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Doriane Pin: “F1 is the ultimate goal” | Top Gear

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F1 Academy's championship leader isn’t afraid to dream big

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F1 Academy's championship leader isn’t afraid to dream big

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F1 Academy's championship leader isn’t afraid to dream big

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F1 Academy's championship leader isn’t afraid to dream big

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“You’re tied so tight in the car. And I was really sick at one race – coughing when I was driving – and basically the thorax was not able to move properly with the belts… and it cracked.”

And there we were thinking that the most dangerous thing about Spa was going flat through Eau Rouge. Doriane Pin, 21, is describing the toughest chapter of her career so far, in which a combination of Belgium’s most punishing circuit and flu left her with fractured ribs. Ouch.

The injury – picked up in FRECA last year – meant several weeks of painful recovery and forced her to miss out on a second appearance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, having made her debut the year before in the LMP2 class aged just 19.

GT and endurance racing are where the Frenchwoman initially made a name for herself: she absolutely crushed the Ferrari Challenge Europe field by winning nine out of 14 races in 2022, and she’s since featured in the European Le Mans Series, IMSA and WEC for the Iron Dames and sibling Iron Lynx teams.

Among the wins, podiums and accolades (WEC named her ‘Revelation of the Year’ in 2023), Pin also earned herself a nickname: the Pocket Rocket.

“It's come from my teammate Sarah Bovy,” she explains. At the Le Mans Cup, Pin had to chase down a podium finish for the team in the final hour of the race, having been handed the car in P4. “She said I'm a pocket rocket because I'm small, but I can go fast, and I'm sure she will do the job for P3.” She is, she was, and she did.

Does it translate well into French? “Yes, yes! It's much more stylish in English. But it’s fusée de poche. It’s quite good.”

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Despite already ticking Le Mans off the bucket list (“a beautiful moment… one of the best racing weeks of my life”), Pin insists that single seaters was “always where I wanted to be”. So when Mercedes offered her a place in F1 Academy, there was no way she was going to turn it down.

On her very first weekend she hit the ground running with such force that the rulebook had to intervene. After cruising to victory from pole in her first race in Saudi Arabia last year, she took the chequered flag again in race two… but without realising. A cool down lap at full racing speed earned her a penalty that cost her the win, and it was the more experienced Abbi Pulling who soon stamped her authority on that season’s championship.

Still, runner-up was a creditable effort given Pin’s polar opposite background to the rest of the grid. As TG puts it, you can be an Olympic sprinter or marathon runner… “Yeah, you cannot be both,” she finishes. “I've been racing in GT and LMP2, but it's way different than single seaters. I’ve learned first endurance racing – the other drivers are all the opposite. They start from single seater and then they go to heavy cars and GT after.”

F1 Academy’s Tatuus F4-T421s have less power on tap than your average GT3 car, but they’re “much lighter so you feel the downforce,” says Pin. “You feel a lot of different things. I had to learn all the basics again, as it’s very different in terms of technique.”

Handily, being on the F1 support bill means F1 levels of support: Lewis Hamilton has been a vocal advocate of the series and Pin herself, while George Russell has been happy to help out a fellow Silver Arrow when he can.

“This year he came to China to see me in the paddock and to talk a bit about the weekend,” says Pin. “He was talking about the degradation, the track’s characteristics, you know? Like the first sector in Shanghai, the technique of it.

“And obviously he had experience also in junior categories, so we are talking about the brakes and the aero and stuff. A lot of things to be honest, but it's cool.”

It seems to be paying off. Fast forward to the here and now, and Pin is going into the season finale double-header in Las Vegas this weekend leading the championship by nine points.

A vast amount of work has brought her to this point: her notebook is stuffed with reams of handwritten notes (duh) – and no doubt Russell’s pearls of wisdom – having combed through on-boards turn by turn in an effort to find precious tenths on the racetrack.

My dream is to reach Formula One one day

And win or lose, Pin is clear about what all her efforts are in aid of. “My dream is to reach Formula One one day. F1 is the ultimate goal, and the team around me has the same goal in mind.”

Obviously TG had to ask about cars too, and although Pin has a soft spot for the 911, away from the racetrack her wheels are far more humble. A Kia Sportage, no less.

Still, if she does win the title on the Las Vegas Strip on Saturday, maybe Mercedes can sort her out with an AMG A45. Compact, rapid – the perfect machine for la fusée de poche.

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“You’re tied so tight in the car. And I was really sick at one race – coughing when I was driving – and basically the thorax was not able to move properly with the belts… and it cracked.”

And there we were thinking that the most dangerous thing about Spa was going flat through Eau Rouge. Doriane Pin, 21, is describing the toughest chapter of her career so far, in which a combination of Belgium’s most punishing circuit and flu left her with fractured ribs. Ouch.

The injury – picked up in FRECA last year – meant several weeks of painful recovery and forced her to miss out on a second appearance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, having made her debut the year before in the LMP2 class aged just 19.

GT and endurance racing are where the Frenchwoman initially made a name for herself: she absolutely crushed the Ferrari Challenge Europe field by winning nine out of 14 races in 2022, and she’s since featured in the European Le Mans Series, IMSA and WEC for the Iron Dames and sibling Iron Lynx teams.

Among the wins, podiums and accolades (WEC named her ‘Revelation of the Year’ in 2023), Pin also earned herself a nickname: the Pocket Rocket.

“It's come from my teammate Sarah Bovy,” she explains. At the Le Mans Cup, Pin had to chase down a podium finish for the team in the final hour of the race, having been handed the car in P4. “She said I'm a pocket rocket because I'm small, but I can go fast, and I'm sure she will do the job for P3.” She is, she was, and she did.

Does it translate well into French? “Yes, yes! It's much more stylish in English. But it’s fusée de poche. It’s quite good.”

Despite already ticking Le Mans off the bucket list (“a beautiful moment… one of the best racing weeks of my life”), Pin insists that single seaters was “always where I wanted to be”. So when Mercedes offered her a place in F1 Academy, there was no way she was going to turn it down.

On her very first weekend she hit the ground running with such force that the rulebook had to intervene. After cruising to victory from pole in her first race in Saudi Arabia last year, she took the chequered flag again in race two… but without realising. A cool down lap at full racing speed earned her a penalty that cost her the win, and it was the more experienced Abbi Pulling who soon stamped her authority on that season’s championship.

Still, runner-up was a creditable effort given Pin’s polar opposite background to the rest of the grid. As TG puts it, you can be an Olympic sprinter or marathon runner… “Yeah, you cannot be both,” she finishes. “I've been racing in GT and LMP2, but it's way different than single seaters. I’ve learned first endurance racing – the other drivers are all the opposite. They start from single seater and then they go to heavy cars and GT after.”

F1 Academy’s Tatuus F4-T421s have less power on tap than your average GT3 car, but they’re “much lighter so you feel the downforce,” says Pin. “You feel a lot of different things. I had to learn all the basics again, as it’s very different in terms of technique.”

Handily, being on the F1 support bill means F1 levels of support: Lewis Hamilton has been a vocal advocate of the series and Pin herself, while George Russell has been happy to help out a fellow Silver Arrow when he can.

“This year he came to China to see me in the paddock and to talk a bit about the weekend,” says Pin. “He was talking about the degradation, the track’s characteristics, you know? Like the first sector in Shanghai, the technique of it.

“And obviously he had experience also in junior categories, so we are talking about the brakes and the aero and stuff. A lot of things to be honest, but it's cool.”

It seems to be paying off. Fast forward to the here and now, and Pin is going into the season finale double-header in Las Vegas this weekend leading the championship by nine points.

A vast amount of work has brought her to this point: her notebook is stuffed with reams of handwritten notes (duh) – and no doubt Russell’s pearls of wisdom – having combed through on-boards turn by turn in an effort to find precious tenths on the racetrack.

My dream is to reach Formula One one day

And win or lose, Pin is clear about what all her efforts are in aid of. “My dream is to reach Formula One one day. F1 is the ultimate goal, and the team around me has the same goal in mind.”

Obviously TG had to ask about cars too, and although Pin has a soft spot for the 911, away from the racetrack her wheels are far more humble. A Kia Sportage, no less.

Still, if she does win the title on the Las Vegas Strip on Saturday, maybe Mercedes can sort her out with an AMG A45. Compact, rapid – the perfect machine for la fusée de poche.

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F1 Academy's championship leader isn’t afraid to dream big