- Hamilton praised Doriane Pin after watching her drive his 2021 Mercedes W12.
- Pin completed 76 laps at Silverstone, the first woman to test a Mercedes F1 car.
- Hamilton revealed he has tracked Pin’s F1 Academy career for the last two years.
Lewis Hamilton has praised Doriane Pin after the 22-year-old Frenchwoman completed her first Formula 1 test at Silverstone on 17 April.
She drove the Mercedes W12. It’s the car Hamilton used to help the team win the 2021 Constructors’ Championship alongside Valtteri Bottas.
Pin, the reigning F1 Academy champion, covered 200 kilometres on the Silverstone National Circuit as part of Mercedes’ Testing of Previous Cars programme.
Hamilton, now competing for Ferrari in 2026, said he had watched the test closely.
Hamilton recalls the magic of a first F1 drive
The 41-year-old knows exactly what it feels like to sit in a Formula 1 car for the first time.
Speaking in a video shared by the official Formula 1 account on X, he drew on that memory to describe what Pin would have experienced.
“I remember getting to drive a Formula 1 car for my first time, and it’s the most incredible feeling, realising your dream from a young age,” he said.
He also noted his appreciation for seeing his former car back on track. “It was amazing to see my old car on the circuit as well,” Hamilton said, praising Mercedes for giving Pin the opportunity.
The W12 carries particular significance at Silverstone. Hamilton won there with that car during his 2021 title battle against Max Verstappen, one of the most fiercely contested seasons in the sport’s recent history.
Pin’s historic day at Silverstone
Pin made history on 17 April by becoming the first woman ever to drive a Mercedes Formula 1 car.
She completed 200 kilometres on the Silverstone National Circuit and impressed the team with her pace, technical feedback and overall understanding of the machinery.
Andrew Shovlin, the team’s Trackside Engineering Director, said Pin had “looked at home from the very first laps,” according to the official Mercedes press release.
Pin received coaching throughout the day from current Mercedes race drivers Kimi Antonelli and George Russell. She described the experience as deeply personal.
“Whilst being a female driver doesn’t define me, it was great to show what we can do. It was an extremely emotional day,” she said.
Hamilton’s long-standing support for Pin
Hamilton’s praise was not spontaneous. He has followed Pin’s career for several years.
“I’ve been following her for the last couple of years in F1 Academy, so it’s been awesome to see her growth,” he said in the video shared on X.
“She’s such a force. So I am really excited to see what progresses from here.”
His support predates this test by at least a year. In 2024, during his final season at Mercedes, Hamilton sent Pin a personal message recognising her progress.
“I’m so impressed with what you did last year and really excited to see the changes that you made coming into this season,” he told her, as Pin revealed during an appearance on the F1 Beyond The Grid podcast.
Pin grew up watching Hamilton win championships on television with her father. She has credited him as the driver who first inspired her to pursue motorsport, pointing to his 2014 title battle with Nico Rosberg as one of her earliest racing memories.
What comes next for Pin and women in F1
The Silverstone test placed Pin in territory no woman had entered before. She is the first F1 Academy champion to complete a Formula 1 test and the first Frenchwoman to drive modern Formula 1 machinery.
Mercedes promoted her to a development driver role in January 2026, and she is now also competing full-time in the European Le Mans Series.
Gwen Lagrue, Mercedes’ driver development adviser, made the team’s broader ambitions clear.
“I am sure we will see a woman driving in F1 in the coming years, and as a team, we would be incredibly proud if we were to achieve that goal with someone in our team,” he said, as quoted in the official Mercedes press release.
The next step, whether an FP1 appearance at a Grand Prix weekend or further testing, has not been confirmed.
But with Mercedes structuring her development carefully and Hamilton offering vocal support from the Ferrari garage, Pin’s path from the F1 Academy to a world championship-winning car looks less like fortune and more like intention.
