing so under a new multi-year agreement that has been reached.
The sporting regulations of F1 Academy were revised last year to cap drivers to two seasons, but now it has been decided that “from 2027, drivers who have competed in the two previous seasons may be granted an exemption to race in the series for a third season” in another regulation update.