F1 Academy Driver Abbi Pulling Has To Re-Win Her Championship Thanks To Bizarre Circumstances

Imagine dominating practically an entire season, clinching the championship early, only to be told less than a week after being named champ, "Sorry, you've got to go out and win it again."

Unfortunately for F1 Academy driver Abbi Pulling, she doesn't have to imagine it, because it just happened.

Pulling drives for Alpine in F1 Academy, the all-female series that acts as a support series to F1 on select weekends. 

This season, Pulling dominated at most races and landed on the podium at every single race, including last weekend's first race in Qatar.

But here's the problem: F1 Academy typically runs two races each weekend it competes, but in Qatar, the second race was canceled because of some pretty serious work that needed to be done to the barriers caused by another support race.

With that race scratched from the schedule, Pulling was the champ… however, after she had been crowned as the series' inaugural champion, F1 Academy decided to run three races this weekend in Abu Dhabi, meaning that the championship is technically back up for grabs.

I hope Alpine still has that pit board because they're probably going to need it again when Abbi Pulling wins the F1 Academy championship again…. after winning it last weekend. (Photo by Pauline Ballet - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images)

This is because second-place driver, Doriane Pin of Mercedes, is 83 points behind Pulling at the moment. According to Sky Sports, with the three races and bonus points available for starting on pole, it means that a driver who sweeps the weekend would win 84 points.

However, even if Pin were to do that, she would need Pulling to not score a single point all weekend long, which given how strong she's been since the lights went out for the races of the season in Jeddah, isn't happening.

And speaking of Jeddah, this could have been even more interesting if Pin hadn't had her win in the second race in Jeddah taken away after her team forgot to tell her the race was over after she took the checkered flag the first time, leading to her putting in another hot lap and taking the flag a second time, which earned her a 20-second time penalty.

Just an incredibly strange decision from F1 Academy, but hey, Pulling will likely get the cool distinction of having won the series. Inaugural championship twice.