Eighth to Second, Then Champion: Palmowski Seals Austin Title

Alisha Palmowski secured the 2026 F1 Academy championship with three races to spare, turning eighth on the grid into a title-clinching second place in Austin.

Alba Larsen won the race. Alisha Palmowski left it as champion.

The Red Bull-backed Campos Racing driver climbed from eighth to second in Saturday’s reverse-grid race at the Circuit of the Americas, finishing ahead of closest title rival Emma Felbermayr to settle the championship early.

It was a fitting way to finish the job. Palmowski had already taken her fifth victory of the season in Friday’s opening race. On Saturday, she showed she could work her way through traffic, too.

A championship earned through the field

An incident at the front brought out an early Safety Car, with Palmowski moving up to sixth. After the restart, she and Felbermayr continued their progress, passing Nina Gademan before Palmowski kept her title rival behind in a side-by-side fight.

A penalty for Natalia Granada helped Palmowski into third. The decisive move came next: she passed Lisa Billard for second, putting another car between herself and Felbermayr.

Larsen took her maiden series victory, while Billard completed the podium. Felbermayr finished fourth. Palmowski had done enough.

She became F1 Academy’s fourth champion and the first driver to win the title with Campos Racing.

Austin’s new champion

The celebration brought Palmowski together with Isack Hadjar and Max Verstappen, a memorable photograph from a weekend that belonged to her.

Sunday supplied a less welcome ending. Contact with Larsen forced both drivers out of the feature race. Stewards subsequently found Larsen wholly responsible and handed her a three-place grid penalty for her next race.

That retirement couldn’t undo Saturday’s achievement. Five wins and a title secured before the final round tell the bigger story.

Palmowski will head to Las Vegas with racing still to do, but the championship already settled.