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TEAM GUIDE: Can a new-look line-up spark MP Motorsport’s title hopes?

5 March 2025

Enduring a winless 2024 season, MP Motorsport won’t want to find themselves in that position again anytime soon.

Finishing fourth overall with three podiums, over 100 points back from third-place Campos Racing, it was a dip in form for the team that finished second in 2023.

Welcoming an all-new roster, the two youngest rookies in field Alba Larsen and Joanne Ciconte take up their places in the team alongside Maya Weug, after the Ferrari driver’s move over to the Dutch outfit. Can this trio be enough to pull MP back up the order and give them their first taste of title success in F1 ACADEMY?

ALBA LARSEN

Alba Larsen didn’t get her first full season of karting under her belt until 2022, but the Tommy Hilfiger driver has gotten up to speed in the three years since. In her first campaign, she finished P3 in the Zealand Championship and earned two top-four finishes in the Danish and Nordic IAME Championships.

Returning for her second campaign in the Zealand Championship, she won four out of five rounds to claim the title before stepping into the IAME Series Italy X30 Junior category the next year. There she finished 64th in addition to her 12th-place finish in the Danish Karting League’s X30 Junior Standings.

Larsen is the first Danish driver to race in F1 ACADEMY

A two-round appearance in the 2024 Indian F4 Championship marked her single-seater debut, where she scored a P8 result in her second race and finished on the podium for the best rookie. However, 2025 will be a full transition year for the 16-year-old, giving her the opportunity to learn from those around her and adjust to the many ever-changing factors on a Grand Prix weekend.

JOANNE CICONTE

The youngest driver in the 2025 field, Joanne Ciconte first learnt her racecraft back on home soil, achieving the Australian Karting Championship Pink Plate win in 2023.

Last year saw her reach two major milestones. Firstly, her single-seater debut in Australian F4 yielded points, before she switched to race the remainder of her first year in single-seaters in Europe with appearances in the Central European Zone F4 Championship, Spanish F4 and Formula Winter Series.

Understandably, Ciconte will want to deliver quickly, but managing an F1 ACADEMY weekend is a vastly different challenge to what she’s known before. Predicting track evolution after Formula 1 session will be a big target as learns to understand the Pirelli rubber.

Mistakes will be a part of both her and Larsen’s learning curves, but it’ll be how they approach their seasons that will define the level of success achieved.

Weug's victory in Abu Dhabi Race 3 was her first win in single-seaters

MAYA WEUG

There’s a sense of optimism and confidence surrounding Weug this year. Quick, consistent and not one to be held down by setbacks for long, Weug came into her own as the 2024 campaign progressed – producing what would have been the series’ most dominant victory in Race 3 in Abu Dhabi if not for a late Safety Car appearance wiping away her 11.5-second advantage.

A very off weekend in Barcelona remained the only significant blip in her report book, but one that can be put down to a combination of factors beyond just her pace – with the whole PREMA team unable to match the level of results achieved elsewhere.

Finishing third overall, the Ferrari junior is an invaluable asset to MP as they’ll be relying on their most experienced driver to set the benchmark. She will have no other target in her mind other than the title and based on how the second half of the season panned out, Weug’s got to be a pre-season favourite.

It’s likely Weug will be leading the charge from the outset, but if she can pull the team up with her, there’s no reason to think MP couldn’t rise up the Standings and break back into the top three.