{"id":304108,"date":"2025-11-24T16:46:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T16:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/304108\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T16:46:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T16:46:09","slug":"williams-parts-ways-with-lia-block-as-f1-academy-star-is-set-to-return-to-rally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/304108\/","title":{"rendered":"Williams parts ways with Lia Block as F1 Academy star is set to return to rally"},"content":{"rendered":"

Williams Racing Academy has parted ways with Lia Block<\/a> after two years in F1 Academy.<\/p>\n

The American driver finished her second season in the all-female racing series in ninth with 37 points. Drivers can only compete in the F1 Academy for two seasons before moving on, and Block is now set to return to her roots in rally.<\/p>\n

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Prior to joining the F1 Academy, Block raced in the American Rally Association, Extreme E and Nitrocross. She became the youngest champion in the American Rally Association in 2023 at just 16 years old.<\/p>\n

“After two years as a Williams Racing Academy driver, we can confirm that Lia Block will leave the team at the end of 2025 and return to rally,” Williams shared.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s been a pleasure joining her on the journey and we wish her all the best as she embarks on a new chapter in her career. As a team, we remain committed to the F1 Academy project and look forward to sharing our 2026 entrant in due course.”<\/p>\n

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Block described her move back to rally as “coming home”.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m coming home,\u201d she told DirtFish<\/a>. “These past few years, obviously I took a break from rally and off-road and went to the big boy world of F1. It\u2019s certainly been an experience and I\u2019ve learned so much. But ultimately, it\u2019s not the world I necessarily feel like I belong in. And rally has always been home. It\u2019s where I\u2019ve had the most success and the most fun.<\/p>\n

“My decision for coming back, it\u2019s been a hard one and it\u2019s something I\u2019ve contemplated for a while. But it all comes down to, what do I love the most? And what will I enjoy doing for the rest of my career? My answer is rally. And I think it\u2019s kind of always been that way.”<\/p>\n

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Lia Block, ART Grand Prix\"Lia<\/p>\n

Lia Block, ART Grand Prix<\/p>\n

She added: “I wanted to try open-wheel racing. I feel I\u2019ve done every discipline in motorsport so far in my career, to be honest, and I didn\u2019t want to leave that page blank in a way. I wanted to try it and just give a shot and I\u2019m really, really glad I did. You know, I wouldn\u2019t trade these two years for anything. And the experiences I\u2019ve had and the people I\u2019ve met have been so valuable.<\/p>\n

“I think the way I\u2019ve grown over the past two years, matured as a driver and as a person, I think all of that mental strength I will definitely be able to carry into whatever I do next year.<\/p>\n

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“Especially coming off of winning a championship in the US and going to a discipline I had zero clue about and having to work my way up back to the top and learn so much. That mentality of the small gains means so much, and just taking everything as a learning opportunity going forward will definitely help me when I\u2019m starting again in rally.”<\/p>\n

To read more Motorsport.com articles visit our website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Williams Racing Academy has parted ways with Lia Block after two years in F1 Academy. The American driver…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[136476,49,48,578,56488,576,577,94802,82,11813],"class_list":{"0":"post-304108","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-american-rally-association","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-f1-academy","13":"tag-formula-1","14":"tag-formula1","15":"tag-lia-block","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-williams-racing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}