Academy champion Pulling dreams of moving up to F1

The British driver tells Kieran Jackson about beating boys and eyeing the big time after a dominant year on the track

- Kieran Jackson

As has often been the case in the Formula One paddock throughout 2024, Abbi Pulling is in a buoyant mood. Reflecting on a historic season of success, the 21-year-old from Gosberton in Lincolnshire ponders where her expectations were at the start of the year, ahead of a season in the all-female F1 Academy series she now says was a “must win”.

“I had to get that prize,” she tells The Independent, at an end-ofseason event at F1 Drive in Tottenham celebrating her achievements this year. That prize is now a fully funded 2025 seat in the British-based GB3 Championship, a rung below Formula 3.

“There was a lot of pressure in that regard. I wanted to leave the year feeling like I’d left no stone unturned, leaving the track every day having done everything I could. And I wasn’t far off that.”

Nine race victories out of 14 and a championship-winning margin of 121 points speak to that. The Alpine junior driver was so dominant, in fact, that there was no need for outrage and disapproval when her title triumph at the penultimate round in Qatar was suddenly taken away from her, owing to the organisers adding an extra race at the final round in Abu Dhabi.

Pulling simply sealed her crown once again, with the extra point for pole position. She actually recorded the first, second and third-fastest laps of qualifying at the Yas Marina Circuit. Having finished fifth in her first F1 Academy season, what does she put her change in form down to?