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HEAD-TO-HEAD: How Lloyd and Palmowski’s fight for Top Rookie honours has played out so far
With just seven rounds to make your mark on the 2025 F1 ACADEMY season, taking every opportunity as it comes is crucial even when you’re a rookie.
Two competitors who have done exactly that are Ella Lloyd and Alisha Palmowski, tackling every start, overtake and challenge head on. We take a look at how they compare in the battle to be named Top Rookie of 2025…
QUALIFYING HEAD-TO-HEAD
Lloyd 1-5 Palmowski
The Red Bull Racing driver has had the measure of her McLaren counterpart when it comes to the high-intensity Qualifying sessions, outperforming Lloyd in five out of six Rounds.
Her rapid pace over a single lap was evident even when she leapt into the series as a Wild Card entry in 2024, qualifying sixth and fourth in Lusail to give herself great initial form to build upon in her first full season.
Although a pole position has so far eluded Palmowski, she has come remarkably close on a number of occasions, claiming P2 three times. Her first came in Miami where Chloe Chambers beat her to the top spot by a tiny margin of 0.018s, and she charged to second again in Montreal and Zandvoort.
The Briton had the chance to extend her run of P2 starts to an impressive four Rounds, but disaster struck last time out in Singapore. Coming out of Turn 5, she crashed into the wall to bring her Qualifying to an early end.
Lloyd, on the other hand, avoided any trouble and took P4 – she has only qualified higher once, securing third place just behind Palmowski in Zandvoort. Ever since she was forced to settle for P11 in the season opener in Jeddah, the Welsh driver has consistently improved her one-lap speed, becoming a regular in the top five.
RACE HEAD-TO-HEAD
Lloyd 7-5 Palmowski
While Lloyd tends to start slightly further down the grid, she has taken the chequered flag ahead of Palmowski in seven of the 12 Races, including her maiden victory in Jeddah Race 1.
Starting on the front row of the reverse grid alongside polesitter Emma Felbermayr, Lloyd executed the better launch and sailed into the lead on the first lap, surviving a Safety Car restart and relentless pressure from Ferrari’s Maya Weug to take her first and only win of the season so far.
Her total of five podiums, three of which came in Montreal as she took second position in every Race, have helped to propel her to P3 in the Standings on 101 points, with a slim two-point advantage over Chambers.
Palmowski finds herself slightly further back with 73 points in P5, but she similarly achieved a Race 1 victory even earlier in the season, pipping her Campos Racing teammate Chambers to the line in the first Race of the season in Shanghai.
She was promoted to first place following Nina Gademan’s unlucky DNF, clinging on in a drag race to take an exhilarating maiden win. Since then, she has netted a further three podiums in Races 1 in Jeddah and Miami, and Race 2 in Zandvoort.
REVERSE GRID RACES HEAD-TO-HEAD
Lloyd 4-2 Palmowski
Lloyd and Palmowski have predominantly thrived in the reverse grid Races, with the McLaren driver once again triumphing on four occasions to two in the head-to-head. These included a podium finish in Jeddah, where Palmowski joined her a step down in P3, and Montreal – after overcoming multiple battles throughout the Race, a last-gasp overtake on Gademan sealed one of her three P2 finishes in Canada.
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In comparison, the Briton came out on top with both her Shanghai victory and a second place finish in Miami Race 1, which featured a confident challenge on Standings leader Doriane Pin. The more experienced Mercedes driver was ultimately able to keep Palmowski at bay, albeit by just four tenths at the chequered flag.
MOST POSITIONS GAINED
Lloyd – 12 in Shanghai Race 1 Palmowski – 5 in Miami Race 1
Lloyd has demonstrated time and again that she can stay cool under pressure and capitalise on chaos, which is precisely what she did in Montreal Race 1. Starting from P7, she darted past Aurelia Nobels and Kick Sauber driver Felbermayr on the opening lap before a collision between Palmowski and Chambers up ahead saw them plummet down the order.
But perhaps her greatest recovery came in the very first Race of the year – she qualified 11th before her tyres were found to be under the mandatory pressure, forcing her to start from the pit lane. With the help of three Safety Car restarts and penalties for her rivals, she progressed through the field and eventually claimed P6 to mark the first points finish of her the season.
READ MORE: HEAD-TO-HEAD: How Pin and Weug stack up in the battle for the 2025 title
Palmowski has also proven her persistent drive to fight at the front, gaining five positions in Miami Race 1. After Qualifying saw her take a spectacular P2, she was dropped back to seventh in the reverse grid just ahead of Pin. The two stormed through the pack and took advantage of a crash between Lloyd and Rafaela Ferreira to snatch even more places.
After getting the better of PUMA-backed Nobels to obtain P2, Palmowski set her sights on Pin, but the Mercedes driver defended her lead artfully and the rookie maintained her hard-fought podium spot.
MOST POSITIONS LOST
Lloyd – 13 in Miami Race 1 (DNF) Palmowski – 10 in Montreal Race 1
Of course, the thrilling highs of victories and podiums will, more often than not, be balanced out with some devastating low points.
Lloyd experienced her worst in Miami Race 1 with her sole DNF of the season so far. From fifth place, she attempted to edge past Lia Block but miscalculated her braking point heading down to Turn 1. The error came at exactly the wrong time as ahead, Rafaela Ferreira locked up, with Lloyd driving into the rear of the Racing Bulls car.
READ MORE: Flying the flags and trust the timing: Nobels on the story behind her 2025 helmet design
The resulting damage to the Welsh driver’s front wing forced her to retire from the Race early, and she received a three-place grid penalty for the incident.
With many of the tracks on the calendar presenting a brand-new challenge for the rookies, it’s expected – and necessary for their development – that they will make mistakes in their debut season.
Palmowski lost a heartbreaking 10 positions in Montreal Race 1, made all the worse after she started on the front row alongside her teammate Chambers and had a realistic shot at another victory.
Determined to take the lead as soon as possible, the 19-year-old tried an overly ambitious move on the second lap – locking up, she collided with Chambers and was sent into a spin that allowed her rivals to sail past. She managed to fight her way back into the top 10, but a 10-second time penalty demoted her to P12 as the Stewards concluded that she was at fault for making contact with her teammate.
FINAL THOUGHTS
A rookie season is all about learning from every single session, identifying your limits and trying to improve week in, week out. Lloyd and Palmowski quickly saw the consequences of pushing just that bit too far, having both been penalised for separate collisions, but they have also shown that they are not to be underestimated.
“Throughout this year, there's been lots of things to get used to,” Palmowski noted. “New tracks, new team, new environment and a new car as well. It’s been a process for me learning the car and how to manipulate and adapt your driving in order to whatever balance you have in the car.”
Now that they have well and truly settled in, Lloyd admitted that her mindset heading into the electrifying finale in Las Vegas is focused on one thing: “Just continue doing what I’m doing. I think that’s all I can do really, just stay consistent.”
Their raw speed and drive to do everything it takes to be at the top has made both of them more than worthy of the Top Rookie title. In the Standings, they are the only rookies who have broken into the top five, but whoever receives the honour, perhaps the most exciting part is their eligible to do it all over again next season. Could the Top Rookie of 2025 be 2026’s champion?