From joining the Iron Dames three years ago, to recalling her first 24 hour race experience, Motorsport Week spoke in depth with young female talent Doriane Pin.
The inception of the Iron Dames programme has rapidly fueled female representation in motorsport, especially within the sportscar discipline.
One of the youngest talents, 19-year-old Doriane Pin, has grown with them from a humble seat in a Renault Clio Cup car to competitively racing GTs and endurance prototypes across some of the world’s most famous circuits and gruelling races.
As for many racing drivers, her motorsport career began in the field of karting when she was just nine years old and competed in the national championship in 2016.
Up until 2019 when she won the female category, her statistics were respectively positive and soon enough Pin made her car racing debut when she entered the 2020 Clio Cup France.
Participating in the FIA Girls On Track programme propelled Pin into the limelight as a potential young female star, in what is still a male-dominated sport. However, unlike most sports, drivers of any gender can mix happily in a racing paddock.
The highest finish for a woman at Le Mans was Odette Siko’s fourth place in 1932, and this record demonstrated how Le Mans has always been at the forefront of having women compete on equal terms as everyone else.
“When I was in the Clio Cup in 2020, I was not expecting that three years later, I would be in an LMP2 in WEC,” she said, reflecting on her career trajectory.
“I’ve been really passionate about motorsport since I was very young. I wanted to be a racing driver.
“Even when I was in the Clio Cup, I was dreaming about the big categories like WEC.
“After the Clio Cup, I did a selection in Formula 4 and the FIA Girls On Track initiative.
“And thanks to that, I met the Iron Dames; they started my career.”
In February of 2021, she spent her first outing as an Iron Dames junior, after concluding the Clio Cup chapter where she scored a best race finish place of ninth.
Her first test with the Iron Dames, ahead of a debut Ferrari Challenge Europe campaign, took place at Mugello in Italy.
She describes her impressions of testing with the Iron Dames and the 488 Challenge car, further detailing a comparison to its GT3 and GTE siblings which she would go on to drive in other championships.
“It went well, the test was really good.
“I really appreciated the team and working with them. So yeah, I got the opportunity to drive in with them just three months after these tests, so it was quite quick and I didn’t expect that.
“Ferrari Challenge is closer to a road car, without too much downforce but more powerful than GT3 and GTE.
“It moves a lot, and it’s quite intense to drive, but it’s really fun,” she says in reference to the 30-minute sprint races that make up the Challenge Series.
“In GT3, you have a bit less downforce and a bit more power than GTE. But you have ABS and it makes a big difference.
“GTE is the best compromise because you have no ABS and more downforce.
“You feel the brakes more in the GTE as a result. It was good to drive those three in the same year, because it was good for adaptation.”
One of her main campaigns in 2021 was the ACO-run LMP3/GT3 feeder series, Michelin Le Mans Cup, a feeder series to the European Le Mans Series (ELMS). In the Cup, she claimed five podium finishes en route to fifth in the Drivers’ Standings — quite an achievement considering she was racing Renault Clios less than 12 months previously.
Pin was also selected to take part in an FIA Formula 3 test day later in November at Magny-Cours, alongside fellow Iron Dames racer Maya Weug and W Series drivers Nerea Martí and Irina Sidorkova.
The Frenchwoman is the current reigning champion of the Ferrari Challenge Europe Pro category after dominating the 2022 season. Across 14 races, Pin won nine from 10 pole positions, claiming the title with one race to spare.
Yet this was just one of her checkpoints in a successful 2022 campaign, as she immersed herself within the Iron Dames family.
An ELMS debut for the Iron Dames took place halfway through the season, replacing Rahel Frey, the teenager asserting her abilities with Michelle Gatting and Sarah Bovy, her more experienced teammates.
A team-best second place at Spa-Francorchamps saw her take the fastest GTE lap time during the four-hour race, before securing both hers and Iron Dames’ maiden ELMS victory at the season finale in Portimao.
This was not the only success at Spa. Earlier in the year, the team claimed a win in the Gold category at the historic 24 Hours of Spa endurance race — Pin’s first experience of its kind.
“I didn’t know what to expect, 24 hours is really tough.
“And I was driving with Rahel Frey, Michelle Gatting, and Sarah Bovy.
“They did a lot of 24 hour races before, as had the team, so I had a chat with them on what to expect, what to do, how to increase energy recovery — to not spend and use too much energy before the race because it was quite intense.
“It’s all about teamwork in endurance, so everyone has to stay connected together.
“It was a beautiful week. You know the run plan is going to change 100 times during the race depending on the strategy, weather and car, so it’s quite different but I enjoyed it a lot.
“I drove quite a lot as well, during the night, my first time — it was quite fun. I really liked the night.
“We were not the fastest but we were really consistent without mistakes. No contact, no punctures, the car was at a perfect balance.
“We won and it was beautiful because when you’re driving 24 hours, you don’t really know what’s going to be the result until the end because anything can happen.”
The Iron Dames-entered Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo led the Gold Cup after just six hours, but Doriane shared some of her thoughts despite this.
“[From leading] quite early in the race, we were staying calm until the last hour.
“It was the longest one hour in my life!
“When Rahel passed the chequered flag, it was an amazing sensation.
“I think it was one of the best of my life. I slept for one hour only [during the race], with adrenaline and everything for the first time.
“Everyone was just so happy. And it’s a lot of work for the mechanics, for the engineer, 24 hours in front of the screen.
“I think we deserved this victory, it was a really good memory.”
A growth of knowledge, understanding and passion had flourished with her maiden outings at the Iron Dames. The endurance discipline, in comparison with sprint races, brought a noticeable introduction in the way a car’s handling changed throughout due to track conditions, wear on components, such as the brakes, and tyre management.
She described the Iron Dames as an all-female motorsport project, led by Deborah Mayer, and how she values it in recognition of the opportunities it has given for her career.
“It is really good because it brings more women into motorsport, and we need it because it’s one of the only sports where we can be mixed — not only drivers, but also engineers, team managers, mechanics and everything.
“If I can help and inspire a lot of younger girls, to motivate them to start, it is the best thing that I can do. And I try to give advice and when they text me on social media, or when I see them on track to support us.
“I want to push them to start the sport, because it’s a beautiful sport.
“If you want to reach your dream, you have to do what you love, and keep fighting until you reach it.”
In 2023, alongside a challenging debut at the IMSA 24 Hours of Daytona, Pin made her first step into endurance prototypes with Prema Racing and their LMP2 World Endurance Championship campaign.
At the 2022 WEC Bahrain Rookie Test, she drove the title-winning JOTA LMP2 for the first time. Some months afterwards, Prema announced she would partner Daniil Kvyat and Mirko Bortolotti in one of the Italian team’s Oreca 07-Gibsons.
(L to R): Doriane Pin (FRA) / Mirko Bortolotti (ITA) / Daniil Kvyat (RUS) #63 Prema Racing Oreca 07 – Gibson. 15.04.2023. FIA World Endurance Championship, Round 2, Six Hours of Portimao. Portimao, Portugal. – www.xpbimages.com, EMail: requests@xpbimages.com © Copyright: XPB Images
Four races into her WEC campaign with Prema, Pin has thoroughly enjoyed the exuberance of LMP2 racing and says the car is substantially more exciting to drive compared to the GTs she had become accustomed to in endurance racing.
“This year, driving with Mirko Bortolotti and Daniil Kvyat, they have a lot of experience and they are official Lamborghini LMDh drivers.
“So it’s really good to be with them and to learn from them.”
It was a challenging Centenary Le Mans for the trio in June, with dramatic wet weather conditions and an unfortunate crash by Kvyat which marked a retirement for the team.
If the Spa 24 a year ago represented a high for Doriane, then her Le Mans debut was an alternative turn of circumstances to process.
“It can happen you know, it’s a 24 hour race [and] you’re fighting for the win,” she reconsolidated.
“[The crash] was in the night condition, it was changing a lot.
“I drove two hours beforehand [and] I was under a safety car for almost two hours because it was undrivable.
“It was raining a lot, but we were in slick tyres.
“[Kvyat] lost the car in Porsche Curves at [roughly] midnight.
“For sure, we were all sad and disappointed, because it was the end.
“We are always driving as fast as possible, doing the best possible job to give the car back to our teammates, and Danil was doing a really good job until that point.
“The most important thing was that he was okay, because it was a big crash. I hope we will have more opportunities in the future.”
Regardless of the DNF result, she expressed how special it felt to drive an Oreca 07-Gibson LMP2 car around the historic Circuit de la Sarthe, stating how “the track is fit for prototypes”.
At the 1000 Miles of Sebring season-opener, she managed to score a podium in her debut race, and was denied a potential win in Portimao after the timing of a safety car approaching the end of the race.
Moreover, with the imminent, full-season withdrawal of the LMP2 category after the end of the season, her thoughts are solely focused on the final two races at Fuji and Bahrain before engaging in formal contract negotiations.
During August, her WEC focus will remain on visiting the workshop and running virtual mileage on the simulator, ahead of a maiden trip to the Fuji Speedway circuit.
Stateside, after the 6 Hours of the Glen thriller in June, the Petit Le Mans in October will see Pin’s inaugural IMSA endurance campaign come to a close.
Looking at the wider picture, at just 19 years of age, Pin’s rapid rise in a relatively short amount of time has seen her become a world-renowned star in the making.
Pin’s rapid rise is reflected in the Iron Dames own increase in popularity, since the program’s inception in 2018. The French teenager is just one example of female talent earning its rightful place within the ever-changing sphere of sportscar racing, a discipline where both the driver and team make the difference.
