Red Bull supported driver Chloe Chambers began her 2025 campaign with an encouraging weekend in the Formula Winter Series at Valencia, where she claimed the Female Trophy honours in Race 3 on her first weekend of the season, in preparation for her F1 Academy program.
Red Bull supported driver Chloe Chambers began her 2025 campaign with an encouraging weekend in the Formula Winter Series at Valencia. The American driver teamed up with the Campos Racing squad with which she will compete for in the upcoming F1 Academy Series and consistently challenged for top-15 results.
Her best finish came in race three where Chambers took the checkered flag in 13th position, while holding off Nina Gademan to claim Female Trophy honours.
Chambers returned to single seater competition for the first time this season following her excellent F1 Academy rookie campaign in 2024. The American driver finished sixth in the overall standings, claiming a dominant victory at Circuit de Barcelona, in addition to three other podium finishes. These performances caught the attention of Red Bull Racing, with Chloe representing Red Bull Ford in 2025 while continuing to compete for Campos Racing.
To begin her 2025 season, Chambers teamed up with Campos Racing for select rounds of the Formula Winter Series. At Valencia, Chambers drove alongside Alisha Palmowski while Rafaela Ferreira will return for round three as she partners Chambers at Motorland Aragon.
Despite missing round one at Portimao, Chloe was immediately on the pace at Valencia as she set the 14th fastest time in the first test session on Thursday, less than half a second away from the top-3.
In session two, Chambers improved her fastest time by three tenths of a second and remained inside the top-20 as she reacclimatised to the Tatuus F4-T421 machine. After ending Thursday in 23rd position, Chambers more significant progress throughout Friday’s final test sessions. The Campos Racing driver finished all three sessions inside the top-11, with her eighth quickest time in session two of a 1:34.487 her fastest of the day.
Looking to build upon her strong Friday, Chambers was targeting a strong qualifying on Saturday morning. The two qualifying sessions were held back-to-back and after the first was disrupted by a red flag, the Campos Racing driver faced challenges in replicating her speed. Her quickest lap time placed her in 24th, with Chloe’s good consistency seeing her second fastest lap move her inside the top-20.
In the second session, Chambers improved considerably and this saw her set her fastest time of the event to date. Her quickest lap of a 1:34.229 was 14th fastest and less than half a second away from a second row starting spot. Combining this speed with consistency, Chloe’s second fastest lap in the second qualifying session was 13th quickest out of the 31 drivers entered.
Lining up from 24th on the grid for the first race of the weekend, Chambers was looking to make moves in her Campos Racing machine. Chloe made a good start and after a series of clean overtakes in the final sector, she ended lap one in 21st position. Before Chambers could make any further progress, the safety car was deployed after Maffi Racing’s David Walther was out of the race with damage.
On the restart, Chambers overtook Andrea Dupe as well as teammate Alisha Palmowski as she moved inside the top-20 for the first time. The Campos Racing driver immediately caught Jan Koller and moved ahead of the Czech racer on lap eight to claim 18th position. Chloe’s pace was strong in the middle portion of the race as she regularly lapped on pace with those challenging for top-10 positions and this speed enabled her to pass Sebastian Bach on lap 11.
The following lap saw a second safety car deployed as the car of Alba Hurup Larsen required recovery. As the race restarted, Chambers immediately overtook Guy Albag before making an excellent double-overtake on Nina Gademan and Gino Trappa to move into 13th. After passing Gademan, Chambers was now the highest-placed Female Trophy driver and after a third safety car period, the race resumed for two final laps.
On the final lap, Chambers was challenging Thomas Bearman and Artem Severiukhin into turn one when contact was made between the cars. Chloe was able to continue after running through the gravel trap, however she lost time and took the checkered flag in 22nd position. Following a post-race penalty for Andrija Kostic, Chambers was classified in 21st after an encouraging race where the Campos Racing driver challenged for a top-10 result.
For race two of the weekend, Chambers started from 19th position and after a fast start, the Red Bull supported driver was into 16th position. Chloe’s pace was strong in the early stages as she challenged for a position inside the top-15, before Teo Borenstein brought out a safety car on lap five. When the race resumed Chambers came under pressure from Guy Albag, with the AKM Motorsport driver moving ahead on lap seven.
On lap eight a recovering Thomas Bearman than found a way through, however Chloe was determined to respond. As Bearman challenged Albag on lap ten, a smart opportunistic move from the Campos Racing driver saw her overtook Albag and reclaim 17th position. On lap 12, Chloe was the fifth fastest driver on track to underline her pace in spite of her track position.
In the closing stages of the race, Chambers continued to apply pressure to Bearman while pulling out a sizeable gap to the drivers behind. Overtaking proved challenging for all drivers in race two and Chambers was unable to improve her position in the closing stages, with the Campos Racing driver taking the checkered flag in 17th position.
For the final race of the weekend, Chambers lined up from her best grid position to date in 14th. A strong opening lap saw the Campos Racing driver move into 13th, however she began lap two side-by-side with a number of her rivals. A busy start to the second lap saw Chambers fall to 16th and now she had to defend from teammate Alisha Palmowski.
Nonetheless, Chloe was in the lead of the Female Trophy classification with Palmowski and Nina Gademan directly behind the American driver.
In the middle portion of the race, Chambers was running in a competitive train of cars with Sebastian Bach and Gino Trappa directly ahead.
A prolonged spell of pressure from Chambers brought the three cars closer together and on lap 13, Trappa made contact with Bach while Chloe passed both drivers to move into 14th. As a result of Bach’s spin, the safety car was required with the race resuming for a single lap before Andrea Dupe’s car required recovery.
For the final restart with two laps to go, Gademan was now behind Chambers with the Female Trophy battle set to go down to the wire. Chambers turned defence into attack with a final lap move on Thomas Bearman to seal her best result of the weekend in 13th, while claiming Female Trophy honours for the first time in the series.
It was a positive debut in the Formula Winter Series for Chambers who showed excellent pace during all three races. The Campos Racing driver was unlucky not to secure a better result in race one, while a pair of challenging qualifying sessions made her task more difficult at a circuit where overtaking is tough.
Nonetheless, she claimed Female Trophy honours to end the weekend and this will be encouraging heading into an exciting year of racing ahead. Chambers will be looking to push towards the top-10 when she returns to the Formula Winter Series at Motorland Aragon on the weekend of 2nd/3rd March.
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