Alisha Palmowski continued her development in the Formula Winter Series with a top-15 finish at Circuit Ricardo Tormo, where the Campos Racing driver overcame challenges to still bank valuable experience at a new circuit.
Alisha Palmowski continued her development in the Formula Winter Series with a top-15 finish at Circuit Ricardo Tormo. The Campos Racing driver overcame challenges during the event, including a retirement in race one, to bank valuable experience at a new circuit.
Palmowski contended for Female Trophy honours in race three before late race contact thwarted a potential second top-15 result of the event.
Palmowski made her Formula Winter Series debut at Portimao and impressed, despite battling technical difficulties during the event. The Red Bull supported driver finished all three races inside the top-15, making significant progress from her starting positions. Her adaptability in changeable conditions was particularly impressive as the Campos Racing driver challenged for a top-10 result from the rear of the field in race three.
Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia was another new track for Palmowski and therefore getting up to speed quickly, alongside teammate Chloe Chambers, would be a top priority. In the first test session on Thursday, the two Campos Racing drivers were split by less than half a tenth of a second as Palmowski set the 13th fastest time. In session two Palmowski set the tenth fastest time, just half a second away from Maxim Rehm in second position, before ending the day in 27th.
Three further test sessions on Friday brought further encouragement as Palmowski gained confidence at a new circuit. Alisha ended Friday’s running with a strong 14th place result in the final session where she was less than three quarters of a second away from the quickest time set by Dante Vinci.
Qualifying was held on Saturday morning with the two sessions held back-to-back. The first session was disrupted after an early red flag caused by Ricardo Baptista, with the drivers given just nine minutes to set two fast times. Palmowski set a number of consistent lap during the session, with her fastest placing her 21st and her second fastest improving her to 18th.
In the second qualifying session, Palmowski used her knowledge from the first session to improve her quickest time by almost four tenths of a second. At the end of the second session at Circuit Ricardo Tormo, the Campos Racing driver was 20th quickest overall.
Palmowski lined up from 21st on the grid for the first race of the weekend and made an excellent start, gaining three positions on the opening lap. The racing within the midfield was hard-fought and after losing out to Guy Albag and Andrea Dupe on lap two, Alisha was battling to regain positions. The safety car was then deployed as David Walther’s car required recovery with the race restarting on lap five.
Palmowski made a good restart and was battling with the US Racing machine of Jan Koller. The two cars made contact in the final sector and Alisha retired to the pits with suspension damage. It was an unfortunate end to the race for the Campos Racing driver who was showing good race pace on her debut at Circuit Ricardo Tormo.
Palmowski was aiming to bounce back in race two of the weekend which took place on Sunday morning. Starting from 18th on the grid, the Campos Racing driver made another great start and gained three positions on lap one to move inside the top-15. The race quickly settled into a pattern and with overtaking tough, Alisha was focussed on running consistent lap times and banking valuable experience.
On lap five, the safety car was deployed as Teo Borenstein was beached in the gravel and following good work from the marshals, the race resumed two laps later. Palmowski was running directly behind the US Racing machine of Jan Koller and was holding within a second of her rival during the middle portion of the race.
Positions just outside the top-10 remained unchanged for the remainder of the race, however Palmowski came under late pressure from the Hitech TGR machine of Thomas Bearman. The Campos Racing driver soaked up the pressure well and this prevented Bearman from making a sustained attack on her top-15 position. Alisha finished race two at Valencia in 15th and claimed second position in the Female Trophy.
For the third and final race at Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Palmowski lined up from 20th on the grid. It was a third fast start of the weekend as Alisha once again overtook three cars on lap one. On lap two, Palmowski and Andrea Dupe made contact through the middle sector, however this incident did not lose the Campos Racing driver any positions.
Palmowski ran directly behind teammate Chloe Chambers in the early stages of the race as the teammates fought for the lead of the Female Trophy. Nina Gademan was running directly behind Palmowski which led to an excellent fight between the trio. On lap eight, Alisha ran a personal best time however overtaking continued to be challenging at Valencia.
On lap 13, Gino Trappa made contact with Sebastian Bach and with both drivers running ahead of Chambers, Palmowski was able to capitalise. Alisha moved ahead of the spun car of Bach, while running three-wide with Trappa and Gademan. Gademan moved ahead of Palmowski, while the Campos Racing driver cleared Trappa to claim 16th position.
Meanwhile, Bach’s car required recovery and this led to the first safety car interruption of the race.
When the race resumed, Palmowski lost two positions before the safety car was deployed for a second time after Andrea Dupe’s car was stopped on track. The final restart came with two laps to go and it was a challenging end to the race for Palmowski who received contact on the last lap, before taking the checkered flag in 24th position.
Following a post-race penalty for Gino Trappa, Palmowski was classified in 23rd to complete a character-building weekend at Valencia. Alisha was able to return to the top-15 in race two and developed her racecraft at a circuit which is famed for being challenging to overtake at.
"It just wasn’t meant to be for us this weekend once again - we did our best with what we had and extracted the most out of the car despite not being where we deserve and have the potential to be", she commented.
"Good progress made nevertheless - we maximised what we could with many factors out of our control. One things for sure - the results don’t tell the full story!"
Palmowski’s Formula Winter Series campaign has now come to a close and she will be focussing on preparations for the first round of the F1 Academy season which takes place at the Shanghai International Circuit on the weekend of 22nd/23rd March.
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