- Pin makes Mercedes history, becoming first woman to drive their F1 car.
- A childhood dream fulfilled, but Pin insists gender doesn’t define her.
- Mercedes believe a woman will race in F1 soon, and Pin is the reason why.
Doriane Pin sat in a Mercedes Formula 1 car for the first time at Silverstone on April 17 and did what she had spent years preparing to do. She drove, she built, and she delivered.
The 22-year-old Frenchwoman completed 76 laps of the Silverstone National Circuit in the Mercedes W12, covering 200km under the team’s Testing of Previous Cars programme.
In doing so, she became the first woman to drive a Mercedes F1 car and the first Frenchwoman to drive modern F1 machinery.
“Driving an F1 car for the first time today was unreal,” Pin told Sky Sports after the test. “I am very grateful to have been given this opportunity and to be surrounded by this incredible team.”
A day of firsts and deep emotion
The weight of the occasion was not lost on Pin. She acknowledged what the day meant, not just for herself, but for those watching from beyond the paddock.
“It was a unique opportunity, and I made sure to enjoy my day to the fullest, along with doing the best job I could,” she said.
“Whilst being a female driver doesn’t define me, it was great to show what we can do,” she added. “It was an extremely emotional day. And I’m also thankful I was able to share this experience with my family.”
That tension, between refusing to be reduced to a symbol and accepting the significance of what she had done, ran through everything she said.
Pin is only the second woman to test an F1 car in the 2020s.
Jessica Hawkins drove an Aston Martin at the Hungaroring in 2023. Before that, Susie Wolff was the last woman to appear at a Grand Prix weekend, driving in practice for Williams in 2014 and 2015.
Behind the wheel of the W12
The car Pin drove is no relic. The W12 powered Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas to the 2021 Constructors’ Championship. It is a machine that demands respect.
Pin gave it exactly that. She built her pace lap by lap rather than pushing for a fast time from the start.
“The W12 is obviously really different from the other cars I’ve been able to drive,” she told Sky Sports. “Everything is different, bigger and more powerful.”
Susie Wolff, now managing director of F1 Academy, sent Pin a video message before the test. She urged her to take it step by step and to trust the engineers around her. Pin did just that.
Her route to Silverstone has been long and varied. She began karting in 2013, then moved through the Renault Clio Cup and the Ferrari Challenge Europe, winning the latter’s title in 2022.
She also raced in the FIA World Endurance Championship, claiming a podium in the LMP2 category and becoming the first woman to win the WEC’s Revelation of the Year award.
Her switch to single-seaters came through Mercedes, who backed her in the F1 Academy.
She finished runner-up in 2024, then returned in 2025 and won the championship outright with four victories, becoming the series’ first French winner. Mercedes promoted her to a full F1 development driver in January 2026.
During the Silverstone test, current Mercedes drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli stood in the garage and watched.
Their presence said something about how far she has come inside the Brackley outfit.
Mercedes impressed by Pin’s professionalism
The team left Silverstone with more than just data. They left with confidence in the person they had placed in the car.
Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ trackside engineering director, said Pin looked at home from the very first laps and pushed the car to its limit with composure.
He called the outing another major step in what he described as a very exciting and promising career.
Gwen Lagrue, the team’s driver development adviser, framed the day in terms of what it might mean beyond Pin herself.
He said Mercedes was proud to show the next generation of female drivers that reaching F1 is possible.
Lagrue expressed confidence that a woman would race in Formula 1 in the coming years, and said he hoped his team would be the one to make it happen. He called Pin an inspiration for those following her.
What comes next for Doriane Pin
The test at Silverstone was not a destination. It was a door opening. Pin’s development role at Mercedes will continue to grow.
It includes simulator sessions, factory programmes, trackside duties at grands prix and mentoring Payton Westcott, the team’s representative in the 2026 F1 Academy season.
Away from her F1 commitments, she is racing full-time in the European Le Mans Series with Duqueine in the LMP2 Pro-Am class.
She will also return to the Le Mans 24 Hours for the first time in three years.
Her ambition, though, points in one direction. Speaking on the Beyond The Grid podcast ahead of the test, she was direct about where she intends to end up.
She said her goal is Formula 1, and that she needed to be certain she was ready before getting behind the wheel in real life.
On the evidence of what she produced at Silverstone, the question of readiness is no longer hypothetical.
As she put it herself after 76 laps and 200km: “I am glad I was able to build confidence lap after lap and show what I was capable of.”
