F1 Academy, Singapore

Jess Edgar battles through frustrating F1 Academy weekend in Singapore.

Jess Edgar returned to F1 Academy action at the weekend (September 20-22), as she raced in the heat and humidity of Singapore’s Marina Bay Street Circuit.

Ultimately, it would be a frustrating visit to the country – located just north of the equator – for the 19-year-old, after a spin in the single 30-minute free practice session cost valuable time on track.

Under the lights during qualifying Jess improved throughout, finding time and moving up the order, but frustratingly ran out of time to climb further up the grid, finishing 13th quickest but a mere 0.038s from 11th.

Jess had a good start to the opening race in her American Express backed machine, but not feeling comfortable with the handling, wasn’t able to make forward progress, instead showing her skill to ensure she held onto 13th position, where she took the flag.

It was a similar story in race two where Jess started well but struggled with understeer, despite hard work by her Rodin Motorsport mechanics to improve the car. As the contest progressed under the heat of the afternoon sun, she fell back and crossed the line 15th.

Refusing to give up, Jess and Rodin Motorsport will work hard before back-to-back races to close the 2024 F1 Academy season, starting at Lusail in Qatar over the weekend of November 29 – December 1.

Championship: 10 (22 points)

Jess Commented: “It was a tough weekend and really frustrating. I pushed on my second lap in practice and spun, making contact with the barrier, which broke my rear wing and meant I could only complete one fast lap. That put me on the back foot for qualifying, where I was going faster and faster each lap, but I didn’t quite have enough time to show my true pace.”

“In the races I just couldn’t find a balance with the car that I felt comfortable with, and we thought there might be a mechanical reason for that, so the team worked super hard that night to fix. Unfortunately, I still had understeer in race two, so I fell back. We will be working hard over the next couple of weeks to find a solution for Qatar.”