Aiva Anagnostiadis has been confirmed as Australia’s first driver to ever appear in the F1 Academy series.

With the series taking place across seven Formula 1 race weekends, Anagnostiadis will partner with leading open-wheel squad Hitech – starting from Shanghai’s Chinese Grand Prix in late March.

The Anagnostiadis family are no strangers to motorsport, with Aiva’s mother Barbara previously involved in karting as a driver. Aiva would later join her brother, James, in also taking up karting from the age of six.

“At the time I didn’t have much interest in motorsport, but mum brought us to the track and I thought I want to have a go at this, so we jumped in the kart and that’s when I fell in love with it,” Aiva said.

In 2022, after representing Team Australia in the FIA Motorsport Games’ Senior Karting category, Anagnostiadis joined Alpine’s Rac(H)er Academy as she began her transition from karts to open-wheel racing.

“F1 Academy was a goal straight away. To reach that goal has been a dream come true and now the plan is to work as hard I can and be as competitive as possible,” Anagnostiadis said.

“I want to be a role model for those little girls coming through and be what I didn’t have. We’re trying to break barriers and show girls that there is another pathway and there are opportunities out there.”

While Anagnostiadis’ F1 Academy debut will wait until the Chinese Grand Prix on 21–23 March, Anagnostiadis will be an Ambassador for the Australian Grand Prix in her hometown of Melbourne.

“To be an ambassador of the Australian Grand Prix, my home track, is pretty cool. I was here in 2018 as a grid kid so now to be back taking it all in again as an ambassador is awesome,” Anagnostiadis said.