INTERVIEW: Alisha Palmowski on joining the “Red Bull family” and F1 Academy ambitions

An invite to the spectacular F1 75 launch event followed, but rather than being seated at the F1 Academy table, as should have been the way, Red Bull ensured Palmowski was on its table, alongside Max Verstappen, his new team-mate Liam Lawson, team principal Christian Horner, and his wife, Geri Halliwell, aka Ginger Spice.

"She was great," said Palmowski. "She was asking loads of questions, wanting to know where my head was at, what are my goals and ambitions. It was great to talk to her and get to know her. I was really star-struck. I get star-struck very easily. But she was so lovely. We're just best friends now. I'm telling everybody about this. I'm Speedy Spice now, it's my new thing."

It is part of F1 Academy's appeal that each of the ten Formula 1 teams affiliates itself with an up-and-coming driver. Palmowski is fortunate enough to have been taken under Red Bull's wing. She’s only been on the team’s books a matter of months, but feels she has "been in the Red Bull family for the last ten years.”

"I've learned more over the past few months than in the previous ten years combined," said Palmowski, who is treated as equally as the Red Bull juniors, such as Arvid Lindblad and Ayumu Iwasa.

"That includes access to the factory in Milton Keynes, all the facilities, including using the sim as and when we want to basically. In terms of preparation for upcoming events, I can just send an email and boom, I'm in the factory on the sim."

Palmowski is also in the safe hands of Guillaume 'Rocky' Rocquelin, who is head of Red Bull's driver development programme and who previously used to be race engineer to four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel.

"He knows his stuff," said Palmowksi. "He's got a huge wealth of knowledge and experience, so to be able to work alongside Rocky, I've learnt a lot from him.

"I've also got a personal trainer now, with a full fitness programme, which is something I've never had before. Beforehand, I used to go to the gym but I made it up as I went along. I didn't know what I was doing.

"I've now got full support on the fitness side, and now I do know what I'm doing. There's also media training. Everything is being covered. It really is the full package they are offering."

Palmowski is not short of confidence. The GB4 campaign, in which she won three races with Elite Motorsport, has done her the world of good. Additionally, she gained a wildcard entry for the penultimate round of last year's F1 Academy, scoring a stunning fifth on debut. 

Supported by Campos Racing machinery for the upcoming campaign, Palmowski would naturally "love to be champion," but it is the fact she adds that "I do believe it can happen" that will mark her out as one to watch; such ebullience will take her far.

"Every other one of the 17 full-time drivers should say the same," said Palmowski. "We should all believe that we can win, but with the support network that I've got around me, and I have been putting in the work, I do believe we can come out as champion.”

"I am realistic, I know the challenge that's there, and it won't be easy. There are a lot of drivers returning for a second year, and four of the seven tracks on this year's calendar are the same as last year, so they'll have an advantage in terms of their knowledge of those tracks."

Chloe Chambers is one of those second-year drivers. Supported by Haas last year, she is on Racing Bull's books this season but additionally in Campos machinery. As a team-mate, Palmowski knows there is data she can "bounce off.”  

"I believe we can have a strong, successful season," said Palmowski. "Obviously, I want to be champion, but equally I'm realistic. If, at the end of the year, I can say that I've improved, progressed, and I'm a stronger driver and have developed, then it will have been a success."

The world in which Palmowski now resides is far removed from even her GB4 campaign, but she has put in the hard yards, and at a rapid rate of knots, too, given it was less than ten years ago that she had her first taste of karting.

There is racing in her genes; her great-grandfather, Mario, was a BRISCA F1 Stock Car Racing driver from the 1970s to the 1990s. Palmowski concedes he was not that successful and instead "more built the engines for the top guys, rather than having the funds to give himself the equipment that he needed to be at the front."

Nevertheless, her grandfather and father, Martin, worked in the car trade, owned their own garage, and unsurprisingly loved motorsport. As a result, Palmowski "grew up with the influence of motorsport around her."

"I feel like I've had racing in my blood since I was born," she said.  "Coming from my great-granddad and that racing link. That's where it all really stems from for me."

It was her grandparents who introduced Palmowski to an indoor karting arena during the summer holidays in 2015. "I'd never even heard of a go-kart, but I was instantly hooked. As soon as I sat in the kart, I knew I felt at home, and it was what I wanted to do.

"Fast forward nearly ten years later, that moment has cost my parents a lot of money, but it's changed my life. I always think, if I hadn't gone karting that day in August 2015 where would I be sat now? There's since been a chain reaction, a domino effect. It's been an amazing journey so far, and I'm very, very lucky with what I've got.

“I'm just a normal girl from Manchester. Up until we started motorsport, I'd had the most amazing but normal upbringing. There was nothing special about it. My parents don't have their own business. We don't come from a hugely financially wealthy family. We're just really normal.

"Yet we've entered a world that's not normal. So to have got as far as we have is incredible. My parents have been by my side the whole time, but we never dreamt I'd be racing in a support series to Formula 1."

After forging her way up the karting ladder, twice finishing runner-up in the Daniel Ricciardo Series UK national championship in 2020 and 2021 – in which she and her parents toured their way around the country in "our little caravan," the breakthrough moment arrived at the end of the latter year. 

Entered into the Ginetta Junior Scholarship for a second time, Palmowski beat more than 60 other entrants to earn the top honour, opening a door to funding and a drive in the 2022 Ginetta Junior Championship, going on to become the 2022 Ginetta Junior Winter Series runner-up.

"Without winning that scholarship, 100 per cent I'd never have raced a car," she said. "So that really was a pivotal moment for me."

The speed of Palmowski's progression has been eye-opening, not least given her performances in GB4, although she was on Red Bull's radar even before then. Now in F1 Academy, and still only 18, Palmowski knows what she needs to do to take advantage of the opportunities.

"Every young driver will say that they'd love to be in Formula 1, as would I, and that is the end goal," said Palmowski.

"As mentioned, the short-term goal is to win F1 Academy, and then progress as high up the single-seater ladder as possible. But I really do just work on a year-to-year basis. I need to focus on what I'm doing currently, and then if I perform, and deliver results, more opportunities will come in the future."

Images courtesy of Getty Images.