Back in March, I made my Predictions for the inaugural F1 Academy Season. Now that the season is over, it’s time to look back at my Predictions and see if I did any good or not, and considering I hadn’t heard of many of these drivers before this year started, I have a feeling I know how this is going to go.
P15: Chloe Chong
I had Chloe Chong to finish bottom of the Championship mainly due to this being her first-ever year in single-seaters. Now I wasn’t too far off with this Prediction as Chloe finished 14th in the Standings, but I think she deserves a bit of praise, particularly for the final round of the season at COTA as she finished in the points in all three races.
P14: Amna Al Qubaisi
After not having the best of Junior Career’s heading into 2023, I didn’t expect much from Amna Al Qubaisi. I was completely wrong as Amna finished 6th in the Championship with 2 Race victories to her name which is very good going. Al Qubaisi also wasn’t the lowest-scoring driver for MP Motorsport which is what I had expected to happen.
P13: Emely de Heus
Emely de Heus performed better this year than I expected as Emely ended up finishing 9th in the Championship and her highlight moment came when she won the first race at Barcelona. Just to make my Prediction even worse (and slightly weirder), de Heus was actually beaten by both of her MP Motorsport teammates which is something I didn’t have written down.
P12: Lola Lovinfosse
Lola Lovinfosse finished slightly higher in the Championship than I expected as Lola ended up 10th after achieving three Podiums over the course of the season (all third places). Lovinfosse also wasn’t the lowest-scoring Campos Racing driver so that’s another thing I got wrong.
P11: Lena Buhler
This is a bad one! Lena Buhler ended up finishing second in the Championship after a superb year which saw her win 2 Races whilst she also achieved more Podiums than any other driver over the course of the season (12). Lena was also by far ART Grand Prix’s best driver which is the exact opposite of what I had so this goes down as another bad Prediction by me!
P10: Bianca Bustamante
Bianca Bustamante had a positive first year in F1 Academy as she finished 7th in the Championship and achieved two victories along the way. That success has carried her to get signed by McLaren and it’s also another sign that I can’t predict things well!
P9: Maite Caceres
This was another poor Prediction from me as Maite Caceres ended up finishing bottom of the Championship with only 6 points to her name. That seems quite disappointing to me.
P8: Hamda Al Qubaisi
I said that Hamda Al Qubaisi would beat her two MP Motorsport teammates over the course of the season and that would be seen as a positive. Whilst both of those statements are true, Hamda still performed a lot better than I expected as she ended up finishing third in the Championship with a total of 4 wins over the course of the season. Very good going!
P7: Chloe Grant
Chloe Grant didn’t have as good of a season as I was expecting as she finished 12th in the Standings without a Podium to her name. However, I will give Chloe the benefit of the doubt because she is only 17!
P6: Jessica Edgar
I’m actually alright with this Prediction as although Jessica Edgar finished 8th in the Championship, she was only 4 points off finishing 6th. I also said that I expected Jessica to pick up a few Podiums this season and she did that 4 times including two in the final round of the season in COTA including a victory in the final Race so that’s pretty decent stuff.
P5: Megan Gilkes
I will admit that I got this Prediction wrong as Megan Gilkes ended up only 13th in the Championship without a single Podium to her name. Considering I said that Megan would win an F1 Academy Race this year, this was a bad Prediction.
P4: Carrie Schreiner
Despite knowing that Carrie Schreiner hadn’t raced in single-seaters since 2016, I thought she would have a very good season. That didn’t really happen as Carrie ended up finishing 11th in the Standings and she definitely wasn’t ART Grand Prix’s highest scorer. However, Schreiner did win a race so that’s at least something.
P3: Marta Garcia
I expected Marta Garcia to be by far Prema Racing’s best driver over the course of the 2023 F1 Academy season and I also thought Marta could challenge for the title. However, I didn’t actually expect that Garcia would win it, but she fully deserved to after winning 7 races over the course of the season and I really hope she gets a seat in Formula 3 next year.
P2: Nerea Marti
Whilst Nerea Marti had a decent first season in F1 Academy, she didn’t perform as well as I expected as Nerea finished 4th in the Championship with only the 1 Race victory (Round 1 at Paul Ricard). Still, Marti was comfortably Campos Racing’s highest-scoring driver.
P1: Abbi Pulling
At the start of the season, I was 100% convinced that Abbi Pulling was going to end the year as the inaugural F1 Academy Champion. However, that didn’t happen as Abbi only finished 5th in the Championship and she is still yet to get a victory in single-seaters which is quite extraordinary given her talent.
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