Doriane Pin, a Mercedes F1 Academy star, lost the race in Jeddah because she didn’t realize it was over.
In addition to Formula 1 competing in the second round of their 2024 campaign in Saudi Arabia, the all-female F1 Academy series began their second season with a two-race round at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
Doriane Pin takes the checkered flag twice in race two, but loses the victory.
During the 2024 season, the relationship between Formula One and Formula One Academy was further enhanced as all ten Formula One teams had to support a driver to compete in their livery. Pin, a 20-year-old French racer, represented Mercedes in this capacity.
She would also start her season in the best possible way, winning both of the races that were up for grabs. However, a curious error cost her that triumph, as Pin didn’t realize that race two had truly ended.
Pin’s Prema team was busy celebrating her double victory on the pit wall after she took the lead for the first time, but she was still going all out on the circuit during the cooling lap.
After Pin finished two circuits at full speed, Race Control decided to issue a drive-through penalty, which was later changed to a 20-second time penalty. In the end, the red flag was required to stop Pin.
As a result, Pin drops to P9, and Alpine junior Abbi Pulling takes over the lead in race two.
According to the F1 Academy website, Doriane Pin was given a drive-through penalty for twice crossing the checkered flag and running two laps at full speed before the red flag was raised.
“The penalty has been converted into a 20-second penalty added to her elapsed race time because it could not be served in-race.”
With F1 Academy returning to action in May at the Miami International Autodrome as part of F1’s Miami Grand Prix race weekend, Pin will now try to move past this perplexing occurrence and gather momentum for what appears to be a developing title threat.