Interview
‘The happiest I’ve ever been’ – Jubilant Palmowski reflects on ‘whirlwind’ Race 1 win in Shanghai after overcoming ‘very distracting’ issue
Starts to the season don’t get much better than this for Alisha Palmowski, as the Red Bull Racing driver held her nerve to bring home her first F1 ACADEMY win in Shanghai.
Lining up in fourth, she was dogged in her pursuit, making her way up to second on the opening lap. Trying to pile the pressure on race leader Nina Gademan, she benefitted from the Alpine driver’s retirement to inherit the lead with two laps to go and fended off teammate Chloe Chambers for the victory.
Navigating three Safety Car restarts and fierce battling, Palmowski acknowledged how her focus and racecraft were tested.
“I’m feeling over the moon to be honest,” she said delightedly. “It feels like a whirlwind, I just feel like everything just happened so quickly. It was a difficult race. Obviously, a lot of Safety Cars, which is tricky to get into your rhythm because this is such a momentum-based circuit that you like to get in a flow and be consistent with your lap time.
“So, it was difficult to keep getting that flow disrupted. Very sorry for Nina as well because she did a great job. She obviously had some issue, I don't know exactly what went wrong. We were fortunate with that, but super happy to get a 1-2 for the team as well. Chloe behind me, there was a lot of pressure for those last few laps. I just really wanted the 1-2 for the team, so a perfect way to start the season.”
Locked in a nip and tuck battle with Chambers and Emma Felbermayr into the opening sequence of corners, Palmowski had done her homework beforehand as she managed to slip up the inside of the pair.
“I’d had watched pretty much every F1 race start back to about 2016 to see what people from P4 did,” explained Palmowski. “Did they go inside or outside? What were the options available for me?
“Chloe had a really good launch off the line, and I noticed she was going round the outside. That left me with one option, which was the inside. I know Lap 1 is the best opportunity to try and make progress and make positions.
“Full send, we went for it and thankfully we all came out unscathed and I made a position. A good start and a good first lap to my F1 ACADEMY career.”
As Gademan slowed with a technical issue, Palmowski found herself locked in a two-lap sprint to the line with Chambers – as each fought to be the leading driver in a Campos Racing 1-2.
Asked how her nerves were feeling at the time, she admitted: “Way too high! You never want to crash with anybody, you always want to win. But when it's your teammate, it does make it a little bit different because naturally for the team you really want to bring the points home and want to come 1-2.
“The racing was super respectful between myself and Chloe. I was so relieved when I saw the chequered flag. It was the happiest I’ve ever been, but my radio wasn't working so I wasn't able to come on the radio and speak or anything.”
It was not all smooth sailing for Palmowski, as the Briton reported a ‘very distracting’ beep in her ear on the radio. Given the hectic nature of the race, she knew it was in her best interests to persevere through rather than unplug the radio,
“I was going to (unplug it), but then the Safety Car lights were coming on and off so I wasn’t exactly sure when it was coming in,” she noted. “I wanted the information from my engineer that it was coming in.
“I could hear him, but it was very in and out. This beep was annoying, so we left it. I’m hoping we can find a solution for tomorrow because I wouldn’t recommend it at all to anybody – I’ll hear it in my sleep tonight!”
Lining up in P5 for Race 2 tomorrow, Palmowski admitted it’ll be a lot harder to match her performance from today, but she was optimistic she can add to her 10-point haul.
“Definitely more confident after this result,” said the Red Bull Racing driver. “I think it's going to be more challenging tomorrow naturally (with) faster drivers up towards the front. I think tyre management again will be a big factor.
“We did quite well today, especially with the Safety Cars, making sure the tyres didn't cool too much but equally maintaining the tyre temperature within them. It’ll be tricky, but a huge learning curve. I still want to get the points, but if I can come out the race having learned something. Try and stay within the top five obviously, love to make progress equally, but we'll see.”