2023 F1 Academy champion Marta Garcia will contest in FRECA championship with PREMA racing 

Marta Garcia, the inaugural F1 Academy Champion, has been offered a fully funded sponsored seat in the FRECA or Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine series with Prema Racing for 2024.

Marta Garcia has won seven races on her journey to taking the 2023 F1 Academy title in Austin, Texas, where the all-female series backed a Formula One round for the first time at the United States Grand Prix last weekend. Garcia falls under the top junior single-seater team, Prema Racing.

"So thrilled and excited to be racing in FRECA next year, coming from F1 Academy, it’s going to be a big step. We know we will have to work a lot with the team to succeed but I’m really determined to do well," Garcia said (via F1).

"I can’t thank F1 Academy enough. It is such a fantastic initiative, and it is the right way to do it, trying to take drivers with the best results to the top level. What an amazing opportunity, I’m looking forward to it and to the work that we have ahead, inside and outside the track," she added.

Junior drivers use FRECA as a transitional track between F4 and F3. Teams that contract a driver who is placed amongst the top three in the F1 Academy Standing will now be able to run a fourth car in the competition.

Apart from providing support to its first-ever winner in FRECA, F1 Academy is also going to lower the driver commitment for the 2024 season from €150,000 to €100,000. The series' goal to give young women a more accessible way to climb the single-seater ladder is further demonstrated by this reduction.

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Who is Marta Garcia, the inaugural F1 Academy champion?

Marta Garcia is a Spanish motorsport driver who races for Prema Racing. She competed in F1 Academy and clinched the inaugural title with two races to go.

She has won races in the W Series and has also taken home honors such as the Trofeo delle Industrie, the world's oldest kart race, in 2015 and the CIK-FIA Karting Academy Trophy.

F1 Academy

In March 2023, Marta Garcia was confirmed to be driving for the Prema Racing team in the newly formed F1 Academy series, which is exclusively for female drivers.

Garcia took pole position for the first two races at Circuit Ricardo Tormo in May 2023. However, she lost the pole position during race one after it was determined that she had violated track limits during the first qualifying session.

Garcia won the first-ever F1 Academy title at COTA (Circuit of the Americas) in October during race one of the three races held that weekend at COTA.