Debut of the F1 Academy at the Red Bull Ring: mixed feelings for Carrie Schreiner

On the traditional circuit in the mountains of Austria, the world premiere of the new F1 Academy took place under the roof of the Formula 1 Society and the world motorsport federation FIA. 15 of the best women, divided into 5 different teams compete against each other in identical formula cars. Carrie Schreiner was the only German driver who was selected for the new series. 

 

Not an easy task for the 24-year-old from the Saarland, who had previously successfully competed in GT racing for 6 years. However, already at her debut Carrie proved that she is competitive in a Formula car, too.

 

In the second free practice session, she was already on P6 on a still dry race track. Before the two qualifying sessions, the sky opened its gates and wet tyres were required. With a light drizzle in qualifying 1, she drove almost sensationally to P4, and in heavy rain in qualifying 2 she finished on P8.

 

On the race day then it was completely dry. The first setback came in race 1. Starting from P4, in the second corner she could not avoid a crash in front of her and her race was over through no fault of her own. Her team ART Grand Prix was able to repair the damaged car just before race 2 but ran out of time for set-up work. So, Carrie had to fight the whole race with a car that was very difficult to drive and more than P10 was not possible under these conditions.

 

Before race 3, the team had sorted out the problems again and they started from P8. The German race driver did a strong race, was permanently involved in duels, and ended up on position seven.

 

So, after the weekend Carrie Schreiner was not sure whether to be happy or angry. "Without the crash at the beginning of the first race, it might have been a super weekend. Even with women, there are pilots who think you have to win a race in the second corner! Very annoying, but nothing can be done about it. The positive thing is that I have already reached the midfield in this very close series. A TOP 5 result is already possible.

 

Considering that I'm several years behind in my experience with Formula cars, that's quite respectable! But my team and I have to work very hard on an optimized set-up of our car, then everything is possible. And this weekend in Valencia we'll get the chance to do that."