Everything you need to know about the 2025 F1 ACADEMY season

As we count down the days until F1 ACADEMY hits the track for the first round of the 2025 season, you might be wondering what’s in store this year.

Whether you’re a new or returning fan, we’re going to take you through all the key questions about F1 ACADEMY and get you all caught up before Round 1 gets underway in Shanghai next month.

How many drivers and teams compete in F1 ACADEMY?

Even more young female racing talents will get the chance to battle it out as this season sees the grid expand to 18 cars, up from 15 cars over the previous two campaigns .

Hitech TGR have joined the five existing teams with big pedigrees in junior motorsport — ART Grand Prix, Campos Racing, MP Motorsport, PREMA Racing and Rodin Motorsport — with each team fielding three cars each. Each driver must be aged between 16 and 25 years old when entering their first race event of the season.

All 10 F1 teams have their own nominated driver, whilst the remaining drivers are being supported by other partners, such as American Express and Tommy Hilfiger.

So far, 15 full-time drivers have been locked in for the upcoming campaign. Reigning Teams’ Champions PREMA have retained 2024 Vice-Champion Doriane Pin and Aston Martin’s Tina Hausmann and recruited Alpine’s Nina Gademan. Rodin have two new additions so far in Kick Sauber’s Emma Felbermayr and McLaren driver Ella Lloyd.

READ MORE: Nicole Havrda steps up to F1 ACADEMY with American Express

Campos are fielding the Red Bull Academy Programme-backed trio of Chloe Chambers, Rafaela Ferreira and Alisha Palmowski. Danish racer Alba Larsen will make her F1 ACADEMY debut with MP Motorsport, with Ferrari’s Maya Weug moving to the Dutch team.

American Courtney Crone joins ART with Haas alongside returnees Aurelia Nobels for PUMA and Williams’ Lia Block, whilst Nicole Havrda will take up one of Hitech’s seats with AMEX.

What are Wild Card entries?

Wild Card entries were introduced in 2024 to help strengthen the talent pool in the regions where the series races. These one-off entries prioritise talented young drivers from each race region for a specific weekend. The first of these has already been confirmed, with Chinese driver Shi Wei joining the field in Shanghai.

This season, Hitech will field the Wild Card at every round as part of their three-car lineup. As a result, the driver will be eligible to score points for both the Drivers’ and Teams’ Standings unlike in 2024, where they were only eligible to score points in the Drivers’ Standings due to driving a fourth car operated by PREMA.

A successful first season of the initiative has seen four Wild Card drivers earn spots on the 2025 grid with Crone (Miami), Gademan (Zandvoort), Lloyd (Singapore) and Palmowski (Lusail) all impressing on their respective appearances.

Where does F1 ACADEMY race?

The 2025 calendar features seven rounds taking place across six countries and all rounds take place on a Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend. Each round features two races, totalling 14 races across the season.

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Paying the series’ first visit to China, the Shanghai International Circuit will host the season opener on March 21-23. The paddock heads to two familiar locations in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and Miami, USA before Montreal in Canada makes its F1 ACADEMY debut in mid-June.

August sees racing resume at Zandvoort, which is the only venue to feature across all three seasons. Singapore’s Marina Bay Street Circuit beckons from October 3-5 and the glittering lights of Las Vegas will bring the season to a close for the first time on November 20-22.

2025 F1 ACADEMY Racing Series Calendar

How does an F1 ACADEMY race weekend work?

An F1 ACADEMY weekend is split across three days — usually Friday, Saturday and Sunday, just like in F1. However, there are a few differences in the format, which have been changed for the 2025 season.

The weekend gets underway with up to two Free Practice sessions, which can last up to 40 minutes each and are a chance for drivers and teams to fine-tune setups and explore the conditions.

A 30-minute Qualifying session follows on either Friday or Saturday, depending on the number of Free Practice sessions. Saturday also sees the first race of the weekend and following an update to the Sporting Regulations for this season, Race 1 has become a reverse grid race.

This means that the grid for Race 1 will be set by reversing the top eight drivers from Qualifying, with drivers in ninth to 18th starting where they qualified. Only the top eight drivers will be awarded points in Race 1, alongside an additional point for the driver who achieves the fastest lap with the top eight classified drivers.

Race 2 will remain the same as last year, with the grid based on the drivers’ fastest laps in Qualifying. Points will be awarded on a sliding scale from 25 points for the winner, down to one point for the 10th-placed driver. Two points are given to the driver who is shown on pole position on the final grid for Race 2 and an additional point for the fastest lap will also be on offer, as long as they finish inside the top 10.

Points allocations for Race 1 and Race 2

How many points can be scored on an F1 ACADEMY weekend?

Drivers can score a maximum of 39 points each weekend, with teams battling it out to achieve a maximum 86-point haul. No points are awarded for a race if the leader has completed less than two laps or unless a minimum of two laps have been completed by the leader without a Safety Car intervention.

READ MORE: F1 ACADEMY announces the return of reverse grids from 2025

What cars do they race in F1 ACADEMY?

F1 ACADEMY is a single-make series meaning that all the drivers race identical Formula 4-level cars supplied by Tatuus, the T421. These feature 1.4 litre turbo-charged, four-cylinder engines supplied by Autotecnica, delivering 174 brake horsepower and hitting top speeds of 240km/h.