As the 2026 F1 Academy championship gets underway in Shanghai this weekend, meet the rookies who will be hoping to make their mark on the all-female racing series.
Megan Bruce
In February 2026, Megan Bruce was announced to compete in the 2026 season under Campos Racing, supported by Tag Heuer.
Originally taking up karting as a hobby, her professional racing career began with Caterham Academy in 2023.
The British driver made her single-seater debut in 2024, racing for Fox Motorsport in the GB4 Championship, where she scored four top tens in the last three rounds of the season to end the year in 11th.
Bruce remained in GB4 for 2025, switching to KMR Sport where she finished 20th in the points.
Additionally, in late 2025, Bruce raced in the newly-relaunched F4 Saudi Arabian Championship, scoring a best result of seventh in the season-ending race at Jeddah.
The British driver participated in her first F1 Academy Rookie test at the Circuit de Nevarra in September 2025. She finished in the top four overall during the two testing sessions.
Stepping in for an injured Aiva Anagnostiadis in the Singapore round last year, she finished in twelth in race one and thirteenth in race two.
Mathilda Paatz
Mathilda Paatz will enter the 2026 season with Prema Racing, supported by Aston Martin.
The German driver competed in the 2022 FIA Motorsport Games, where she placed 13th in the Junior Karting Sprint Cup.
In 2024, Paatz became the first female driver supported by the ADAC junior team. She competed in the French F4 Championship, achieving a best result of 10th.
For 2025, Paatz participated in F4 CEZ with her father’s team, achieving her first podium at the Red Bull Ring. Furthermore, she was later announced as a wildcard Gatorade-supported entry for the Montreal round of the 2025 F1 Academy season.
Payton Westcott
Payton Westcott is set to make her full-season debut with Prema Racing, supported by Mercedes.
Westcott began karting at the age of 12, competing until 2024.
Mainly racing in the US in her karting career, Westcott made her international debut in 2024, racing in the Champions of the Future Academy Program as part of F1 Academy’s Discover Your Drive initiative.
Stepping up to single-seaters in 2025, the American driver began the year in Formula Winter Series with Van Amersfoort Racing.
At the end of 2025, Westcott raced in the first and last rounds of Formula Trophy with Prema Racing, winning race two at Dubai from reverse-grid pole, becoming the first female race winner in the series.
During her maiden campaign in Italian F4, Westcott participated in the F1 Academy rookie test at Navarra, where she placed third in the morning session and first in the afternoon session.
She was then selected as the wildcard driver for the final round of the 2025 F1 Academy season in Las Vegas.She scored points in her debut race by finishing sixth.
Natalia Granada
Natalia Granada will compete with Prema Racing, supported by Sephora.
Notably, she was the first Junior Driver for Iron Dames, the world’s most recognised all-female racing team, and supported by Miguel Molina, Ferrari factory driver and Le Mans winner.
The Spanish driver also impressed during the inaugural F1 Academy test in 2025.
Ella Stevens
Ella Stevens will race for Rodin Motorsport supported by McLaren Oxagon.
Stevens began karting at the age of six, competing until 2025.
Starting out in Bambino karts, the British driver moved to Cadet karts in 2016 as she joined the BirelART UK Series, which she won the following year, before taking the LGM Series privateer title in 2018. Stevens then stepped up to Mini karts in 2020, winning the TVKC Winter Series.
Stevens returned to the UK with Jade Racing Team to race in KZ2. In her three-year stint in the category, Stevens won the Shenington Kart Racing Club in 2024 and 2025, as well as finishing runner-up in the British Kart Championship in the latter year.
During 2025, Stevens participated in the F1 Academy rookie test at Navarra setting the fastest time in the morning before posting the second-fastest time in the afternoon. Later that year, the British driver joined the McLaren Driver Development Programme.
Esmee Kosterman
Esmee Kosteran will be competing for MP Motorsport, supported by Lego.
In her karting career, the Dutch driver finished runner-up in the 2017 Dutch Karting Championship, represented the Netherlands in the 2018 Karting Academy Trophy.
Stepping up to cars in 2021, Kosterman joined NXT Racing to compete in the Ford Fiesta Sprint Cup as a KNAF Talent Junior.
By 2025, Kosterman joined JHR Developments on a part-time basis to race in the F4 British Championship. The Dutch driver also competed in all but one rounds of the relaunched F4 Saudi Arabian Championship, in which she scored a best result of sixth twice in the first two Jeddah rounds.
Kosterman made a wildcard appearance in the 2025 season of F1 Academy at Zandvoort racing for Hitech TGR with support from TeamViewer. Qualifying ninth on debut, the Dutch driver finished 12th in race one after starting from the pits, before taking her maiden points by finishing seventh in race two.
Ava Dobson
Ava Dobson will race full-time for Hitech TGR in the 2026 F1 Academy season, supported by American Express.
After being one of five female drivers awarded with the Parella Motorsports Holdings Powering Diversity Scholarship in 2023, Dobson made her car racing debut in the 2023 Formula 4 United States Championship for Jay Howard Driver Development.
Towards the latter part of the 2023 USF Juniors season, the team entered the series; she had a best result of 11th in race three and finished 16th in the championship.
On September 22, 2023, Dobson announced that she would be returning to USF Juniors to run a full season in 2024. However, a high-speed accident in race one at the second round meant that the American driver did not return to the championship.
In July 2024, Dobson announced that she would make her debut in the 2024 GB4 Championship at the second Silverstone round driving for VRD Racing.
She returned to the championship for the full 2025 season, switching teams to Arden Motorsport. In the final round, Dobson claimed her maiden podium, finishing in third place, and she also won the Top Female Driver prize ahead of Bruce.
On April 29, 2025, it was announced that Dobson would be the wildcard driver for the Miami round of the 2025 F1 Academy season. She avoided incidents in race one to finish thirteenth, the season-best result for a wildcard driver.
Rachel Robertson
Rachel Robertson will be competing for Hitech, supported by Puma.
Robertson began her karting career at the age of fifteen, initially taking up rental karting, before moving to the British Karting Championship in 2024 in the Senior Rotax category.
The following year, the British driver joined Radical Racing Rebels to race in the Radical Cup UK.
In August of that year, Robertson tested F4 machinery at Cremona with Cram Motorsport, before participating in the F1 Academy rookie test at Navarra one month later, in which she finished fifth in both sessions.
In October, Robertson made her single-seater debut in the relaunched Hitech Grand Prix centrally-run F4 Saudi Arabian Championship.
In late November, the British driver made her F1 Academy debut for Hitech TGR at Las Vegas, finishing fourth on her series debut in a wet race one before ending the weekend with a 14th-place finish in race two.
Kaylee Countryman
American racer Kaylee Countryman will represent TGR Haas F1 Team for the 2026 F1 Academy series, competing with ART Grand Prix.
Kaylee began racing on her 12th birthday in the LO206 J2 class, using a four-stroke Briggs & Stratton-powered kart. By the end of her first year, she collected multiple podiums at her home track of Phoenix Kart Racing Association in Glendale, Arizona.
In 2023, Kaylee progressed from a four-stroke to a far more demanding two-stroke platform – joining the J3 Competition and earning a coveted position as a factory driver for CompKart.
For the 2025 season, Kaylee joined Exclusive Autosport for the 2025 USF Junior Season, one of three females in a field of 22 drivers. She recorded four top-ten finishes across the season including an eighth-place finish at Mid-Ohio.
In September 2025 Kaylee was invited to Spain to take part in the F1 Academy Navarra Collective Test, immediately making her mark on the world stage.
Jade Jacquet
Jade Jacquet will represent Atlassian Williams F1 Team, competing with ART Grand Prix.
The French driver has plenty of pedigree, having impressed during the French Junior Karting Championship and in French Formula 4.
Jacquet also claimed the seventh-fastest in the afternoon session of the F1 ACADEMY Rookie Test.
The 2026 F1 Academy Season returns this weekend at the Chinese Grand Prix. All 17 drivers and this Round’s Wildcard Shi Wei will return to the Shanghai International Circuit at 9:10am local time (1:10am GMT) for Free Practice.
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