INTERVIEW: How Nina Gademan used social media to launch into F1 Academy

Later this month, representing Alpine, Gademan will take to her home circuit in Zandvoort on the undercard of the Formula 1 weekend. It is, quite obviously, a dream come true. The cherry on the cake is the fact she will turn 22 on the Saturday, taking part in qualifying and the first of the two races.

It is not quite a sign she has made it, but from her humble beginnings it is an indicator that through patience and perseverance, even when the chips are down, anything is still possible.

"My parents used to do go-karting just for fun when I wasn't even born," said Gademan, initially reflecting on her motorsport route. "They would share one go-kart together and fight about it, who could go out on the track and stuff. Then my mom got pregnant and she quit racing.

"My dad still went to the karting track. They took me to it every time they went. They even have videos of me as a little baby. I don't think I'm even one year old. I was just watching them, it's actually quite cute.

"My mom told me that when I was three, I wanted to do go-karting as well. Two years later, they gave me my first go-kart. They had to attach a rope to it to hold onto. Even though the kart wasn't powerful, they could stop me if they needed to. They were afraid I would just go nuts.”

"At first it was just two cones, driving around, learning how to brake and turn. Once I improved I was allowed to go to the smaller tracks in the Netherlands."

Gademan recalls she was six or seven when she 'competed' in her first race, albeit leading to "a funny story".

"My dad thought I was ready," she said. "My mom told my dad a couple of times, 'She's not ready. We're not going to do it. It's dangerous'. My dad did it anyway. But I obviously wasn't ready.

"The bigger guys were nine years old, and I was a tiny little girl. I couldn't even keep up on the warm-up lap. On the formation lap, they really had to slow down for me to catch up."

Gademan eventually progressed to a race at the Dutch Championship, but a lack of money meant her dad was her mechanic. "We didn't prepare well because the engine needed tuning correctly to get up to speed," she said. "I think I only did three of the nine practice sessions, but it was still cool to take part in that one race."

After competing in the Citroën C1 Cup, the family issues unfortunately took hold and she had to stop racing. Even with two jobs at the time, she said she "couldn't afford racing myself."

"Sometimes I would just completely go nuts on my savings account, use all of it to do one race sometimes," said Gademan. "I had to quit racing for roughly one and a half years, which was obviously tough.

"I needed to do something, so I turned to social media, making the sim racing videos. Because of that, we collected the funding to go racing again. Up until that point, I thought my shot at Formula racing was gone.

"But the social media helped me so much. It gave me a job that could pay for karting, for example, before I met my manager and some sponsors. It was definitely the turning point, otherwise, I would never have reached this level."

It was just two years ago that Gademan met her manager, Norman Dijkaema, at Zandvoort, since when her trajectory has been rapid.

"We were going to do a partnership at first with his other company, which was F1 merchandise for my social media," she said. "Then it turned out he wanted to manage me, and I wanted to get back into racing.

"It was funny because I went to the [F1] race in 2023 and we were eating on the beach, just some food after the race weekend. A year later, I was racing there during the F1 weekend. It was quite the accomplishment."

That race at Zandvoort in 2024 was as a wildcard entry. Gademan delivered, qualifying sixth for both races, and going on to score points in both by finishing fourth in the sprint and tenth in the feature. That event sat in the middle of her debut campaign in single-seaters.

"We collected some budget to go F4 testing," said Gademan. "I also tested a Porsche Carrera Cup car and the F4, because I wanted to see which I would like better. I liked both.

"Then I realised that I only have one shot at Formula racing. After that, I could still go to the Carrera Cup or the Super Cup, or whatever, so I chose to do F4. In the end, the F4 testing went really well. We got a contract sorted pretty quickly and a budget for the season. I consider myself very lucky."

Competing with Fortec Motorsport, it was a tough campaign for Gademan, whose best result was 12^th on three occasions en route to finishing 18^th in the standings.

"The driver quality was really good," she said. "That's why I wanted to do British F4 over Italian or Spanish, and I only started testing in November 2023.

"The first race was quite early in 2024, and after a big winter break as well. Going into the first race, we knew we weren't ready. We were at the back, and I couldn't even fight forward in the races.”

"Normally I'm not that great at qualifying, but I'm really good at the racing. I always fight forward. Throughout the season, my qualifying position improved, and then I could fight for [the] top ten in the races, which was good. I wasn't with one of the best teams, so I couldn't expect to be fighting at the front."

The wildcard F1 Academy weekend, however, was a shot in the arm, leading to the affiliation with Alpine and a seat with Prema Racing.

"Alpine was the first to come to me," Gademan explained. "Obviously, some teams followed after the Zandvoort race for a seat, but it just felt good with Alpine from the start. I didn't even look at the other teams."

You would have assumed that with Gademan being from the Netherlands, one of the biggest influences on her career would be four-time F1 Champion Max Verstappen, but apparently, "not that much".

"He has been good for the Netherlands, because racing in the Netherlands was not very popular," Gademan stated. "Then Max came around, and everyone knows something about racing now, and definitely a lot of people have started racing because of him.

"I like Max because of his personality. I match that a little bit, just the mindset that I have. I think we're a bit the same."

Throughout the 2025 season there has been a steady improvement in performances, with Gademan finishing third in the first two of three races at the last round in Canada. At present, she sits eighth in the standings.

As Gademan puts it, this year is all about showing she has the speed before "putting it all together" next year in season two, with the aim of winning the title en route to her other target of competing in F3 later down the line.

She has however not been helped this season by a back injury, diagnosed as scoliosis of her spine, which is also rotated and placing pressure on her muscles on the left-hand side of her back. Thanks to Alpine, she is undergoing a lot of treatment.

"I think it can clear up," she said. "Over the first half of the season, there has been a lot of driving, which has not been easy because it hurts the most when I'm driving.

"The second half of the season, there is a bit less testing and fewer races, and a bit more space between them. I think it can breathe a little more than over the winter and hopefully it can get better."

All being well, after numerous trials and tribulations along the way, maybe Gademan's racing career will do the same.

Images courtesy of Getty Images.