Photo: Red Bull
GB4 runner-up Alisha Palmowski will compete for Campos Racing in F1 Academy next season with support from Red Bull.
Palmowski has shone in her first year of single-seaters in 2024, taking three victories and eight other podiums in GB4 for Elite Motorsport. As the highest-placed female driver, she received a €30,000 prize fund towards her F1 Academy drive from GB4’s promoter, MotorSport Vision.
She made her F1 Academy debut as Prema’s wildcard entry in Qatar earlier last month, finishing sixth in race one and qualifying fourth for race two before it was cancelled.
The 18-year-old began her career in karting, finishing runner-up twice in the Daniel Ricciardo Series, and stepped up to cars in 2022 by winning a Ginetta Junior Scholarship. She came 13th in her first season in the entry-level sportscar series and took 10 podiums and fifth in the standings in her sophomore campaign.
“I am incredibly excited and honoured to be joining the Red Bull Racing Pepe Jeans Programme in F1 Academy for 2025,” said Palmowski. “Oracle Red Bull Racing is one of the best teams on the grid, and to see the talent they have brought through the doors and to get to be a part of that next generation is something that I could never have imagined.
“The team has been incredibly supportive so far, and I can’t wait to get fully underway with them in 2025 with the ultimate goal of winning the championship. I have already been working in the sim and with the team to get a jumpstart on next year and have full focus on performing and delivering results.
She joins Chloe Chambers and Rafaela Ferreira in Red Bull’s academy programme, which was set up this year to support F1 Academy drivers and is separate to its main Junior Team. Palmowski will race in the colours of Red Bull Racing, with Ferreira representing sister team RB and Chloe Chambers in an additional Ford-backed car.
All three will be run by Campos Racing, after MP Motorsport operated the trio of Red Bull-backed cars in 2024.
“Alisha impressed us from the start and has already proved herself on the F1 Academy grid as a Wild Card entrant in Qatar,” said Red Bull’s academy programme manager Sarah Harrington
“We are very excited to welcome her to the Red Bull Academy Programme for 2025, and she is a great addition to complete our line-up as we look to next season. We’ve taken a lot of key learnings from our first year in F1 Academy and are looking forward to building and pushing harder with a fresh challenge.”
Palmowski recently joined the Infinity Sports Management group, which has guided the careers of Mercedes F1 driver George Russell and former Williams racer Logan Sargeant, and she is also a member of the BRDC Rising Star programme.