Abbi Pulling earns widespread praise after historic GB3 race win

Abbi Pulling, who won the F1 Academy drivers' championship in 2024, has made history by becoming the first female driver to win a race in the GB3 Championship, and fans and industry insiders have been quick to congratulate the 23-year-old on the milestone.

Competing at Spa-Francorchamps, the British driver successfully converted her historic pole position into a dominant lights-to-flag victory.

F1 Academy congratulated its former champion. "Abbi Pulling makes HISTORY!   Our 2024 Champion becomes the first-ever female winner of a GB3 race after converting her historic Pole position to a lights-to-flag victory at Spa-Francorchamps," it posted on social media. "Proud to watch Abbi's speed and determination - here's to many more trips to the top step."

"Against a couple of F3 drivers in Nikita Bedrin and Jin Nakamura as well (and neither of them are grid fillers, they got points in the F3 season opener). Impressive that she got her first win against such competition," one fan commented on Reddit, while another added: "Genuinely glad for her. Coming from modest means, she has to get everything the hard way."

Someone else posted: "Hopefully she can at least be competitive in F3 at some point. Would be a good step. Better if she could be good."

Another fan argued that the GB3 race victory should lead to a seat in Formula 3. "Surely has to be in an F3 seat (or be that one driver that does a regional->F2 jump) next year. F2 would either be super opportunistic or ill-advised as a jump; however, GB3 drivers have made that jump," they commented. "John Bennett did P8, P10 and then P2 in GB3 before jumping into F2, and he's acclimatising well there despite having two pretty naff teams he's been in.

"Abbi has a P10 from last season and now some points finishes and a win, I think she'd hold up at that level. F3 is a risk in itself due to it being a big and very competitive field, while it seems F2 is so much more about keeping it on the road and avoiding the chaos. Exciting future ahead, I really hope she tackles the mainstream feeder series ladder. This win will attract more budget by itself."