There are days that are etched in motorsport history not for what happens in a race, but for what happens before that race exists. April 18 2026 is one of those days. Doriane Pin, the 2025 F1 Academy champion, completed her first test in a Formula 1 car at the wheel of the Mercedes W12 at Silverstone Circuit, becoming the first woman in the history of the hybrid era’s most successful team to drive one of their cars. 76 laps. 200 kilometres. A day Pin will remember for life.
The news had not arrived without announcement. Mercedes had posted on social media on Friday evening an image of Pin in her silver race suit, holding her helmet in front of the W12. The car that Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas had driven in the epic 2021 season, the one decided on the final lap of the final grand prix in Abu Dhabi. The image was enough to generate expectation across the paddock. On Saturday morning the official confirmation arrived.
The test was conducted under the TPC framework, Testing of Previous Cars, the regulation that allows Formula 1 teams to run cars older than two years for development purposes. Pin came to the test after months of work in the Mercedes simulator at their Brackley headquarters, where her lap times and the quality of her technical feedback had impressed the team to the point where Toto Wolff told her the next step would be the real car.
Pin herself had anticipated it in a recent interview on the Formula 1 Beyond The Grid podcast: he said it. Obviously we had to see how the simulator was going and then it was the potential next step, but the simulator went well, very well actually, and that is why they had the idea to put me in a private test and give me the chance to drive the real car. So definitely I am really pushing for it because I really want my chance to drive the car and to show that there is potential because my target is to go to Formula 1.
The test day was April 17, with Mercedes publishing images and official confirmation on April 18. Pin completed 76 laps of the Silverstone National Circuit, accumulating the 200 kilometres of distance. The team highlighted her pace, feedback and technical understanding as aspects that impressed the entire garage.
Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes trackside engineering director, was definitive in his assessment: it has been great to have Doriane complete a day of testing with the W12 today. 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. Her preparation and professionalism has impressed the whole team and she should be really proud of what she has achieved.
But the most emotionally resonant message of the day came from an unexpectedly personal source. Susie Wolff, F1 Academy managing director and the last woman to participate in a Grand Prix weekend when she drove in Williams’ free practice session at Silverstone in 2014, twelve years earlier, had sent Pin a personal message before the test: Doriane, our F1 Academy champion, your first Formula 1 test. What a special day. It will not be until you are strapped in and they start up that engine that it will all become real. You will get out onto the track at Silverstone and you will not believe how fast that car can go in a straight line. The Maggots, Becketts section, what a brilliant corner section to drive in an F1 car. We will be rooting for you from a distance. We are proud of you. Good luck!
Pin responded with genuine emotion after completing the test: driving an F1 car for the first time today was unreal. I am very grateful to have been given this opportunity and to be surrounded by this incredible team.
The historical dimension of the day is double. Pin is not only the first woman to drive a Mercedes Formula 1 car. She is also the first F1 Academy champion to complete a test in a top-category car, the first Frenchwoman to drive modern Formula 1 machinery, and the driver who most clearly is tracing a credible path toward a Grand Prix starting grid since Susie Wolff ran at Silverstone in 2014.
The most recent comparable reference is Jessica Hawkins with Aston Martin in 2023. But what Pin is building with Mercedes is different in depth: the simulator for months, integration with the engineering team, a test with pace results that convinced a team that has won eight constructors’ championships. This is not a public relations gesture. It is a serious development programme.
Formula 1 returns May 1-3 in Miami. Doriane Pin will not be on the grid. Not yet. But on April 18 2026 at Silverstone, with the silver W12, 76 laps and the emotion in her voice when she climbed out of the car, the message was unequivocal: the path exists, and she is walking it.
Sources: Formula1.com official, Yahoo Sports, RacingNews365, Planet F1, Motorsport.com, Goodwood Road and Racing, Mercedes AMG F1 Team official mercedesamgf1.com
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