Doriane Pin’s first F1 test.
Doriane Pin with Mercedes F1 driver George Russell.
At 10:40 a.m. on race day of the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix, 18 Formula 4 cars revved their engines on the grid at the Shanghai International Circuit. This was the second main race of the opening round of the 2026 F1 Academy season—an all-female single-seater championship created by the FIA and Formula 1 to build a clear pathway from karting to F1 for women, addressing the long-standing gender imbalance in the sport.
The 2026 season features 17 full-time drivers aged 16 to 25, 11 of whom are rookies. Each driver can compete for a maximum of two consecutive seasons. In a bid to maximize on-track experience, the calendar includes seven rounds, each with two main races: the first uses a reverse grid of the top eight from qualifying, while the second follows the standard F1 format.
In motorsport, there are no sex-segregated categories, and F1 has never banned women from competing. Yet, since the championship began in 1950, only a handful of women have ever taken part in a Grand Prix. The first was Maria Teresa de Filippis, who started racing to prove she could drive fast like her brothers. She
