Interview

‘I was gunning for the win’ – Palmowski left ‘a little bit frustrated’ after Race 1 podium as she targets further improvements in Jeddah

19 April 2025

Although Alisha Palmowski was unable to replicate her Race 1 win from last time out in Shanghai, another podium finish at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit has encouraged her to repeat the achievement in Sunday's Race 2.

The Red Bull Racing driver took her maiden victory in Round 1 back in March and pulled off another impressive performance to cross the line in P3 in Jeddah, fending off a late challenge from Mercedes’ Doriane Pin.

Palmowski surged forward from P5 in the early stages, claiming P2 from reverse grid polesitter Emma Felbermayr and later emerging unscathed from a tense Safety Car restart, which helped her to close the gap to leader Ella Lloyd.

However, as Lloyd controlled the race, Palmowski came under pressure from Ferrari's Maya Weug and was eventually passed on the penultimate lap, leaving her to battle Pin for the final podium spot.

“I think overall it was a very positive race,” she enthused. “It’s always nice to go forwards from your starting position so the podium was the aim for us before the race started. To come away with a P3 and solid points ahead of tomorrow. We’re starting P4 tomorrow so even higher up and better opportunities.

Palmowski dispatched Alba Larsen and Tina Hausmann into the first corner

“(I’m) a little bit frustrated in all honesty – we obviously got up into P2. I had a great first half of the race, especially before the Safety Car, but then we just struggled towards the end. I think I do have an idea why, so I’ll have a debrief with the team and I think we can make a change tomorrow to try and stay with them towards the end I reckon. It was a good learning experience all round.”

As the race unfolded, she was confident that a second victory of the season was within her grasp, but a potential issue with her car meant that she was unable to consistently keep pace with the frontrunners.

Palmowski explained: “I was gunning for the win. Ella did an awesome restart and I was under quite a lot of pressure from Maya so that allowed her to get a little breakaway at the start of the Safety Car restart.

“Then I did close back up to her – she made a small mistake around Turn 16 I think so that just gave me a chance to close back in, but then we just struggled on the straights to get close enough to make a move into the final corner or Turn 1.

“It was difficult but I’m just glad that towards the end we managed to keep the podium. We were under quite a lot of pressure from Doriane so I was nervous we were going to lose it at one point!”

This is the first time two British drivers have shared an F1 ACADEMY podium

The Briton ultimately finished just over two tenths ahead of Pin, but the on-track battles weren’t the only learning curve around the fast-flowing corners of Jeddah. Palmowski admitted that there is one key lesson that she will take into Race 2 as she targets another podium finish.

“We’ve learnt a lot about tyre degradation – how to manage tyres, where you can push, where you can’t push,” she explained. “As I mentioned, I think there’s a change that we could potentially make for tomorrow to give us a better opportunity to make some progress and retain pace towards the end of the race.

“Obviously starting P4, it will be a challenge. The three in front of me are obviously extremely fast so it will be a tough race, long race, very hot race, I think similar to today. It will be difficult but absolutely we’ll aim for a podium.”