Although RACER broke the news in July of last year that a couple of Formula 1 teams had her on their radar, when Lia Block made the switch to open-wheel racing this year, moving into F1 Academy with backing from Williams, there was widespread surprise around the racing world.
Usually, the road to the top of single-seater racing begins in karting, then moves onto things like F4. Block checked the karting box, but then won the top rear-wheel drive class of America’s national rallying championship, while also competing in the entry-level classes of Nitrocross and Extreme E. But the daughter of a rallying icon Ken Block always had here eye on a move into circuit racing.
“Not many people expected the big plot twist at the beginning of the year,” the 17-year-old tells RACER. “That was a big change for me, and a big decision. It was a big switch-up but so far, it’s been a good decision on my part.
“I’ve always wanted to race in open-wheel. I grew up watching F1 with my dad, and it’s just never really been an opportunity for me. I grew up doing a bit of karting, so this was my one big break. And working with Williams and a top F1 team, it’s been a great experience getting to know everybody in the team, how it works– the people I’ve met, the learning I’ve had within the sport, I would never regret just this year.”
Block, driving for European single-seater powerhouse ART Grand Prix, has already notched up four top-10 finishes in her first campaign in F1 Academy — the inaugural season of the all-female development category — with the first of those coming on home soil at the Miami Grand Prix. Learning has naturally been the name of the game in 2024, but with racing among more seasoned circuit racers, Block admits the year has been “challenging.”
“It’s unlike anything I’ve ever done,” she says. “There’s a strong field in F1 Academy. These girls have been racing for multiple years in the F4 championships as well as FRECA, so there’s lots of competition.
“But every race I’m learning more and more, and I’m getting closer and closer. My goal is always to win but, with my experience level there, I’ve just got to take it step by step. But I’ve been having a lot of fun.”
As well as driving a lower-powered car on a sealed surface, one of the biggest things she’s had to adjust to has been the finer margins in circuit racing, something she says comes down to becoming more patient.
“On the track, it’s such a knife’s edge that you have to walk … one tenth there, you’re like, ‘Oh, what the hell am I doing?’” she says. “I’ve had to learn so much, how this works, how a race weekend works, but mostly just the car, because it’s so underpowered compared to a F2 or F3 car, and obviously F1, so the momentum you have to carry, and all of the little things make such a big difference. I feel like I’m learning something every time I go out on the track.”
The tracks are another thing. Along with her lack of prior experience in a lower category, Block doesn’t have the luxury of being able to enter other races at a moment’s notice, since still lives in Utah with her family despite most of her racing being in Europe. While Block describes the extensive traveling as her “favorite part of the job,” she’s had to adjust quickly.
“It’s been especially hard for me, having to learn each track every time, because every time it’s new to me,” she admits. “Some of the girls may have been there and raced there before.
“It was a big struggle for me in Zandvoort because half of the grid did the British F4 Championship [there] a week or two before, so had lot more experience. I was going out there on a green track, just trying to figure my way around, and make sure I know where I was going.
“To be competitive is quite hard, but I like a challenge. So I keep pushing myself, even though I want to win, but it’s not going to work out that way.”
While her plans for next year aren’t yet settled, if Block runs another season in F1 Academy, she feels the knowledge she’s gained this year will be vital.
“I can’t really talk about next year just yet, but if it is going to be F1 Academy again, it will be definitely helpful that I’ve been to the tracks before,” she says. “I assume that the calendar won’t be exactly this, but I’ll still have a little bit more familiarity with some parts of it.”
Although racing in F1 Academy has been Block’s main focus since joining Williams’ driver development program, being aligned with one of F1’s most storied teams has afforded her other opportunities — such as driving Keke Rosberg’s 1982 championship-winning FW08 at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. Not only was it her first taste of F1, it came at a place where her late father had become a popular fixture. It also came 13 years after he was denied the chance to test a Toyota F1 car with Pirelli because his legs were too long.
“It’s so cool that they let me drive that car,” Block says, her face lighting up at the mere mention of the opportunity. “It’s a very expensive, very old car, but they let me have a go in it.
“To do it at Goodwood was a really cool experience. And to even share the car with our two F1 drivers as well as my team principal, it was just a really cool experience for me all round. I don’t know who else gets to do that. That was a highlight of my career, right there.
“I think the last time I was there, I was six years old, so I didn’t remember much of it. So it was quite cool to go there, knowing my dad has raced up that hill numerous times with a lot of different cars than I was in, it’s quite a cool place.”
Williams doesn’t just restrict Block to single-seaters though, as you might expect of an F1 team. In the first weekend of September she paused her preparations for the next F1 Academy races in Singapore to return to more familiar surroundings, racing once again in Nitrocross at Richmond Raceway.
“I’m thankful enough that Williams allows me to go out of the series and do rallycross and other things like that,” she says. “It’s definitely a switch-up.”
Block made her debut in Group E, the series’ top class, towards the end of last season, taking series pioneer Travis Pastrana’s seat at Vermont SportsCar on the second day of racing at Glen Helen Raceway.
This time, it wasn’t a brief cameo. She was racing for the reigning champion team Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, with backing from Dodge (pictured below), for both days of the event as well as the two days of pre-event testing.
“I definitely had a little bit more time to adjust to the car this time instead of just one session,” she says. “But, yeah, coming back from an F1 Academy car to these cars, they definitely feel like a big, heavy boat. They just rock side-to-side.
“It’s definitely different, and I have to change my mindset to what I’ve been doing this entire year. But it’s nice to know that I’ve already driven the car before, and coming in already did the gap jump — this one’s just a little bit bigger. And this track was pretty technical, honestly, but it was a nice mix of tarmac and dirt, so I didn’t feel too uncomfortable.”
It’s a world she knows, but it might as well be a different planet compared to what she’s been doing all year. That being said, Block says there are benefits to jumping back into a rallycross car after months of slicks and wings.
“Obviously seat time is seat time in any car. You have a wheel in your hands and a throttle and brake, so obviously you can take some things over but I kind of switch off one side of my brain,” she explains. “It’s just a different mindset, and the way you go into the way the car works, it’s all different.
“But I’m thankful, growing up, being able to do all these different series, racing different cars, I can kind of do that pretty automatically. I don’t feel the jump, so I guess that’s good, F1 Academy didn’t take that out of me.”