F1 Dutch Grand Prix: Alpine star declared ‘unfit’ stuns home crowd

nina gademan, alpine, f1 academy, 2025 — Photo: © IMAGO

Star driver stuns home crowd after being declared ‘unfit’ for Dutch GP

Alpine-backed driver Nina Gademan will be celebrating this weekend!

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Monday 1 September 2025 22:57

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Alpine-backed F1 Academy star Nina Gademan has taken her first victory in the all-female racing series in front of her home crowd at the Dutch Grand Prix.

Alongside the return of the F1 championship this weekend, Zandvoort also hosted the fifth round of support series F1 Academy.

One year on from when Gademan made her debut as a wild card entry at her home race, she took pole for the reverse grid race on Saturday after making a surprise comeback from a tumultuous start to her weekend.

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The Dutch racer was declared 'unfit to drive' on Friday after being forced to miss FP2, but after undergoing additional checks, was cleared to compete in qualifying.

After setting the the eighth fastest time, the Alpine star started the first race of the weekend on reverse grid pole, going on to claim a stunning maiden victory, and on her 22nd birthday no less.

After Saturday's reverse grid race, Gademan appeared emotional on the podium as the Dutch national anthem blasted out over the speakers, and certainly not for the first time at Zandvoort.

Nina Gademan piloted her Alpine-backed PREMA Racing car to P1 in Race 1 at Zandvoort

Gademan celebrates birthday with win at Dutch GP

Speaking to Ariana Bravo following her maiden victory in F1 Academy, the 22-year-old said: "It's special for a lot of reasons, obviously it's my home race, last year I was so close to the podium as the wild card and then to win next year, exactly a year later is just crazy.

"We've missed out twice on the win due to mechanical issues and I mean yesterday I was declared unfit, and now I'm a race winner! It's been a crazy 24 hours really."

Gademan managed to hold her lead in front of the home crowd on Saturday as Williams-backed driver Lia Block and Ferrari star Maya Weug battled it out for the remaining two podium positions just behind her.

The Alpine driver discussed how she managed to hold off Block to pick up an extra 10 points this weekend, also hinting at her injury.

"The start was quite easy and that thing from this morning to today, I thought it would be a struggle as I missed out on FP2 and on the important dry running, but in the end it was actually quite easy at the start.

"I can drive as I want to without the injury having a lot of influence."

The Dutch star signed off her first P1 interview with a heartfelt message to her mother, and a message in Dutch to her home crowd.

Nina Gademan WINS at home! ??

A mega drive from Nina on her 22nd birthday to secure her first win in F1 Academy. #F1Academy #DutchGP pic.twitter.com/BUxJvbqbHr
— F1 Academy (@f1academy) August 30, 2025

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Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here that she confirmed her dream of combining her background in journalism and love of motorsport, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan.

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Alpine Dutch Grand Prix F1 Academy