American Express Selects Nicole Havrda as 2025 F1 Academy Driver
American Express has announced its driver selection for the F1 Academy 2025 season, Nicole Havrda.
This is an ongoing partnership between Formula 1 and Amex. The credit card company announced its partnership with F1 Academy in April 2024, when it partnered with Jessica Edgars for the 2024 season. Amex was named the official Americas regional payments partner of Formula 1 in October 2023, now expanding to become the official global payments partner for 2025 and expand its presence across the entire Formula 1 calendar.
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The 19-year-old Canadian motorsports driver will wear a custom American Express-branded car livery and race suit for the 2025 season — designed by Amex’s in-house creative agency, OnBrand. The livery will once again feature Amex’s ribbon design and its Shop Small logo to spotlight local women-owned businesses at every race in its efforts to support women athletes, small business owners and local communities. Havrda’s helmet featuring Amex’s logo also reflects her heritage with a Canadian flag alongside her branding with its pink, red and white colorway.
“From the very beginning of our F1 Academy sponsorship, Amex knew it was important to support women on and off track,” said Shiz Suzuki, vice president of global brand sponsorships and experiential marketing at American Express. “We’re proud to continue spotlighting local women-owned small businesses on the Amex livery throughout the season and to have Nicole Havrda in the driver’s seat of it. We’re so excited to cheer for Nicole as she embarks on her F1 Academy journey and competes alongside so many other talented women drivers.”
Havrda, who hails from British Columbia, has been in motorsports since she was 10. She has already raced in the W Series, Indian Racing League Championship, Formula 3 North America, and Formula Regional Americas Championship throughout her career. Last year, she was invited to Spain to test for F1 Academy with Campos Racing.
“[When I found out,] I was so excited,” Havrda told WWD. “This was the best thing that could happen.…Before this season, I was kind of like, ‘Where am I going with racing?’ because I don’t have a big budget. It was looking like it might be my last season or I’ll just go into sports cars. Then I got this amazing opportunity from F1 Academy and American Express. It’s honestly been an incredible few months.”
This year’s calendar will kick off in Shanghai then move to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Miami; Montreal; Zandvoort, Netherlands; Singapore, and end in Las Vegas. Havrda said the two main tracks she’s looking forward to racing are in front of her home crowd in Canada and at the season’s closer in Las Vegas.
“Growing up in Canada, we don’t have many tracks,” she said. “That’s the fan favorite and the most popular one — everyone knows about it. I went there a few times to watch Formula 1 and it’s going to be cool to be on track. Before I was watching [the drivers] on the track but now I’ll actually be driving alongside Formula 1.”
Just like everyone else, Havrda — who met Lewis Hamilton before — said she’s excited to see the seven-time world champion in his debut year at Ferrari. Another person she’s hoping to meet and continue to chat with over the season is former Scottish racer and managing director of F1 Academy, Susie Wolff, who has spearheaded the championship initiative to help progress younger women drivers to gain experience and propel toward competing at higher racing levels.
As for Havrda’s future aspirations? Winning races this year and eventually driving in Formula 1 or the American IndyCar race series that many promising talents have turned to as an alternative to Formula 1.
“It’s been a big thing with me showing that I’m a woman in racing. The car doesn’t really care what gender you are. When you put the helmet on, no one really sees a difference. You could be a guy or you could be a girl, it doesn’t really matter at the end of the day. I just want to be there for the younger generation to help them and show them it’s possible,” Havrda concluded.
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