The F1 ACADEMY Season So Far: Shanghai and Montreal
26 May 2026After the cancellation of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in April resulting in a two-month gap between races, the first two rounds of the 2026 F1 ACADEMY season are now complete. An exhilarating season so far, the all-female grid consists of sensational talent from all over the world, with the teams and drivers now preparing for a first-time visit to Silverstone on British Grand Prix weekend this July.
The British talent to watch out for in F1 ACADEMY this season consists of five young drivers. Alisha Palmowski, Ella Lloyd, Ella Stevens, Megan Bruce and Rachel Robertson are gearing up to race on the biggest weekend of the year at Silverstone in front of a home crowd.
With the fight to become F1 ACADEMY Champion well underway, Silverstone takes a look back at the opening two rounds of the season so far as excitement builds for the 2026 British Grand Prix.
ROUND 1: SHANGHAI
The opening round of the 2026 F1 ACADEMY season kicked off at the Shanghai International Circuit as part of the Chinese Grand Prix.
Free Practice and Qualifying were dominated by young Brit Alisha Palmowski, who took her maiden win in the series in 2025 at the Shanghai International Circuit. Her reigning luck in Shanghai slipped away, with the Red Bull Racing backed driver finishing in P5 in the Reverse Grid Race – won by Nina Gademan - but improving to P2 in the Feature Race, just losing out on the top spot to Austrian driver Emma Felbermayr.
Elsewhere for the British drivers, returning Rodin Motorsport driver Ella Lloyd secured two top-10 finishes across both races. The 20-year-old driver, supported by McLaren, finished her first F1 ACADEMY season fourth in the standings, continuing to show her talent by securing a P7 finish in the Reverse Grid Race, followed by a fifth place in Sunday’s Feature Race.
Shanghai saw the three other British F1 ACADEMY drivers make their full-time series debut.
Ella Stevens, also racing for Rodin Motorsport with support from McLaren Oxagon, finished her first race of 2026 in P11 and dropping one spot in the Feature Race, crossing the line just outside of the points in P12.
Campos Racing driver Megan Bruce, who is supported by Tag Heuer, completed her first F1 ACADEMY race in P12. Come Sunday’s Feature Race, Megan improved on her result, ending the race inside the points scoring positions in P9.
Leading the trio of new British drivers across the line at the end of Saturday’s Reverse Grid Race, Hitech’s Rachel Robertson finished in P10, before unfortunate contact with Wild Card driver Shi Wei on Sunday left the PUMA-supported Scottish driver with her first DNF of the season.
Emma Felbermayr was leading the standings at the end of the Shanghai race weekend, heading into a two-month break from racing.
ROUND 2: MONTREAL
The second round of the 2026 F1 ACADEMY season took place on Canadian Grand Prix weekend at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.
To restore the original 2026 calendar back to 14 races, following the official cancellation of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in April, F1 ACADEMY introduced a three-race weekend format for Montreal, and later in the season in Austin. The Opening Race in Montreal took place on Saturday.
A weekend dominated by the Brits, Alisha Palmowski secured two wins – one in the Opening Race and the second in Sunday’s Feature – and maintained control of the pack in these two races. In the Opening Race, Alisha secured P1 with the largest winning margin in F1 ACADEMY history, crossing the line with 10.119 seconds between her and second place finisher, fellow Brit Megan Bruce. In the Feature Race, Alisha broke her own record once again, taking P1 with a margin of 10.955 seconds, extending the winning margin in F1 ACADEMY again.
Well on her way to achieving her goal of becoming F1 ACADEMY Champion in 2026, Alisha leaves Montreal and heads into her home race leading the way, with 78 points at the top of the standings.
The British success didn’t end there. Megan Bruce secured P3 in Qualifying 1 and P2 in the second Qualifying session of the weekend, translating her strong Friday performance into a trip to the podium with a second-place finish in the brand-new Opening Race. In the Reverse Grid Race, Megan finished in seventh, before returning to the podium in P3 at the end of Sunday’s Feature Race.
After two difficult Qualifying sessions in which she finished P16 and P18 respectively, Ella Lloyd managed to turn her bad luck around come the Opening Race with a P6 finish. The Welsh driver slipped out of the points in the Reverse Grid Race, finishing in P13, but regained some momentum in the final race of the weekend, securing the penultimate points position in the Feature.
Fellow Rodin Motorsport driver Ella Stevens completed Qualifying 1 in P14 and Qualifying 2 in P12. The Opening Race saw Ella accumulate four points towards her championship position after finishing in P8. The young Brit fell down the grid in the Reverse Grid Race, taking the final position in P15 ahead of three DNFs, but managed to make progress and sit in P11 come the chequered flag at the end of the race.
Rachel Robertson qualified in P12 in the first session of the weekend, then P13 in Qualifying 2. A difficult weekend for the Hitech driver, Rachel finished the first race in P13 but experienced a DNF in the Reverse Grid Race after Ella Lloyd made contact with the rear of the PUMA car. In the Feature Race, Rachel’s weekend to forget ended with a P14 finish and will be looking ahead to Silverstone with the hope of improving in front of a doting home crowd.
With just over a month to go until F1 ACADEMY’s debut on British soil, find out everything you need to know about the racing series with Silverstone’s Ultimate Guide to F1 ACADEMY.
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