Alba Larsen is the first driver to use an exemption F1 Academy only wrote into its rulebook last year. Scuderia Ferrari HP has confirmed she will race in the all-female series for a third straight season in 2027, something no driver had been permitted to do before.
Until this year, two seasons was the hard ceiling. Every driver on the grid had to graduate after her second campaign, which pushed names such as 2024 champion Abbi Pulling, Bianca Bustamante and the Al Qubaisi sisters out at the end of 2024. The regulation, announced last year, kept that cap as the default but carved out an exception for drivers whose results point to real further growth. Larsen is the first name under it.
A debut season that convinced Ferrari
Larsen joined the Ferrari Driver Academy midway through her rookie F1 Academy campaign in 2025 and closed the year with 10 top-10 finishes. In 2026 she has added her first British F4 win to the CV while continuing in the Ferrari-run F1 Academy seat.
She currently sits fourth in the 2026 drivers’ standings, with six points-scoring finishes behind her, having only broken through to the rostrum this summer.
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Breakthrough at Zandvoort
The Dutch round at Zandvoort in August was where the trajectory turned. Starting seventh in Saturday’s reverse-grid race, Larsen moved up five places to finish second, her first F1 Academy podium after a 22-race wait. From the front row on Sunday she chased Alisha Palmowski the whole way in the feature race before settling for a second P2.
She felt the feature-race win had been within reach.
“I think the win was definitely possible. Palmowski had a good start, so that definitely made it difficult because it is a hard track to overtake on, so my chance was in the beginning.”
That weekend lifted her into the top four of the championship and, with the exemption rule in force for 2027, gave Ferrari the case it needed to keep her on.
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Larsen on another year with Ferrari
Her reaction to the confirmation leaned on how much the series has changed since her debut.
“After two years in F1 ACADEMY, I’ve seen first-hand how much this series has grown. I’ve grown a lot here too. I’m really proud to be part of it and can’t wait to be back on the grid with Scuderia Ferrari HP in 2027.”
The 2026 F1 Academy season still has rounds to run, and Larsen remains in contention for a top-three championship finish before her unprecedented third year begins.
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