{"id":612680,"date":"2026-04-18T16:03:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T16:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/612680\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T16:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T16:03:11","slug":"doriane-pin-reflects-on-unreal-maiden-f1-test-an-extremely-emotional-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/612680\/","title":{"rendered":"Doriane Pin reflects on &#8220;unreal&#8221; maiden F1 test: &#8220;An extremely emotional day&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>2025 F1 Academy champion Doriane Pin has completed her maiden Formula 1 test with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/team\/mercedes\/5\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Mercedes<\/a> at Silverstone.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The French driver drove the constructors&#8217; championship-winning W12 from the 2021 season and completed 76 laps of the Silverstone Circuit, totalling 200km. Current Mercedes F1 drivers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/george-russell\/21167\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">George Russell<\/a> and Kimi Antonelli were seen supporting Pin in the garage for the milestone moment.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Driving an F1 car for the first time today was unreal,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercedesamgf1.com\/news\/f1-academy-champion-doriane-pin-breaks-new-ground-with-maiden-f1-test\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Pin said after finishing the test<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am very grateful to have been given this opportunity and to be surrounded by this incredible team. It was a unique opportunity and I made sure to enjoy my day to the fullest, along with doing the best job I could.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Whilst being a female driver doesn\u2019t define me, it was great to show what we can do. It was an extremely emotional day and I\u2019m also thankful I was able to share this experience with my family.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The W12 is obviously really different from the other cars I\u2019ve been able to drive. Everything is different, bigger and more powerful. I am glad I was able to build confidence lap after lap and show what I was capable of.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Pin became the latest woman to get behind the wheel of an F1 car after Jessica Hawkins took part in a private test with Aston Martin in 2023, but is the first woman to drive a Mercedes F1 car.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/doriane-pin-mercedes-w12.jpg\" alt=\"Doriane Pin, Mercedes  W12\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"title\">Doriane Pin, Mercedes W12<\/p>\n<p class=\"photographer\">Photo by: Mercedes AMG<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is always really special for a young driver to drive an F1 car for the very first time,&#8221; said Gwen Lagrue, Mercedes driver development adviser. &#8220;Today, it is even more unique as\u00a0Doriane is the first ever woman to drive a Mercedes F1 car.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are very proud to show to the next generation of female drivers that driving an F1 car is achievable. 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.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Doriane can certainly act as an inspiration for those following in her wheel tracks as she continues her career and role as Development Driver with our team.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Mercedes trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin, added that Pin impressed the whole team with her preparation and professionalism.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s been great to have Doriane complete a day of testing with the W12 today,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It marks another major step on what is proving to be a very exciting and promising career and also makes her the first ever female driver of a Mercedes F1 car.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Her preparation and professionalism has impressed the whole team and she should be really proud of what she has achieved. Whatever series you come from, it is always a massive step when getting into an F1 car but she looked at home from the very first laps and was able to enjoy driving the car on the limit.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>After winning the 2025 F1 Academy championship, Pin currently serves as a Mercedes development driver, in addition to responsibilities in other racing series.<\/p>\n<p>            We want your opinion!<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-auto\">What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?<\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"#\" class=\"ms-link text-link font-bold\">Take our 5 minute survey.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-1 text-body\">&#8211; The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2025 F1 Academy champion Doriane Pin has completed her maiden Formula 1 test with Mercedes at Silverstone.\u00a0 The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,132738,230688,578,576,577,230298,1881,230297,82,4962],"class_list":["post-612680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-doriane-pin","tag-doriane-pin-reflects-on-unreal-maiden-f1-test-an-extremely-emotional-day","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-jeddah-street-circuit","tag-mercedes","tag-saudi-arabian-gp","tag-sports","tag-trendingteam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}