The final round of F1 Academy headed to Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi, with the main news being that there would be three races, instead of the usual two – to make up for the cancelled Race 2 in Qatar.
Abbi hit the ground running, setting the 2nd fastest time in Practice, despite a slow puncture curtailing her running in the closing stages.
Qualifying took place under the lights, where the driver’s grid positions for the three races would be determined by their best fastest, second-fastest and third-fastest laps. The critical focus was all about getting their tyres up to temperature and hooking up consistent laps to set their grid positions.
Abbi topped the times as we reached the half way point, before changing to a new set of tyres for the final minutes.
As the session reached a tense finish – with the top three separated by less than a tenth, Abbi demonstrated a championship quality by rising to the occasion, being the only driver to further twice improve her lap times and lockout all three pole positions in commanding style.
Race 1 on Saturday morning saw Abbi have a difficult start from pole position, picking up a lot of wheelspin as she chased fellow front-row starter Chloe Chambers into Turn 1.
Abbi kept the pressure on, which paid dividends as a mistake from Chloe ahead – allowed Abbi to regain her position at the head of the field at the end of the opening lap.
She would balance her tyre management with increasing the gap out front, extending it to over 3 seconds with 5 laps to go. This is when Abbi keeping ‘Pulling’ the pin, as she took the fastest lap of the race on the penultimate lap, crossing the line to take a record-breaking 8th victory in an F1 Academy season by 4.5 seconds in dominant fashion.
Abbi made a brilliant start for Race 2 under the lights, unchallenged into Turn 1 to retain the lead, however a big lock up into the heavy braking zone on cold tyres at Turn 6, put her under pressure from Chloe Chambers – who slipstreamed past Abbi on the following straight to demote the F1 Academy Champion to P2.
As the tyres came up to temperature, Abbi continued to give chase to Chloe – sticking within 0.5 seconds of the leader to keep the pressure on as we reached half distance.
The sustained pressure eventually paid off! As Abbi forced her way past and back into the lead at the end of Lap 7 with a lovely move under the iconic hotel.
The Alpine Academy Rodin Motorsport driver got her head down and began ‘pulling’ out a 1-second lead to immediately move herself out of danger and control the race at the front.
A late race Safety Car on the penultimate lap, meant Abbi would cross the line to take her 9th victory of the season and her second of the day!
The third and final race of the weekend and of the F1 Academy season saw Abbi make a great start to hold the lead through Turn 1 and the opening lap.
However, it was evident early on that Abbi was really struggling for balance and pace – as she was quickly under pressure from Hamda al Quabasi and Maya Weug.
Abbi held the lead for as long as she could, defending as hard as possible with one eye on the Team’s Championship – until ultimately having to surrender the lead on Lap 6.
She continued to be under enormous pressure, somehow holding onto P2 despite lap-after-lap of extreme pressure.
With a handful of laps to, Abbi finally got a bit of breathing space – before a Safety Car was deployed with two laps to go, ending the race with a single lap shootout to end the season.
Abbi held on despite one more lap of enormous pressure, taking P2 at the flag and securing a podium finish in every single race of the 2024 F1 Academy Championship.
Abbi Pulling:
“It’s been an amazing season ! I really wanted to get that triple pole this weekend and I am so proud we were able to achieve that.
Zimba gave me the run plan and I managed to deliver the perfect start to the weekend.
Winning 9 races and finishing on the podium in every race this year , is just an incredible feeling - I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect year!
I’m so grateful to everyone in the team, everyone at Rodin Motorsport has worked so hard to give me the car to deliver and we have achieved so many incredible records this year.
I have so many supportive people in my corner, including Alpine , Rodin Cars, Alice Powell, all my personal sponsors and everyone who supports me.
I am just so happy I was able to bring home the championship to pay them back for everything they have done for me!
From the bottom of my heart, thank you - everyone.
It’s time for a short break and reflect on this year, then straight back to work for next year.
I’ve been given this amazing opportunity in GB3 and I aim to grab it with both hands and leave no stone unturned in this next step in my career.”
A record-breaking campaign for Abbi ends with 9 Victories, 14 Podiums, 10 Pole Positions, 6 Fastest Laps and 338 points.
This ends an amazing season, where she has been rewarded with a fully funded 2025 GB3 Championship race seat, racing with Rodin Motorsport to continue her journey up the motorsport ladder.
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