The only Brazilian on the F1 Academy grid, Rafaela Ferreira had her best result of the 2026 season this Saturday (23), finishing the race that opened the second stage of the championship, held at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, in fourth place. The driver, who carries the colors of Racing Bulls in the championship with a 100% female grid, started from sixth position and fought for a podium spot throughout the 17 laps in Canada.
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Rafaela had already stood out in the practice sessions, finishing seventh in a session where she was among the fastest the entire time. In the race, where she started sixth, the Brazilian quickly advanced to fourth place and was fighting for second position in the final half of the race. The result lifted the driver to third place in the championship after the first contest of the weekend, scoring 25 points, six less than the runner-up.
“I am very happy. We had a very good pace in qualifying, I was second until the end. But I couldn’t put together a perfect lap and on the last lap everyone passed me. So I started from sixth position and finishing fourth today guarantees us very good points. First race with maximum points, so fourth place is very good,” says Rafaela Ferreira, who is in her second year in the category and highlights the importance of her time in the F1 Academy.
“I think it’s very important for my career. I raced in the F1 Academy and the evolution from last year to now, I learned a lot, the way I work, the way I do my things. It’s very cool to see that we can be alongside the Formula 1 team, evolving together with them. What has helped me a lot is focusing a lot on doing simulator work and trying to understand as much as possible what we can do over the weekend. Being in the second year helps a lot. For example, I raced here last year, we only have one practice, which is very little. So it’s really nice to be in this second year, doing things properly, running at the front, fighting to always get a place on the podium, fighting for victory now. I’m very happy,” explained the driver, who highlights the fact that the championship holds its races on F1 weekends.
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“One cool thing about racing on the same weekend as F1 is that they put on many more tires than we do, so the track is great to race on. The evolution during the weekend is big, the track we race on in the morning is completely different from what we race on at night. It depends a lot on adapting well, knowing how to use the F1 grip,” explains the Brazilian.
The F1 Academy has two more races in Montreal, starting at 7:05 PM the second race will be held, which has a reversed grid and the Brazilian starting from second position. The stage will end on Sunday with the third race, starting at 11:45 AM. YouTube and F1TV broadcast the races.
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