Doriane Pin clinched the 2025 F1 Academy title in Las Vegas finale, as Ayumu Iwasa took the Super Formula championship in Suzuka.
Doriane Pin –
Doriane Pin has been crowned F1 ACADEMY champion after finishing fifth in the season finale, as Chloe Chambers controlled Race 2 in Las Vegas to win ahead of Alisha Palmowski and Pin’s title rival Maya Weug. As the Red Bull Ford driver led every lap with confidence, taking advantage of battles behind her to extend her advantage to over four seconds by the chequered flag, Pin’s fifth place was more than enough to net her the points that confirmed her as this season’s champion, beating Weug to the honour.
Before the race even got underway, Kick Sauber driver Emma Felbermayr was left stranded on the grid in near-identical fashion to Race 1, in which she suffered a clutch issue that Rodin Motorsport were confident was fixed. She prepared for a pit lane start ahead of lights out, when attention switched to the polesitter Chambers. After the heartbreak of her Race 1 DNF, she executed a fantastic start and confidently led the field on the opening laps, with Palmowski similarly maintaining her P2 spot.
Tommy Hilfiger driver Alba Larsen was the first to come under pressure as she drifted wide on the opening lap, allowing Pin to close up and challenge for third place. The 16-year-old was able to defend, which opened the door for Weug to get involved and boldly tried to pass her title rival on Lap 2. The top five remained as they were, but there was drama further down the field as Joanne Ciconte and Wild Card entry Payton Westcott collided and spun in sync. Both cars sustained damage, forcing an appearance from the Safety Car while they were recovered from the circuit.
With the field neutralised, racing resumed on Lap 5. Chambers elected to bunch up the pack and pulled off a strong restart, but Larsen lost out to both Pin and Weug in quick succession through two masterful overtakes. The Mercedes driver was getting ever closer to securing the title, but Chambers was doing everything she needed to in order to maintain her lead. She was not, however, escaping up the road – with slim margins separating the top four, the final result was far from set in stone.
This came to fruition when Weug darted around the outside of Pin, clinging on to snatch P3 with just a few laps remaining. She then set her sights on second place and launched a prolonged challenge on Palmowski, who repeatedly defended her position. Despite the Red Bull Racing driver’s best efforts, Weug squeezed past, but it only took a handful of corners for Palmowski to fight back and reclaim P2, forcing the Ferrari racer to then defend from Pin.
The battle helped Chambers to extend her lead to over four seconds and allowed Larsen to join in, overtaking Pin and demoting her to fifth place. This was nevertheless good enough for her to outscore Weug in the Drivers’ Standings and become F1 ACADEMY’s third champion. McLaren driver Ella Lloyd crossed the line in P6 ahead of Nina Gademan and Tina Hausmann, with Rafaela Ferreira and Aurelia Nobels taking the final points on offer in the finale.
“It’s amazing,” she began. “Champion is a beautiful word to really fit our season. We can be really proud of all the work we have done since last year. We never gave up, we worked so hard on winning races, winning the title. Since the very first time I got in a go-kart, I wanted to win every single race I competed in. I’m very happy about my entire journey, and obviously my journey with F1 ACADEMY has been unforgettable. I’m very proud of all of this, and now we can celebrate it.
“Obviously it’s amazing to battle with an experienced driver, with someone who knows how to race. She’s talented and very much deserves her success this year. It was a close battle that I actually enjoyed a lot, because you need those drivers to push you and push each other to the top. We did exactly that so it was really positive.
“Mercedes have been there from day one. They are incredibly supportive of me every day, from bad days to good days. They bring professionalism, experience and performance into my racing career. It’s beautiful to achieve that together. Celebrating with them was a beautiful moment. I will remember it for my entire life,” summed up Pin.
Here’s standings: https://www.f1academy.com/Racing-Series/Standings/Driver?seasonId=3
https://www.f1academy.com/Racing-Series/Standings/Team?seasonId=3
Ayumu Iwasa –
Ayumu Iwasa (TEAM MUGEN) took his second victory of the season in this 31-lap race. Ren Sato (PONOS NAKAJIMA RACING), who started from third place in qualifying, came in second, and Kakunoshin Ota (DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION RACING) took third, securing a place on the podium. With this result, Iwasa secured the championship title in a comeback. The 22 cars began their formation for the final race of the year. All cars completed one lap of the course, warming their tires, before arriving on the regular grid. Once the formation was complete, the green flag was waved behind the cars, and the all-red signal changed to black.
It was Tomoki Nojiri (TEAM MUGEN), who qualified second, who made a strong start. Iwasa nearly got alongside Nojiri at the start, but by the first corner he had completely moved ahead and maintained his lead. Nojiri then backed off to support Iwasa, causing him to lose some speed. This allowed Sato, who started from third on the grid and had a better start than the two cars on the front row, to get ahead, as well as Tadasuke Makino (DOCOMO TEAM DANDELION RACING) and Ota. Behind Nojiri is Igor Omura Fraga (PONOS NAKAJIMA RACING). Behind him, Sho Tsuboi (VANTELIN TEAM TOM’S) used the overtaking system right after the start to try to catch up with the front runners, closing in on Nirei Fukuzumi (Kids com Team KCMG), but ended up going off the track slightly at the exit of the second corner, dropping him down in position. He dropped to 9th place.
After the opening lap, pit movement began early. Nojiri, who had dropped to fifth place at the start, was the first to pit. On the same lap, Zach O’Sullivan (KONDO RACING) and Kamui Kobayashi (Kids com Team KCMG) also pitted to change tires. Seeing this, Tsuboi also pitted after two laps. Toshiki Oyu (SANKI VERTEX PARTNERS CERUMO-INGING) and Atsushi Miyake (ThreeBond Racing) also pitted. Tsuboi returned to the track before Nojiri, but Nojiri, whose tires had already warmed up, pushed hard. He repeatedly closed in on Tsuboi. At the chicane, Nojiri got on Tsuboi’s inside. However, Tsuboi ran alongside Nojiri coming out of the final corner. At the first corner, Tsuboi managed to get ahead of Nojiri again from the outside. Just at this first corner, Sacha Fenestraz (VANTELIN TEAM TOM’S), who had pitted after Tsuboi, was returning to the track. Running on the inside, Nojiri was slightly blocked by Fenestraz, allowing Tsuboi to get ahead again.
Tsuboi, who had moved ahead of Nojiri, set the fastest lap and steadily chipped away at the invisible time gap. His gap with the leader, Iwasa, was steadily narrowing, from 41.632 seconds after lap four to 40.907 seconds after lap five. Seeing this, Ota, who was running in fourth place, made a move. At this stage, the gap between Iwasa and Sato, Sato and Makino, and Makino and Ota was each about one second, but the race was deadlocked. So Ota pitted after lap six. Ota managed to rejoin the track ahead of Tsuboi. Seeing this, Iwasa and Fraga, who were leading the race at the end of lap seven, also pitted. Iwasa returned to the track ahead of Ota and maintained his lead. Meanwhile, Fraga returned to the track behind Ota and ahead of Tsuboi.
Sato appeared to be in the lead. He was followed by Fukuzumi, Takashi Koide (San-Ei Gen with B-Max), Kenta Yamashita (KONDO RACING), Kazuto Kodaka (KDDI TGMGP TGR-DC), Haruki Sakaguchi (SANKI VERTEX PARTNERS CERUMO･INGING), Mitsunori Takaboshi (ITOCHU ENEX WECARS TEAM IMPUL), and Oliver Rasmussen (ITOCHU ENEX WECARS TEAM IMPUL). These drivers had planned to delay their tire changes. However, an accident occurred at the chicane on lap 11. Seita Nonaka (KDDI TGMGP TGR-DC) tried to pass Oyu from the outside, but the two cars collided. Nonaka’s car ended up running over Oyu’s car, landing and sustaining damage. From there, Nonaka managed to return to the pits on his own, but Oyu stopped his car on the course. This led to the deployment of the safety car. As a result, after 11 laps, all of the drivers, including Sato, who had not yet changed tires, rushed into the pit lane. Meanwhile, the drivers who had already changed tires raced down the course until they caught up with the safety car. Then, at the first safety car line at the exit of the pit lane, Iwasa was in the lead, with Ota in second place. Following them were Sato, Makino, Fraga, Fukuzumi, Tsuboi, Yamashita, Nojiri and Koide.
After Oyu’s car was recovered, the race restarted at the end of lap 14. Iwasa began accelerating around the exit of round 130 and maintained his lead, but Ota closed in on him. Sato then closed in on Ota. Behind him, Fraga, who was running in fifth place, attacked Makino. Immediately after the restart, Fraga overtook Makino at the first corner to move up to fourth place. The battle for second place then became heated. Sato tried to get alongside Ota from the outside at the chicane on lap 16, but Ota held his own. However, Sato refused to give up and continued to run alongside Ota on the straight. Between corners one and two on lap 17, he successfully overtook Ota to move up to second place. Makino again closed in on Fraga at the chicane on the same lap, but Fraga held on tightly. Makino refused to give up and tried to get alongside Fraga again at corner one on lap 18, but Fraga managed to hold on to his position. This battle continued until the 20th lap, but Fraga never gave up his position. Behind them, the battle for 7th place was heating up. At the first corner on the 22nd lap, Haruki Sakaguchi (SANKI VERTEX PARTNERS CERUMO･INGING) overtook Tsuboi. Tsuboi was unable to increase his pace, and things were becoming difficult for him.
In the battle for the lead, Iwasa and Sato remained within a second of each other until the very end, but Iwasa was faster on the East Course and Sato on the West Course, and their timing to use the overtaking system was almost identical, preventing a comeback. Ota complained of a “problem with the car’s behavior” with just a few laps remaining, and he fell slightly behind the two cars in front. Fraga, who had already used up all of his overtaking system, was unable to catch up with Ota. Makino also fell slightly behind Fraga at the end. As a result, there was no change in the positions in the leading pack in the final stages. After completing 31 laps, Iwasa took the checkered flag for the second time this season. Sato came in second, and Ota in third. Fraga, Makino, Fukuzumi, Sakaguchi, Tsuboi, Koide, and Nojiri all earned points. Iwasa not only won, but, with Tsuboi finishing eighth, he successfully secured the title in his second year of racing. He also won the Queen Yoko Cup.
Iwasa: “Before the season started, when we were aiming to become champion, looking back at the past, when there were nine races in total, the champion was usually a driver who won three races, so we talked about how it would be tough unless we could win at least four this year. I went through a period of not winning a race in the first half, and finally won at SUGO (Round 8). Considering that I was able to win the championship with only two wins, I think it was really important that I was on the podium when I finished the race. But on the other hand, I had to retire from four races, and that’s not the way to fight to win the championship.
“To be honest, I don’t think my crash yesterday was good at all. However, the level (of Super Formula = SF) is high and the races are very close, but it was a very close race, so I feel like I still had a lot to do. (The presence of the director, engineers, and staff) was a truly invaluable support. Since last year, everyone on the team has been working hard, facing the same direction, and seeing that effort take shape has given me a lot of confidence. Of course, it’s not just the team, but the support of everyone else who has made this possible, so I’d like to thank everyone. I don’t know the value of the SF title at this point. On the other hand, I think it’s up to me to make the most of this championship title, so I want to move forward in a way that makes the most of this title of champion and number one in Japan.”
Standings: https://superformula.net/sf3/driver_taxonomy/2025/?standings
https://superformula.net/sf3/team_taxonomy/2025/?standings
[The story is as per press release]