"He explained through his tears what it meant for us": Q&A with Chloe Chambers

F1 Academy racing on select events on the FIA Formula 1 World Championship calendar brought a lot of media attention and interest to the series. Was that something you were ready for?

“F1 Academy for sure is the biggest series I’ve raced in with the media attention and all the talk around it. Being backed by Formula 1 and an F1 team, there's been a lot of talk around the series. I enjoy the coverage that we get, and I enjoy doing all of the media activities. I came from W series so that series as well had quite a bit of media around it.

“It's been nice having all the support from the teams and all the fans as well, the fans are really good. There's been a lot of people that show up to the races for F1 Academy, especially in Miami. Miami was a really big race for F1 Academy, so it's nice to see it grow and see all the support behind it.”

Going into the first weekend, racing on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, a track that’s known for being a challenging circuit in Formula 1, what were your expectations?

“We did two tests ahead of the race weekend in Jeddah, so we had three days in Barcelona and then three days in Jeddah itself. We had an idea of what we needed to work on throughout the race weekend and kind of had a little bit of an idea of where everybody would stack up, but everything changes on a race weekend.

“My expectations for that race weekend were simply to learn and figure out where exactly I would stack up among the others because I hadn't raced a lot of them before this season. I was just going in and using that race as a gauge for the rest of the season but happily ended up scoring points in both races, and I think I was sixth in the championship coming out of that round.

“My expectations from then on, were starting to get a little bit higher and then now of course coming off of a win in the last race before the summer break, now my expectations are even higher. My expectations change from round to round.”



Did those first two action-packed races set the tone for you to know where the limit is and to know the other drivers around you?

“I did learn a lot about the other drivers and their styles of racing; who I can race a little harder with than others, and who I was going to be around for the majority of the year. I had my teammates as well, and I was learning them and trying to see how hard they were willing to race me.

“What we've learned from Jeddah was that most of the drivers are pretty good to race, it's hard racing, but for the most part, it’s pretty clean. I'd watched some of the races last year, but it’s a completely different story racing on a Formula 1 race weekend, and the first race of the year, the pressure can be a lot. Some drivers may go out of the gates all guns blazing and then calm down a little bit for the rest of the season, thinking a little bit more about the championship. It was quite the experience in Jeddah.”

The Miami Grand Prix played host to Round 2, a home game for both you and Haas. You achieved your first podium in race one following a great comeback, tell us about that.

“I was really happy with that third place. I would argue that the third-place finish felt better than my win even, because I came from so much further back on the grid. I didn’t have a great qualifying in Miami so I started that first race in seventh place and to go from seventh to third – making up four positions in the race – is a pretty good amount. In Jeddah, there weren’t many changes of position, and then in Barcelona, there wasn't much jostling for positions either.

“The other two races were relatively sensible compared to Miami, but I'd raced in Miami two years ago in W Series, so I knew the characteristics of the track, and I knew it was going to be a track where I would be able to make passes. It’s such a good track just for the racing and entertainment and I used that to my advantage and was able to go from seventh to third. Honestly, before the race I wasn't sure if I would be able to make it up onto the podium, but I was really glad to have been able to.”



The next day you followed that up with P4 for race two. Knowing consistency is key to success in F1 Academy, how happy with that result were you?

“I was glad to get fourth. I got a little bit lucky on the Saturday getting to third with one driver stalling off the line which meant that was a free position and then the other passes were all just good racing. The second race I was starting from one position back, so I was starting from eighth, so I was still able to make up four positions, pretty much all of them first lap, and then the rest of the race was pretty standard to be honest. The second and third-place drivers were doing the same pace as I was, so none of us were catching or pulling away from each other. So I just had to watch them off in the distance and just kind of keep doing consistent laps for myself.”

Round 3 brought the team you race for, Campos Racing, back to Barcelona for their first home race with F1 Academy. What’s your relationship like with the team, and how throughout the first few events have you been working on your own performance?

“I think we have a really good program going on with the whole team, which can be seen by us catching up to first place in the Teams’ Championship. Hopefully we'll be able to catch up enough by the end of the year to be champions for 2024. I think for the first two rounds I struggled a lot with my qualifying pace, and so in Barcelona that was really what I was trying to get right because I knew Barcelona was a tough track to pass on, so qualifying was going to be important. I was able to work on that a little bit during the practice session and then put it all together during qualifying, and qualified second by half a tenth I think. I was a little bit disappointed to miss out on pole, but at the same time it’s been the best qualifying I've had all year.”

Moving on to race day on Sunday in Spain, and clinching your first victory in F1 Academy, how did that feel?

"My first win was definitely really special as my parents and my siblings were all there. For Campos it was their home race, so I was able to get a home win for them as well. Campos had a pretty good weekend in Formula 3 as well, so it was nice to have everyone under the Campos banner be able to bring home some good results. Then there’s that video of my dad at parc ferme which went pretty viral as well, so that was fun…”



What has it meant being able to enjoy this journey having your family with you, how often have they been able to come out and support you?

“Having my family there has made it even better. My parents weren't in Miami with me, so I was sad they’d missed my podium, but the Team Manager at Campos, Gabriela Parra, said, “Well, you're just going to have to win for them in Barcelona when they're there.” I thought, you know what, you're right, and I ended up doing it. The video of my dad kind of says everything about what it means, he explained through his tears what it meant. I think throughout 12 years of racing, all of it had come to that moment. Of course, I'm hoping for some more later this year and then in the future of my career.”