Chloe Chambers is in the hunt for her first ever Championship win in 2025. The F1 Academy Racing Driver currently sits just twenty points behind Championship leader Doriane Pin with three rounds to go this season. Can the 21 year-old American take the fight all the way to the end, then win, and thus propel herself into the next echelon of her racing career? There’s no reason why not.
Chloe Chambers – Origins
Born in China and then adopted by an American family, Chambers began racing when she was just ten years old. Competing in the Florida Winter Tour – Micro Max, it wasn’t long before she wanted to do more. In 2019, she finished third overall in the SKUSA SuperNationals XXIII – X30 Junior Championship.
Two years later, Chambers made her single seater debut in the Formula 4 United States Championship. Stints in a few other series such as W Series and the Formula Regional Oceania Championship ultimately led her to F1 Academy.
F1 Academy – Year One
Signed by Campos Racing and supported by the Haas F1 Team, Chloe Chambers had a pretty solid debut year in F1 Academy. Her highest qualifying position for the season was P2 – which she achieved five times. Of the fourteen races that took place, Chambers only finished outside the points in four of them.
She achieved four podium places from the other ten races. Her first came thanks to a P3 finish at her home race in Miami. Chamber’s first and only win that season came in at the second race in Barcelona, having finished in P3 again in the first of the two races that weekend. Chambers would have to wait until the penultimate race of the year in Abu Dhabi though before colleting her final podium of 2024, when she finished in P2.
In 2024, Chambers also signed with A14 Management, Fernando Alonso’s management company.
“Being part of A14 has been super helpful. During the winter, we did a training camp with Fernando and everybody in that group has been super helpful. They’re all very experienced and knowledgeable in what they do.” – Chloe Chambers
At the end of the 2024 season, Chambers sat in P6 overall with 122 points. Just thirteen points separated her from fourth place driver Nerea Marti. The gulf back to the rest of the field behind her was pretty sizeable though. 49 points stood between her and Bianca Bustamante in seventh with there being a further 29 points to go before reaching Lia Block in eighth. As debut years go, it was very solid for the rookie driver.
F1 Academy – Year Two
Chloe Chambers has definitely kicked things up a notch for her second and final season of F1 Academy. She became the first driver in the series to switch allegiances with an F1 team after Red Bull Ford poached her from Haas. Chambers continued competing for Campos Racing though.
“I mean the support that I’ve been getting so far this year has been really nice. I think the main thing for me was also staying with Campos Racing. I mean you know they’re the ones ultimately running the car, and you know I get to keep the same engineers, same mechanics, so those are the two closest bonds that you have to build in racing, and so only having two years in F1 Academy doesn’t give you a whole lot of time to build those relationships, but having to switch to a different team or something would be a lot more work for me, so not only do I get the benefit of having the extra support from Red Bull, but also being able to keep the same
team around me, and be able to go into this year and just focus on maximising my on-track performance.” – Chloe Chambers
The importance of continuity within a team is one that cannot be underestimated. It impacts teams and drivers at the highest level in Formula 1. You only need to look as far as a driver like Max Verstappen or Lando Norris to see how important that is. So it makes sense as to why it would also be the case in a junior series such as F1 Academy where the development of the drivers is perhaps even more crucial for their futures.
Opening Gambits
The opening round in China saw what has to date this year been the American’s worst qualifying performance – P4. She converted this into back to back podiums however, finishing in P2 and P3 respectively. In all three of the rounds since then however, Chambers has claimed Pole Position as her own. When asked about this, she spoke about how resetting in the off season helped to refocus on the task in hand for 2025.
“We have the reverse grid race, so there is still opportunity for a lot of points to be made up if you are qualifying in the 6th, 7th, 8th kind of area, but yeah, I mean, I think that’s been a big step forward, but also just having the time in the off-season to kind of reset, I think it’s been a really positive thing for me, and the last little bit of the year didn’t go super great, so I definitely needed that little bit of time away to kind of reset, and kind of re-evaluate my goals for this year.” – Chloe Chambers
Each time Chambers has managed to take Pole Position, she’s also collected two valuable Championship points awarded for this in the process. However, ensuring that these each turned into victories has proven more challenging than Chambers perhaps anticipated.
In Jeddah, she finished in P7 and P2 respectively with the bonus point in the latter for achieving the fastest lap too. In the sole race in Miami, where Chambers would have loved to win on home soil, the American had to settle instead for P3.
Chambers in Canada – Third Time’s the Charm
Coming into the weekend, Chambers was very much looking forward to going racing in Canada. The country is one where she had some motorsport history when she first began her motorsport journey.
“I grew up racing go-karts here for a couple of years, so I actually haven’t been back to Canada at all, I don’t think, since 2016. So, it’s been a while, but a lot of familiar faces. I’m really excited to have a brand new track without any testing. It’s just gonna, I think, mix things up a little bit, so it’ll be exciting to see how the weekend plays out.” – Chloe Chambers
While Chambers was able to claim Pole Position once again for F1 Academy’s debut in Montreal, it came with a caveat. All three races (one more than usual since the second race in Miami was cancelled due to adverse weather conditions) were marred with chaos from start to finish. It would turn into a tough weekend where the Red Bull Ford backed driver turned twenty-one years old. However, there was to be a happy ending for her.
Third Time Lucky
On Sunday, Chambers started from Pole Position once again. It was an action packed final race of the weekend that saw a continuation of chaos from the previous day. So much so in fact, that the race was forced to end under a Safety Car. But even if this hadn’t been the case, there was no stopping Chloe Chambers on Sunday. She won the third and final race of the weekend from Ella Lloyd in second and Doriane Pin in third.
“Overall, I think it’s going to be really exciting, and to have three races with not much practise time is going to be really interesting to watch for you guys, your perspectives, but a little bit more pressure for us, but for sure it’s going to be really fun.” – Chloe Chambers
The fun that comes with success finally came through for the American driver. While a day late to be on time as a birthday present, it’s still probably going to have been a welcome way to cap off a birthday weekend.
Looking Ahead
There are three rounds left of the F1 Academy 2025 Season. Next up is Zandvoort, then Singapore and the season finale in Las Vegas. With seven of the drivers exiting from the series at the end of the year, each one will be determined to leave their mark. Riskier moves from those down the field may seem worth it and this could approach to racing could impact on Chambers’ season. Like in Canada, she’s going to have to do her best to steer clear of any on track drama if she wants to keep building momentum to overtake Doriane Pin in the Championship.
Can Chambers beat Pin? The latter has been almost flawless this season. Her worst result has been three P4 finishes. In contrast to that, in the races that Chambers has finished off the podium, it’s resulted in multiple P7s and a P10. If the American wants to win, taking full advantage of any mistakes Pin might make will be crucial. After two dominant Championships so far in F1 Academy, thanks to Marta Garcia and Abbi Pulling, 2025’s might be the closest one yet.
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Want more from the F1 Academy Drivers? Check out The Paddock Chronicle’s pieces on Joanne Ciconti and Nicole Havrda.
Feature Image: Red Bull Content Pool
F1 Academy returns August 29th to 31st in Zandvoort.