New Faces of the F1 Academy: The Hitech TGR Rookies

The team that provides one-time chances that can change a driver’s life, also gives its full-time seats to rookies, who are willing to prove their talent. In this article, we’ll have a closer look at Hitech TGR’s newest arrivals.

(Image credit to hitechgp.co.uk)

Hitech Racing is a British-based racing team that was founded in 2002. The team was reestablished to Hitech Grand Prix in 2015 by the ex-Alpine team principle Oliver Oakes. Despite the rumours of a possible entry to Formula 1, the British team has never made it into the pinnacle of motorsports and remained a feeder series team as always. 

Drivers such as George Russell, Liam Lawson, Isack Hadjar and Jak Crawford have worked with the British side before. However, Hitech is yet to find a major success, most of their successful campaigns include regional F3/F4 series. They’ve shown progress to reach higher positions and maybe they can be considered title contenders some day. 

Hitech TGR joined F1 Academy grid last season as the 6th team and they took the wildcard duties from Prema. The newcomers finished their first season in the last place of the standings and they’ll look for improvements in 2026. In order to achieve such progress, they’re giving a chance to a young American and a Scot: Ava Dobson and Rachel Robertson. 

(Image credit to @f1academy on instagram )

Ava Dobson

Dobson’s karting career started in 2016, when she was 7-years old. For 7 years, she has competed in various regional karting series, scoring podiums, wins and proving her talent. She made her single-seaters debut in 2023, once again in her home country USA. Despite a rocky start in F4 USA, she made decent progress in USF Juniors and USF2000, constantly finishing in points. 

However, her journey took a little setback in 2024. She got involved in a heavy accident, which ruled her out for 3 months and from the rest of the USF Juniors series that year. When she was declared fit to race again, her career reached overseas, she appeared in a few rounds of the GB4 Championship with Velocity Racing Development. She kept scoring points in the championship and even added a podium to her tally, while she was racing for Arden Motorsport in 2025. The American driver also made her first F1 Academy appearance as a wildcard driver with the #90 Morgan Stanley-liveried car in the 2025 Miami GP. 

Unlike the other wildcard drivers last year, she could only race in Race 1, as Race 2 was cancelled due to extreme weather conditions. In this limited opportunity she got, she finished in 13th place. For the 2026 season, the 17-years old American driver returned as a full-time driver for American Express and replaced Nicole Havrda with the car number 55. In the first race weekend, Dobson just missed out on points in the Reverse Grid race with a 9th place finish. But she redeemed her Saturday result with her first point in Shanghai, finishing in top 10. 

(Image credit to gb-4.net)

Rachel Robertson

Robertson’s young career started in 2022 with competitive karting and took part in several karting championships in Senior Rotax Class in the following years. She rose up to the single-seaters as a Radical Motorsport factory driver to compete in Radical Cup UK in 2025 and she scored a 3rd place finish in the drivers’ standings. She also made it into the international stage with the F4 Saudi Arabian Championship, where she also competed against her teammate Ava Dobson. 

Despite not scoring points as consistently as Dobson, she managed to get a P4 result in the last round. Robertson was also invited to the first F1 Academy Rookie Test and was one of the 5 fastest drivers overall. This led to her F1 Academy debut with the #56 TAG Heuer car in the last round of the 2025 season, replacing the injured Aiva Anagnostiadis. She qualified in P14 and impressed with a 4th place finish in Race 1. With the departing Aurelia Nobels, Puma switched to Hitech TGR and signed the 18-years old Scottish driver for the number 56 car. In her first full-time weekend, Robertson finished the Reverse Grid race right behind her teammate. However, Race 2 ended in disaster for her, after a collision with the wildcard Shi Wei.

(Image credits to f1academy.com)

In summary, Hitech TGR provided opportunities for 2 new, promising drivers. Their 2026 campaign started with a point from Ava Dobson and we’ll see how many more will come into their account in the rest of the season.

Article written by Emre Albas © Emre Albas 2026