Going into the final race of the season, the title fight belonged to Ferrari and Mercedes. A Ferrari tangled with an Aston Martin and was out immediately, which looked like a decisive shift toward Mercedes. But this wasn’t Formula One; it was the F1 Academy finale in Las Vegas.
Under the lights of the Strip, the championship arrived with the kind of electricity that doesn’t need exaggeration. All year, Mercedes-backed Doriane Pin and Ferrari junior Maya Weug had traded momentum. Pin carried raw speed. Weug delivered unbreakable consistency. It was always going to end in drama, just not in the way anyone expected.
Pin looked composed from the start of the weekend. She was quick in practice, consistently three tenths clear of Weug. Meanwhile, home favorite Chloe Chambers was fast right away after a poor weekend in Zandvoort the last time out. In qualifying, she secured a commanding pole position, leaving the field scrambling to catch up to her pace.
Pin and Weug lined up fourth and fifth, a zone where you’re exposed to risk from all sides. Gademan started eighth, which set her up for the reverse-grid pole in Race One and forced the title contenders to climb through the midfield on a damp, twitchy track.
Light rain began to fall. Tyres were swapped on the grid. Race Control delayed the start, then released the field behind the safety car. Even in formation, you could sense how close nerves were to snapping.
They snapped quicker than anyone imagined.
On what should have been the final formation lap, Nina Gademan kept weaving to maintain tyre temperature. Behind her, Tina Hausmann and Weug believed the race was going green. The pack compressed. Hausmann slowed more sharply than expected. Weug had no room to avoid contact. The Ferrari went straight into the back of her and was out before turning a competitive lap.
Weug sat motionless for a moment, helmet lowered, Strip lights reflecting off the halo. She knew the implications instantly. Months of consistency and pressure management vanished in a single misread moment in the spray. The title was no longer within her control.
Pin suddenly held the advantage she’d been chasing all year.
When the race got underway, the field skated across the track. Larsen powered past Gademan and Pin before sliding into the wall at Turn 16 and spinning through Turn 17. Lloyd tried an aggressive move and found the barriers herself. Retirements and off-track moments kept piling up, and another safety car tightened the pack again.
Pin stayed out of trouble. She waited for the right window and on lap nine made the move of the weekend down the Strip to take the lead. Rain intensified. Chambers got caught up in contact. The race ended under a safety car, with Pin taking the win ahead of Gademan and Palmowski, later adjusted to include Nobels on the podium. With those points, Pin no longer needed heroics. She only needed calm on Sunday.
The final day felt like a different world. The air carried a tension that never settled. Weug required a near-miracle. Pin needed only to manage risk and stay clear of drama.
Chambers launched flawlessly from pole, controlling the race from the front and building her own landmark moment in front of a home crowd. Behind her, the championship’s last act unfolded with intensity. Weug attacked whenever she saw daylight, diving at Turn 1 and trying an outside move before being repassed by Palmowski. That fight pulled more cars into the mix. Larsen grabbed a position. Pin lost one.
Chambers escaped up the road, untouchable. But every meaningful set of eyes drifted to Pin. She needed composure. When she crossed the line in fifth, even though it wasn’t a podium, she sealed the title with the same measured precision that had defined her weekend.
Pin completed the season with 172 points and four wins total. It is just a part of a journey that spanned endurance racing, shifted into single-seaters, and matured into a championship run marked by adaptation and resilience in F1 Academy. Weug ended with 157 points, a campaign built on determination and consistency, undone by misfortune in the wet Las Vegas formation laps. Chambers’ home win lifted her to third overall, and Ella Lloyd closed the year as the top rookie with 109 points and fourth in the standings. Prema clinched the team’s title after the Pin and Gademan 1–2.
When Pin climbed from the car for the last time, Mercedes and her family were there to celebrate. She acknowledged the people who supported her early and helped shape her into the driver who closed out the championship with conviction.
The Las Vegas finale summed up what the F1 Academy has evolved into: unpredictable, emotional, tightly contested, and packed with talent. It no longer feels like a minor feeder series waiting for attention. With weekends like this, it’s clear the championship is stepping into the spotlight on its own terms.