Racings big unsolved problem.

Doriane Pin: A woman. In motorsport. The F1 academy 2025 champion. First woman to drive a modern Mercedes F1 car. Broke the  record of the 24 hours of Le Mans (endurance race) LMP2 class qualifying lap time. Secured a class win in the prestigious 24 hours of Spa endurance race. And still they said she couldn’t compete in Formula One. Why? Because she’s a woman.

Let’s just start with the fact that more than 750 drivers have started a Formula One Grand Prix. Only two women have ever made the grid. The last woman to start a Formula One race was Lella Lombardi in 1976, roughly half a century ago. 

Unlike football, tennis, or athletics, motorsport is one of the few sports where men and women can theoretically compete The car doesn’t know your gender does it? Which makes the question why aren't there more woman in motorsport even more relevant, because this just proves that a woman could easily lap all of the grids best drivers. And yet it almost never happens. Why?

Physical strength? F1 drivers are athletes, but dont have the strength requirements of rowing, rugby or weightlifting. Women have succeeded in way more physically demanding environments. Talent? What evidence is there that half the world's population suddenly loses the ability to identify a racing line. Interest in the sport? Maybe. But it is easier to fall in love with a sport when you can imagine a place for yourself in it.

Ask yourself this-when you started reading this article did you want to read more because Doriane Pin was a racer or did you want to read more because she was a woman racer? I’m guessing it’s the latter. Rising stars are only recognised because they are female. That’s why the goal is not only to get more women onto the grid but to prove that woman have the talent and physical and mental strength to beat every man on the grid. The goal is to have every racer recognised because the are fast not because of their gender.

Doriane Pin's greatest strength is not that she is a woman. It is that she keeps being quick enough to make that fact secondary. It’s because she takes opportunities instead of waiting for them to come to her. It’s because she is a born racer.

For all the amazing cars and technology, motorsports still haven't figured out how to get more women onto the grid. That's why we need more Doriane Pins to show young girls all over the world that it doesn’t matter what gender you are the only thing that really matters in Formula One is how fast you are. Because the stopwatch doesn’t know or doesn’t care about your gender.