Guest blog by Thiemo Albers-Daly
Maite Cáceres is a name that you may not be familiar with – but you should be. One of fifteen drivers selected for the inaugural season of F1 Academy and racing for the Campos outfit, the young Uruguayan has been quietly flying under the radar recently as she competed in the latest two rounds of the brand new single seater series over in Spain. For Maite, it’s been a challenging time but the story goes far beyond what you can read from the timing pages.
Here’s what you need to know and why you should start paying attention to the South American driver if you’re not already.
As you’re reading this, we’re in the gap between rounds three and four of the 2023 F1 Academy campaign, having already gone racing in Austria, Valencia and Barcelona. On top of that, we’ve had pre season testing in both France and Spain (again in Barcelona) and prior to the third round, had an in-season test session – again at Valencia.
These races and tests marked the first time that Maite has ever driven a car like this as the F1 Academy cars are different from what Maite is used to piloting, along with the vast range of set ups available for the car meaning it can be challenging to find the perfect balance straight away and without some experimentation. As we see across all of motorsport, including at the highest levels such as Formula 1, it can take some time before a driver can feel at one with the car and extract the maximum out of it. Such things can only be improved with experience.
As the opening round, Austria saw Maite carry her consistency from testing in Le Castellet over to the race weekend. Valencia was the setting for the second round of the F1 Academy Championship and it immediately showed signs of improvement for the Uruguayan. FP1 saw Maite inside the top eight and both qualifying sessions took her inside the top ten. The races proved to be more challenging but were still a step in the right direction in Maite’s overall improvement from round to round.
However, the in season testing session held at the same circuit showed more encouraging signs as more adjustments were made to the set up of the car. These new set ups with the car seemed to work wonders for Maite as she catapulted herself into the top ten for three of the four sessions spread out over the two days of testing and left her relishing the challenge that Barcelona would bring. With that in mind, one wouldn’t be blamed for thinking that Maite and her supporters might have felt a twinge of disappointment after the race weekend in Spain where the Uruguay racer finished in P13, P13 and P12 respectively in the three races.
But that wasn’t felt by the woman in the driver’s seat.
“The weekend was better. I’m happy with the progress I made. For Race 3, we found a good set up so it gave us the best performance with some good overtakes. I’m not where I want to be but I’m getting there.” – Maite Cáceres
While it may not be the big leaps and bounds that we’d like to see, the improvements over each session is still noteworthy and teases something special to come in the not too distant future. For example, during the final race in Barcelona, eleven of the other drivers out on track were all within a single second of Maite’s best lap time when compared to theirs. This just goes to show how competitive a field it is and that, despite being one of the more inexperienced drivers on the grid, Maite is catching up to them quickly – something that is sure to put a smile on everyone’s face as it means the close competition will just keep getting closer.
It’s also worth arguing that F1 Academy is tougher for the drivers than Formula 3 and Formula 2 are in a few key ways. One of these is that unlike F2 and F3, F1 Academy only awards points in its races to the top eight finishers, rather than the top ten. It also doesn’t have a reverse grid format for its second race of the weekend, like F2 and F3 did when they had three races per weekend back in 2021. Instead, it has another qualifying session. If reverse grids had been in play in Valencia for example, Maite would have started race two in P2 and it would have been fascinating to see what would have happened there, especially with Megan Gilkes alongside her on the front row and some of the more experienced drivers having to fight their way through the grid from nearer the back. Perhaps this is something F1 Academy will consider looking into for 2024. Other hindrances include the races not being shown live and both die hard and casual motorsport fans expecting perfection from all of these drivers in each race to justify why they should even be on the grid in the first place, something that is more noticeable in female sports than male ones.
At the end of the day, the motorsport world is one that is never static but constantly changing. With so much happening from week to week across multiple different series all around the world and more often than not, on at the same time, it can be difficult to keep track of everything going on. Moreover, this can lead to certain series and drivers not getting the attention they deserve and makes getting onto the podium or into the points all the more important if you want to get yourself noticed. But that doesn’t mean that other drivers should be left at the side of the track, especially when they’re improving. For Maite, there’s no denying it’s been a tough start to the season but it’s also worth remembering that she would never have gotten this far in the first place if she didn’t have the natural talent to go racing that she proved several times last year alone in the U.S F4 Championship.
“I’m feeling positive about the good steps we’ve made and that’s where I want to put the focus. Take things to improve and learn from them, both for me and the team.” – Maite Cáceres
We’ve seen drivers go through valuable tough patches in the past, before going to succeed, such as Mick Schumacher in his two seasons in Formula 2, George Russell in his time at Williams in Formula 1 and Laia Sanz in Extreme E. Schumacher is now an F2 Champion and Mercedes Reserve Driver, Russell is a Grand Prix winner and Sanz is a Championship contender with a real shot at the title.
So with twelve races still to go this season across four venues, there’s still everything to play for and with F1 Academy being as competitive as it’s been thus far (six different race winners already), you’d be unwise to count anybody out, particularly someone as determined and focused as Maite Cáceres. Watch this space.
Paddock Sorority 
Leave a comment