{"id":155584,"date":"2025-06-03T19:31:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T19:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/155584\/"},"modified":"2025-06-03T19:31:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T19:31:08","slug":"f1-academy-star-lia-block-leaves-former-f1-boss-speechless-after-rally-outing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/155584\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 Academy star Lia Block leaves former F1 boss speechless after rally outing"},"content":{"rendered":"

It takes a lot to leave a former Formula 1 boss speechless, but that\u2019s just what F1 Academy star Lia Block did over the weekend.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Block took Claire Williams out for a spin behind the wheel of a rally-modified Subaru BRZ \u2014 and it left the former F1 team principal without any words.<\/p>\n

Lia Block leaves Claire Williams speechless in rally drive<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m actually speechless, and that doesn\u2019t happen very often.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such were the words of Claire Williams, former Formula 1 team principal turned brand representative and talking head after climbing out of a rally-stripped Subaru BRZ driven by none other than Lia Block.<\/p>\n

Gushing from a thrilling lap around the DirtFish Rally School in Snoqualmie, Washington, Williams enthused, \u201cThat was so cool! I loved that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The daughter of the late Frank Williams, Claire grew up surrounded by motorsport \u2014 though her background is decidedly in the open-wheel realm, where she served as Williams deputy team principal from 2013 to 2020. As she clutched the interior of the Subaru to hold herself steady, she cried, \u201cMy dad would have loved this!\u201d<\/p>\n

Block is a Williams junior academy driver, but she and Claire Williams had never met; Block joined the academy after Williams departed from her leadership role. But the two had a chance to bond and talk shop in the cockpit \u2014 at least, until Block started to really let loose.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the more fun cars because the back end slips out more,\u201d Block told Williams, referring to the rear-wheel drive BRZ.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe all-wheel drive cars are much faster, but they don\u2019t get as sideways as these.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a great bonding experience during the annual DirtFish Women in Motorsport Summit.<\/p>\n

F1 2025: The season\u2019s winners and losers<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0The results of the F1 2025 championship<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0The updated Drivers\u2019 and Constructors\u2019 Championship standings<\/a><\/p>\n

If Lia Block\u2019s name sounds familiar, that\u2019s because she traces her heritage to one of the most prominent names in American rally history: the late Ken Block.<\/p>\n

Naturally, Lia Block followed in her father\u2019s footsteps when she began pursuing a racing career, bouncing between go-karting and off-road racing when she was just 11 years old.<\/p>\n

With natural talent oozing from her performance, Block entered her first professional rally when she was just 15 years old. Two years later, she won the American Rally Association championship \u2014 making her the first woman to do so, as well as the youngest driver in history.<\/p>\n

But after the passing of her father in a snowmobile accident, Block looked to expand her horizons by joining the open-wheel racing game. In 2024, she joined F1 Academy as part of the Williams team, a transition that she found incredibly difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the beginning, I thought it was going to be a bit easier than it actually was,\u201d she told Motorsport.com.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a completely different motorsport, and I knew nothing about it. I did a bit of karting when I was a kid but nothing to the extent of my competitors when they were younger.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge is what excites me the most. Not being good at something going into it makes me want it that much more.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2024, Block finished eighth overall in the F1 Academy championship, boasting a best finish of fourth in both F1A rounds in Singapore.<\/p>\n

This year, with three events under her belt, Block sits 12th overall, with a best finish of ninth. She\u2019ll be looking to turn her season around at the next event in Montreal, which will be a triple-header to compensate for the cancelation of Race 1 in Miami.<\/p>\n

Read next: \u2018F1: The Academy\u2019 shoots for the stars but misses the mark<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It takes a lot to leave a former Formula 1 boss speechless, but that\u2019s just what F1 Academy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[66073,4199,19788,707,4200,225,12,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-155584","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-claire-williams","9":"tag-f1","10":"tag-f1-academy","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-home-page","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}