Doriane Pin has become F1 Academy champion after the Mercedes-backed driver secured the result she needed in the final race of the season in Las Vegas to beat Ferrari’s Maya Weug to the title.
The 21-year-old Frenchwoman only needed to finish in the top six of Race Two to clinch the crown after she won Saturday’s reverse-grid race, in which Ferrari rival Weug crashed out in a collision on the formation lap. Weug needed a win in the final race to have any chance of denying Pin. Although she passed Pin with two laps to go to take third, she finished behind second-placed Alisha Palmowski and winner Chloe Chambers, who led every lap from pole to win on home soil.
Pin dropped to fifth after also being passed by Alba Larsen, but that did not affect the championship outcome; she finished the season 15 points clear of Weug in the standings.
Pin is the all-female series’ third champion, following Marta Garcia in 2023 and Abbi Pulling in 2024. She had finished second to Pulling last year in her first season of single-seater racing.
After the race, Pin was congratulated in parc fermé by Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff and drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli, and she also received post-race congratulations from F1 president Stefano Domenicali. “It’s incredible, I can’t believe it!” said Pin. “I worked so hard for this with the team. They have been part of my success since day one when we joined Mercedes and joined single-seater racing in 2024. We worked only to be champion, so really happy to work with them to achieve amazing things together. Not only them here today but also all the people who helped me behind the scenes at the beginning of my career. My family, my dad and Iron Dames that have been part of this success. We are here today because we are strong together, and we are champions!”
Prema, the team Pin drives for, had already clinched the teams’ title for the third consecutive year in Race One.