Men have been the main motorsports players, and only occasionally have women shared the limelight. Things are changing, though, and these days, women are participating in most motorsport forms. One woman in particular, France’s Doriane Pin, may be the best of them all.
It has been nearly fifty years since Italian Lola Lombardi drove in the Spanish Grand Prix at Montjuich Park in Barcelona. She scored the only point as a female Formula 1 driver. Since then, no female driver has ever stepped into the car for a Formula 1 race.
The idea of having a female driver in F1 was never even spoken about during the time of F.O.M. and Bernie Ecclestone. But there were women drivers in other motorsports, especially in the United States, with drivers such as Janet Guthrie and Danica Patrick, the most successful female driver so far, who took the pole at Indianapolis and Daytona, in addition to winning at Motegi (Japan). Patrick never drove a Formula 1 car, but today, women not only have a chance; they are featured in a new series designed for women called Formula 1 Academy. One F1A driver, in particular, merits widespread attention: Doriane Pin.
Pin is a 20-year-old from northern France (Marne Valley). She has already achieved many victories, including in junior karting, where she was the French champion two years in a row and also garnered the female title in the same discipline.
Pin moved onto sportscars in the World Endurance Championship, racing in the former LMP 2 category with Prema, taking the position as one of the drivers with Michelle Gatting and Sarah Bovy in the popular Iron Dames entry. The latter two teamed up with Rahal Frey to take victory in Bahrain’s GTE AM division race. That is the first and only time that a completely female crew of drivers has won a race.
Pin could be the first of many women to race in Formula One. Other possibilities include Jessica Hawkins, who drove a Formula 1 car (Astin Martin) for the first time last year at Silverstone in England. Haas and Alpine also have women drivers in their academies.
We have Verstappen, Leclerc, Hamilton, and Gasly today, but soon, we may also have Pin, Hawkins, Chadwick, (Sophia) Floersch, and (Abbe) Pulling. If things change, credit the Formula 1 Academy as one big reason why.
