ONE YEAR ON: Why Gademan is unfazed by being overlooked as a title contender in Zandvoort

For Nina Gademan, all roads lead back to Zandvoort. The Dutch circuit has witnessed two defining moments in her F1 ACADEMY journey and now she is determined to produce another — regardless of those who’ve doubted her along the way.

Overlooked as a potential title contender heading into the 2026 season, Gademan has approached the campaign in her typical forthright fashion. Brushing off any outside noise, the Alpine driver is focusing purely on the results in front of her and is clear that only the top three in the Standings will be good enough.

Her home track has been a central part of Gademan’s rise. In 2024, she became the first Wild Card driver to score points with fourth place in Race 1, the highest finish by a Wild Card driver until Chiara Bättig’s podium last time out at Silverstone. Seeing what her future could hold, that breakthrough put her on the radar to secure a seat for the 2025 F1 ACADEMY season.

A year later, her return proved to be even more memorable. Despite lingering effects from her hand injury that ruled her out of Free Practice 2, the Dutch driver fought on to claim her first single-seater victory.

Now that surgery over the winter break has returned her to her fighting best, Gademan’s excitement about racing in front of the Dutch crowds one last time is palpable.

“I'm so happy we're racing at the last Dutch Grand Prix because it's going to be such a good vibe,” she begins. “People are going to party and everyone's going to be happy and it's good to race on a weekend like that.

“We had good results here last year and the year before. I'm quite confident that if we just get into the top six in Qualifying, which is our main goal, then we can have a really good weekend.”

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Being in the position to race has been half the battle for Gademan. Family issues and financial struggles forced her to stop competing for a year and a half, so she turned to social media and content creation to try and fund her racing.

Fighting for every opportunity she’s had since, Gademan refuses to let anything hold her back and understands the significance of her achievements. Nowhere was that more apparent than last year in Zandvoort in one of the series’ most poignant moments.

Admitting that she was surprised to have brought home the win after fending off Lia Block behind, the weight of her achievements bubbled over as a visibly emotional Gademan stood on the top step.

“I’m actually surprised I won that,” she says. “Then in the end, I got saved by Maya (Weug) who was putting pressure on Lia. We had good pace apart from Turn 3, which is fixed now. Also, the field looks like it’s going to be stronger, it’s going to be tighter so I still have to put all the effort and energy into it to get a good result.”

She continued: “I’m going to be honest, if I win this year, I’m not going to cry. Trust me, I had a good reason for it. Normally, I don’t cry. I don’t cry on camera or here in the team, but I finally achieved something that I wanted to.

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“It was hard to get here and I’ve had enough people telling me I couldn’t do it. All the stress came out and then I cried on the podium. At some point you can see me shaking my head like ‘oh god, why are you crying?”

Gademan continues: “I’d rather have one win at Zandvoort than two wins spread across any other track. It’s the fans that are there. Last year, most of the fans stayed to watch the race. I spent two hours signing and taking photos with fans after the race. It's quite an intense one for me, but I like it.”

Now she arrives back on home turf third in the Standings on 50 points, 28 behind second-placed Emma Felbermayr and 58 adrift of leader Alisha Palmowski.

With a maximum of 39 points available in Round 4, the Standings lead is out of her reach right now. However, with 143 points on offer across the final three rounds, this weekend in Zandvoort could go a long way to realising her ambitions.

“Our goal for this weekend is to close the gap to Emma,” Gademan explains. “Emma has been consistent and quick this year as well. I think our main focus is to be opening up the gap behind, because when I left Shanghai I was three points behind. Obviously I didn't have a good weekend in Montreal and then I instantly dropped to P6.

“Now I’ve got an 11-point gap (to P4), so it’s a little bit more of a breather in case you have a mechanical issue or something that’s out of your control.”

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It’s a situation that few expected Gademan to be in. Despite finishing sixth in the Standings last season with four podium finishes, she was often absent from many people’s pre-season title favourites. Speaking candidly, she refuses to dwell on others’ judgements. In her mind, the only opinion worth valuing is whether she’s reached the potential she knows she’s capable of.

“Everyone left me out for some reason,” she notes. “Actually, I don’t really care if everyone’s wrong or if I’m good enough. As long as in the end I perform and I’m in the top three, I don’t really care.

“I saw these title contenders. Everyone was like Alba (Larsen) — who was behind me in the Standings last year — then Alisha, Ella (Lloyd) and everyone except me. I thought whatever I don’t care, I’ll show you when I get there and I won the first race.”

Assessing the challenge ahead, Gademan is realistic about her prospects, but she is adamant that a top-three finish is no less than she deserves to end her F1 ACADEMY journey with.

“Montreal wasn’t the best weekend, so my title chances are kind of gone because Alisha is so strong. I can’t make that up in the second half of the season, but definitely our goal is to close the gap to Emma, so we can hopefully in the last round fight for P2. The lowest goal we have is to stay in the top three. If I finish outside of the top three, I’m not going to leave F1 ACADEMY very happy.”