New Faces of F1 Academy: Megan Bruce

It’s not odd to see some drivers skipping some racing series in their development progress, like Max Verstappen’s direct jump from F3 to F1 or Kimi Antonelli skipping F3 to drive in F2. However, have you ever seen a driver that has never raced in a karting series before? This article gives you the story of a very rare rookie, Megan Bruce.

(Image credit to f1academy.com)

The British driver was born in 2004 in West Grinstead, England. Unlike many current drivers, despite driving go-karts with her dad sometimes, she didn’t start her professional career with karting. Instead, in 2023, she debuted with the Caterham Seven cars in the Caterham Academy Championship. In her debut season, she finished the season 10th overall, including a maiden podium finish. Next season, promoted to the 270R Championship, Bruce added 4 more podiums to her career and also scored top five finishes in Brands Hatch. 

(Image credit to meganbruceracing.com)

2024 also became the year that the British driver transitioned into single-seater racing. In her first season in the GB4 Championship, where she went up against some of her current competitors, she raced for Fox Motorsports and finished 11th in the standings with a best result of 6th. Bruce became a member of the Motorsport UK Academy in her second season and switched from Fox Motorsports to KMR Sport. Despite setting a new personal best result of P4 at Oulton Park, her overall race results weren’t as high as it was in her first season, so the Brit finished the season 20th this time.

(Image credit to gb-4.net)

In the same year, the Brit was given opportunities to drive in F1 Academy as well. First, she took part in the first-ever F1 Academy Rookie Test in Circuito de Navarra. Bruce put in a decent performance by setting the fourth fastest time overall and this led to her urgent F1 Academy debut towards the end of the season. In the penultimate round of the 2025 season in Singapore, Hitech GTR filled the absence of the injured Aiva Anagnostiadis with her in the #9 TAG Heuer-liveried car. The British driver finished out and way behind of points in her debut weekend, but managed to impress Campos Racing. As TAG Heuer support switched from Hitech to Campos in the 2026, they gave the #4 TAG Heuer seat to Megan Bruce for her first full-season debut. The British driver also took part in F4 Saudi Arabian Championship after her surprise debut in Singapore in order to prepare for her full-time F1 Academy experience

(Image credit to supercar-driver.com)

 In a nutshell, the 21-years old Megan Bruce built her young career in a different way than most. On her first race weekend at Shanghai as a full-time driver, Bruce she qualified in 14th, finished the Reverse Grid Race in 12th place and scored her first points in Race 2 with a P9 result. We’ll see how the British driver’s development pans out for the rest of the 2026 season. 

Article written by Emre Albas © Emre Albas 2026