Guest blog by Thiemo Albers-Daly
The Final Round of the 2023 F1 Academy Season took place earlier this month in Austin, Texas as the series raced on the same weekend as Formula 1 for the first time. This was not a one off event though as going into 2024, all seven of its rounds will be held alongside the pinnacle of motorsport, in the same way that Formula 2 and Formula 3 are. It was also the first round of the year to be globally broadcast live – fans having to make do with highlights up to now released days after the race weekends. This too will be another most welcome feature in 2024 and it’s no less than the series, the drivers and the fans deserve.
There was a lot to unpack in this final round of F1 Academy. From Marta Garcia going through the motions to claim the inaugural F1 Academy Drivers’ Championship to Hamda Al Qubaisi driving to victory despite injury and a very last minute surge from British driver Jessica Edgar who pulled off an excellent qualifying lap to claim Pole Position for the third and final race of the weekend, which she then converted to her first race win come Sunday. But all of the action didn’t take place at the sharp end of the tightly packed field, with battling and drama throughout.
One of these stories of the weekend centered around Uruguayan Lioness Maite Cáceres. Having come off the back of the last few rounds with some strong point scoring results, the hope was that this feat could be repeated one last time in 2023. However, the Circuit of the Americas proved to be a challenging opponent right from the off. The genetic makeup of the racetrack is clearly inspired by some of the greatest circuits from around the world – Brazil’s Senna S’s, Silverstone’s Copse, Maggotts and Becketts and Spa’s Kemmel Straight being the obvious examples of this. With the short practice sessions and limited running time within those due to the nature of the tyres, the F1 Academy drivers are thrown in the deep end each and every weekend and they don’t have long to turn things around for themselves before qualifying and more importantly, the races. When this format is combined with COTA, it can be argued that the most difficult circuit was left for last.
Two P15s for Maite in the practice sessions weren’t representative of the pace that we know by now she has. P15 and P13 in Q1 and Q2 were where we found Maite on the grid after the back to back sessions, with less than two seconds covering the entire grid in the latter, with drivers battling for track position throughout. The races are where it really matters though and this is where things get interesting.
On paper, Maite DNFd in Race I. Many could glance at that and dismiss it without a second thought. But they really shouldn’t because the reasoning behind this perfectly highlighted two of the major benefits to F1 Academy.
Early on in the race, Maite was battling with Chloe Grant and Emely de Heus and coming up to Turn 1, emulated the Daniel Ricciardo of old with one of his classic dives down the inside (there was space) which, had it worked, would have propelled her up two positions and left her opponents squabbling with each other rather than with her as she drove off into the distance. However, thing didn’t really go to plan as it appeared that Grant didn’t quite see Cáceres coming with the Uruguayan not able to pull out of the move at this point with the pair then coming together and collecting De Heus with them for good measure, putting all three of them out of the race and calling the Safety Car out. All three drivers were fine.
While a disappointing result for all involved, the move itself was worth the risk. “If you no longer go for a gap that exists, you’re no longer a racing driver.” as fellow South American Ayrton Senna once said. F1 Academy is about teaching these young drivers how to race, where to place the car, how to manage tyres and everything else. Part of this is enabling them to take risks and make moves that they’ve seen work before and make them benefit themselves. While it can’t always go the right way or be pulled off cleanly, it shouldn’t deter the drivers from trying and the fact that none of these drivers were penalized for this speaks to that. It was a racing incident and one that all three drivers will be able to learn from. As a neutral fan, you want to see drivers try and make these moves every single time because otherwise, you just essentially get a DRS train and we get enough of those as it is.
This also demonstrated why it’s so important to broadcast F1 Academy live. Sure, you might be reading about all this for the time here with this article but how great is it that you can also go and find the exact moment in the race being talked about and watch it for yourself? Exactly. Everyone benefits from this because while it’s one thing hearing about what happened, it’s another to see it play out in front of you with your own two eyes. Trust me, I know.
By comparison, the second race of the weekend was pretty uneventful for Maite. Three positions were gained over the course of the campaign and she finished in P12, working away methodically to pick off those in front of her when the opportunities came and ensure that anyone behind her stayed there.
The last race of the weekend – and of the season – saw Cáceres do battle with Canada’s Megan Gilkes in some impressively close, but clean, wheel to wheel action. Further reiterating the points made above, it was great to see both drivers trusting each other as they pushed one another to the limit. Some lovely switchback moves were made as well as some aggressive, but fair, shimmies by Cáceres as she fought to stay out in front. There was definitely a contrast between this battle and the one that fellow Campos Driver Lola Lovinfosse was waging with Prema’s Bianca Bustamante. While track limit violations were policed rather generously all weekend, the French driver took the biscuit in pushing these limits over the maximum, as while battling with the Filipino, she completely cut T15, driving into the side of Bianca as she followed the racing line going into T16. As said before, it’s good to be able to test out what works and what doesn’t, but in this particular instance, there was a good chance of knowing beforehand that it wasn’t going to work in a month of Sundays.
Maite came home to finish the race in a respectable P12.
With Formula 1 teams set to each recruit a driver to race in their liveries in 2024 (McLaren have already snatched up Bustamante), it’s crucial that they don’t all get distracted by just the drivers on the podium. While undoubtedly good in their own right, Austin once again proved the enormous potential that a driver such as Cáceres has and this was demonstrated in her racecraft over the weekend. Just because a driver hasn’t won a race, doesn’t mean we should necessarily dismiss them – I mean, look at Lando Norris.
At the time of writing, we don’t know who will remain in F1 Academy for 2024 or who any of the other Formula 1 teams will sign (Bianca being the obvious outlier here again) but all of them have thoroughly earnt the right to return next year. Seeing a mixture of the drivers from this year, along with a few rookies, would be the perfect blend for F1 Academy’s sequel season with the storylines already writing themselves and would be just delicious to watch.
Maite Cáceres has speed, patience, passion, persistence, strategic and critical thinking and perhaps most importantly, the willingness and tenacity to try. She’s the perfect driver to be there once again in F1 Academy in 2024 and from watching her throughout this season, it’s proved to me time and again that no matter what gets thrown at her, Maite will dust herself down, learn, refocus and launch herself right back into the fray. If that’s not what you want from a racing driver, then I don’t know what is.
Paddock Sorority 
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