With an impressive recovery from 21st to 12th, Rafaela Ferreira had a strong first race in Aragon and, despite later facing setbacks in the wet conditions, the Brazilian ultimately gained valuable experience in her Formula Winter Series outings for her F1 Academy campaign.
Rafaela Ferreira had a mixed weekend at Aragon for the third round of the Formula Winter Series, where the Campos Racing driver delivered a remarkable recovery drive in Race 1, nearly breaking into the top ten, but was unable to replicate the result in Races 2 and 3 due to misfortunes in the wet and mixed conditions.
Newly announced for the 2025 F1 Academy grid, Ferreira—a multiple race winner in Brazilian F4, where she became the first woman to stand on the top step of the podium—began her 2025 campaign with a part-time entry in the highly competitive Formula Winter Series. The championship, held across the Iberian Peninsula, has established itself as a reference point for young F4 drivers across Europe.
Campos Racing's F1 Academy lineup, consisting of Ferreira, Chloe Chambers, and Alisha Palmowski, was announced for a part-time FWS campaign as preparation for their full-season F1 Academy efforts, with each driver having two race weekends on their schedule.
Ferreira made her European debut in Portimão, Portugal, alongside Palmowski, before returning for the third round at Motorland Aragon, a technical circuit that posed additional challenges with low temperatures and mixed weather conditions.
At Portimão, Ferreira had shown promising speed, gaining 20 positions across three races and securing two top-20 finishes despite challenging qualifying sessions.
At Aragon, the young Brazilian aimed to build on that momentum while gaining valuable experience ahead of her main program.
Although she missed the first day of testing on Thursday, she joined the field on Friday, quickly making up for lost track time and improving her pace by over two seconds from the first session.
In Q1 on Saturday morning, Ferreira ran in 24th until the final minutes of the session, when she found a cleaner lap and improved to P21 with a time of 2:01.990 for Race 1.
In Q2, she quickly set a competitive lap and improved again on her final attempt, recording a 2:00.934, securing P21 once more for the final race.
With 29 cars on the grid and cold but dry conditions, Race 1 got underway with a dramatic start. Robinson and Harrison picked up front wing damage, Rehm suffered a puncture, while Gabriel Gomez and Kabir Anurag maintained the lead and attempted to break away.
Starting from P21, Ferreira had a brilliant getaway, seizing opportunities in the chaotic opening laps: she navigated through the field with precision and completed the first lap in an impressive P12, gaining nine positions.
She maintained good pace in the 2:01.0s and set her sights on catching Gino Trappa. However, she soon had to switch to a defensive drive as AS Motorsport’s Andrea Dupe found a way past on lap 9, demoting Ferreira to P13.
Shortly after, she also lost a position to Marcus Saeter, as her pace began to drop slightly with faster cars approaching from behind. However, she stayed within striking distance of Saeter—crucially, as he had a 5-second penalty for track limits. Aware of the opportunity, Ferreira pushed and set some of her best sector times, improving to the 2:00.3s to stay within the gap.
Ferreira moved into P13 ahead of Trappa, and on the final lap, she remained close enough to Saeter to capitalize on the penalties ahead. Ultimately, she crossed the line in P12, capping off a superb first race with strong overtakes early on and a determined defense to nearly break into the top ten.
Drivers faced a wet track on Sunday morning, with mixed conditions for the start of Race 2. Rafaela Ferreira lined up P18, aiming for another charging race.
As the lights went out, everyone struggled for traction in the slippery conditions, with Dante Vinci stalling at the start. Despite the tricky launch, the field made it cleanly through Turn 1.
Unfortunately, Ferreira got caught out at Turn 5 and spun, dropping to P29. Determined to recover, she quickly closed the gap to Panzeri and overtook the AKM rookie.
Panzeri fought back and briefly reclaimed the position, running a 2:29.2, but Ferreira responded with a 2:27, her new personal best, to regain P27.
An incident at the hairpin between Payton Westcott and Mathilda Paatz on lap 8 triggered a Safety Car. At the restart, the field had just one lap to fight for positions: Ferreira managed to recover to P24, gaining another place on the final lap after a chaotic race following her early incident.
The final race of the weekend—and for many, the final of the series due to the upcoming F1 Academy test in China—was set to be a dramatic one. The track was in fact still very wet after a rain shower, but many drivers opted to start on slick tyres, hoping for a quick dry-up.
However, several cars pitted for wets at the end of the formation lap, turning the race into a strategic battle. At lights out, the conditions proved tricky, with multiple drivers sliding off track as they struggled for grip. Those who had switched to wets were significantly quicker, and Ferreira also made the call to pit at the end of lap 1 for wet tyres.
Up front, battles unfolded as drivers on slicks fought to stay on track. In the mixed conditions, Schranz, who started on wets, surged from P21 to take the lead on lap 2, only to spin, allowing Bart Harrison—also on wets—to take over at the front.
After her early pit stop, Ferreira rejoined in P28, over a minute and a half behind the pack, but quickly started making up ground. She climbed to P22, gaining several positions.
As the race progressed, however, the track began to dry again, and the slick runners regained their advantage with 12 minutes to go. Ferreira dropped to P23 as the tide turned in favor of the dry-weather tyres.
Running in the 2:16s, she was 26 seconds behind the main pack but had built a 2-second gap to Panzeri behind. However, on older wets, Ferreira struggled to push forward in the closing stages and ultimately took the chequered flag in P23.
It was a tough race for the Campos Racing drivers, as the tyre gamble eventually didn’t pay off.
Despite the challenging results, the focus for Ferreira was always on gaining mileage and valuable experience ahead of the F1 Academy season. In that regard, her two Formula Winter Series weekends proved to be an important learning opportunity.
Now, the attention shifts to the upcoming first official collective test at Shanghai, China, which will also host the opening round of the 2025 F1 Academy season.
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