Watch This Driver: Abbi Pulling
Abbi Pulling is delivering in 2024; her campaign in British F4 is seriously impressive.
If you take a leap and try watching a new racing series, it’s helpful to have a focal point: one driver to hold your interest until the racing draws you in and you find yourself waking up early to watch.
My first exposure to 21-year-old British racer Abbi Pulling was at the end of the 2023 F1 Academy season. Having responded to the demands of fans wanting to watch the series, the final round in Austin was streamed on YouTube and F1TV and I watched Pulling drive an excellent race to take second in the first of three races.
When Alpine announced that she would be driving their car (run by Rodin Motorsport) in the 2024 F1 Academy season, I thought that was the second best “get” on the grid; just behind Mercedes securing Doriane Pin, an Iron Dames driver with great experience in GT and LMP2.
In fact, after the first race weekend for F1 Academy in 2024, I posted this TikTok expressing some (humorous) concern about Pin’s level of dominance and what it meant for the rest of the season:
As it turns out, my concerns may have been centered on the wrong driver. Pulling had no answer for the Mercedes driver’s pace in qualifying in Jeddah, but drove extremely well to two second-place finishes, later inheriting a win due to a penalty for Pin.
When F1 Academy returned in Miami, Pulling notched another two race wins.
Just.
Like.
That.
Her excellent performance in 2024 isn’t confined to F1 Academy. She’s also racing in the ROKiT FIA British F4 Championship where she became the first woman to win in the series’ history when she converted a pole position at Brands Hatch to a race win, notching the fastest lap as well.
In the most recent race weekend at Thruxton, she qualified fourth and finished second, 12th, and fourth over the three races, leaving her fifth in the standings before this weekend at Silverstone.
Whatever problems Alpine is having in Formula 1, their talent identification is suffering no such issues.
Wanna watch?
Your best shot to catch the racing at Silverstone this weekend is to check the British F4 YouTube channel for live streams or for them to post the race video after its conclusion.
Additionally, Pulling will be back racing in F1 Academy during the Formula 1 race weekend in Spain, June 21-23. You can find those streams on YouTube and on F1TV.