PREMA Racing produced a winning performance in the opening round of the 2025 F1 Academy series at Shanghai International Circuit. Starting from second place, Doriane Pin delivered a brilliant outside move at the beginning of Race 2 and never looked back to take her first win of the year.
Pin maximized the qualifying strategy with second place and had the chance to start Race 2 on fresher tyres. Despite having to deal with contact avoidance, she then moved up to fourth place in the reverse-grid Race 1. Due to an oil spill in a previous session, there was a rolling start for Race 2, which she mastered to perfection.
Both Tina Hausmann and Nina Gademan showed great promise in testing and practice but didn't have the best luck in the races. The Swiss finished in P13 in Race 1 while the Dutch, who was comfortably leading after starting from P1 on the reverse grid, was stopped by a mechanical issue. In Race 2, contact between the two put Hausmann out of contention, while Gademan survived to end up in P10 and brought home her first points finish of 2025.
With Pin standing as the championship leader, F1 Academy will be back from the 18th to the 20th of April at Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Saudi Arabia.
#3 - Nina Gademan
"The weekend had its ups and downs. We got closer and learned a lot about the car's setup and how I need to adjust to the track been different on an F1 weekend. Performance wise it was a big step forward and we are able to be up there. It's just a bit frustrating having a car issue in Race 1 and being taken out in Race 2 after gaining some positions. Even with the damage we still got into the points. Looking forward to Jeddah to come back."
#28 - Doriane Pin
"Really happy about the weekend here in Shanghai. I think it was a bit of a compromise in qualy, using only one set of tyres, but we still finished in P2 in a decent session overall. In Race 1 we kept the set we used in qualy and the pace was overall good despite a small drop at the end. The fighting and racecraft were positive as we gained two position to finish in P4. Then in Race 2 we maximized everything we could. We did a mega start with an outside overtake in T1. I knew it was very important to be smart at the beginning to finish the race in front. I'm very happy about how the team worked and how strong we were together, and I'm very happy to start the season like this."
#78 - Tina Hausmann
We had a positive three-day test here in China and in free practice we could deliver what we had learned. In qualifying, we faced some circumstances which didn't quite make a good position for the races happen, but still we got good learnings. Race 1 was quite solid until a small mistake which had a big impact on the results. However, I also learned a lot and continued to do so in Race 2. The weekend didn't go our way for sure, and I still need to improve, while other things are already better than last season. We learn from the mistakes and work hard for Jeddah.