Doriane Pin: F1 ACADEMY champion, still pushing

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3:14Since she first sat in a go-kart, Dorian Pan has only wanted to drive. Nine years old and you're driving 90 kph and you like feel like a superior, you know. The first thing I love is the sensation and the driving, but I'm very competitive and I don't like losing. Dorian raced and she won, but that wasn't enough. Aged just 11, she walked into meetings to find sponsors so she could move up to cars, endurance racing and Le Mans. Her goal, a career in open wheel racing. Her dream, Formula One. Tori Alpaz has won the championship. Yes! I love you guys. F1 Academy champion, Mercedes development driver, poised to drive an F1 car for the first time.

4:10In five years, where could Durian be? I hope I will have a racing suit. A Mercedes racing suit. Mercedes with the stars being Formula One.

4:27Hello and welcome to F1 Beyond the Grid with me, Tom Clarkson. Every driver who makes it into the Formula One paddock has given everything they have to be there. And Dorian Pan is no exception. From a young age, it was clear she had the talent, she just needed the opportunity. She showed her speed with sports car wins and honed her race craft in endurance racing, including the Le Mans 24 Hours. Mercedes spotted her and gave her a seat in F1 Academy. Suddenly, Dorian was in the same team as her racing role model, Lewis Hamilton. Advice from him, George Russell, Kimi Antonelli and F1 Academy boss Susie Wolfe helped her make the switch to open-wheel race cars on Grand Prix circuits.

5:17Second in her first season, she sealed the F1 Academy title in year two on the streets of Las Vegas. Her target is the same as it was when she first sat in a cart. racing in Formula One. Now, a bit of a glimpse behind the scenes before we start. F1 Beyond the Grid is recorded at racetracks around the world, and occasionally we have to record when there are cars on track. When I spoke to Dorian, we were sitting in a room above the start-finish straight in Shanghai, and the Porsche Super Cup support race was on. So it's a little bit noisy, but hey, that's part of being at the racetrack.

6:03dorian thank you for your time how are things good good and you very well thank you now you're a busy lady reigning f1 academy champion you're um the mercedes development driver in formula one you're racing lmp2 um do you like the variety you've got going on at the moment i like being busy for sure because i love what i do and having all these opportunities it's uh it's great for me and for my learning and for my career as well so i'm enjoying everything does variety as a racing driver make you better all the different experiences yes definitely definitely more you're working with experienced people and being around with with them you obviously learn a lot of things and you can reflect on yourself as well to progress and to bring some new things into your career and your approach to racing and stuff.

7:00So definitely. Well, let's start. We're going to break this down, but let's start with Formula One. You are the development driver for Mercedes. What does the role entail? So basically, I'm doing some simulator work with the F1 team. so being in the simulator with the engineer and doing a lot of testing and we have a lot to do with the new car obviously so a lot of work into the simulator and then on the side I'm going to be in the F1 Academy races as well to help Peyton Westcott, that is the new F1 Academy driver racing for Mercedes and I'm here to share my experience and try to help her progress into her young racing career because she's only 16.

7:50And yeah, I'm looking forward to see her progression as well. Well, come on to Peyton. Can we start by talking about the sim in Brackley? What does that mean in terms of, are you helping develop this year's car? Are you there on Friday nights during, you know, during a Grand Prix weekend? What does that look like? Yeah, basically we are doing the work to develop the car. So there's a lot of test items that engineers want to try. And we are here to test everything, then to send and give feedback to them. So we can go to all of these. And then we have some new inventions to the car or new improvement.

8:33And that's the job of us inside the CIM is to really be precise on the feedback and give the maximum info while driving on everything we do to then progress on and on. How complex are the simulators? How long has it taken you to get used to it? One morning, actually. Yeah, yeah. No, it's very realistic compared to, I guess, to the real car. I haven't driven yet, but probably this year in a private test. but it's very realistic and you can really give the feedback. It's exactly the same car as the real one when I'm talking to George and the team. You can really do a very good job in the sim and it's relevant in real life.

9:29So yeah, everything is very precise. Could anyone who's done a bit of sim racing jump on a Formula One simulator and do a good job? It's a big step. I'm not a driver that did a lot of things in the past. So I did it during COVID, obviously, because we had no racing. But for sure, you have the time to adapt. And there's a lot of things going on. It's a F1 car and there's a lot of technical stuff that you have to learn. And the engineers are here to help you as well. There's a lot of engineers as well. So they are here full time at Bracley to work with all the drivers that are coming to the sim.

10:07So, yeah, it's definitely very complex, but very interesting for us. How long is a sim session? It's full day normally. It's from 8 hours? 8 to 6, 7 p.m. and with a short break to eat. But yeah, it's quite a lot of work. I find this fascinating. How many laps can you do from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.? you can do a lot you can do a lot I did for my first day of the sim I did the 102 laps wow so quite a lot which racetrack Abu Dhabi ok you're going to be quick when you next go to Abu Dhabi aren't you now you mentioned something a moment ago about driving a real Formula 1 car has Toto said that yes obviously we had to to see how is the sim going and then it was the potential next step but the scene went well, very well actually.

11:04And that's why they had the idea to put me in a private test and to give me the chance to drive the real car. So definitely I'm really pushing for it as well because I really want my chance to drive the car and to show that there is a potential because my target is to go to Formula One. So I will make sure that I'm fully ready before jumping in the car in the real life. What do you think will be the biggest difference with the sim? I think the downforce, because the sim is very realistic, but the downforce is huge in F1. And that will be the most, yeah, the most different. Have you had a seat fit yet?

11:49No, not yet. We need to be there when this happens. Now, can I talk to you about your relationship with Mercedes? It began a couple of years ago, didn't it? when you joined the F1 Academy. Just how did the conversations begin? Was it Gwen Lagrue who first got in touch? Yes, Gwen. Obviously, that is helping me a lot in my racing career as soon as I joined Mercedes. But yes, obviously, we had some discussions end of 2023. I was racing in the World Dungeon Championship in LMP2 with Prema. And winning. Yes. And then we decided to do the jump into single-seater racing because that was my target in my racing career.

12:35And obviously Mercedes came to us as well. I mean, we all had the discussion to join the junior program in 2024. How different is a sports car compared to a Formula 4 car like F1 Academy? It's very different. is the endurance racing world is very different to F1, for sure. It's a lot about management and teamwork. And it's also teamwork, obviously, in Formula One. Everyone is part of success and everyone has to be involved. But endurance races is obviously a more heavier car, so different driving styles. GT is proper racing because you can you can allow to touch a bit and do some Rubbing's racing Dorian right sorry Rubbing's racing yeah yes but no LMP2 and Hypercar is also very interesting categories and a lot of manufacturers are coming to to the World London Championship so in the future I think it will be very interesting to follow and to watch and to be racing on as well so Because this is quite a well-trodden path for Mercedes.

13:52I think back to the Mercedes juniors of the early 90s, Schumacher, Wendlinger, Frensen, racing in Weck. And then, of course, all three of those make it to Formula One and Michael Schumacher needs no introduction. Are your inputs very different as a driver, though? Is there more subtlety, I suppose, to racing a single seater? Yeah, it's slightly different. But it's still a lot of performance at the end. you have to have the fuel strategy, tire strategy in endurance, but you still need to drive as fast as possible, you know, trying to fuel save and tire save and at the same time be the fastest on track.

14:32And so in terms of driving, sometimes it's a bit different in the races, but in terms of having a LMP2 car GT in a quality, it's the same. I mean, there's a lot of different things, but in time of driving is the same. You try to extract the maximum of performance of the car and the driving is still very committed and there, yeah. What about Le Mans? 24 hours, you've raced there before. Is that a completely different kettle of fish? I mean, 24 hours, I hear some people saying that you're on the limit for 24 hours if you want to win it. Is that your experience of it? Yeah, I've been in the 24 hours of Le Mans in 2023 for my first ever Le Mans.

15:20It is different, yes. But yes, you push for 24 hours for sure because the competition is very high. And the most important thing is obviously to stay out of trouble. But sometimes you have to take risks and there's a lot of things going on. There's the strategy going on. There's obviously the performance for us inside the car. but there is also the traffic management. How hard is that traffic management? It's tough. Because it's busy out there, isn't it? It's very busy, yeah. There is a lot of cars on track. At least it's a long track but still there is always a car and especially when you're the fastest car coming into the GT and you catch up GTs you have to overtake as soon as possible as fast as possible and when you catch up in high speed obviously you have to manage before to arrive at the right moment and position and overtake.

16:12So it's a lot of experience as well. So it's a lot of things that you have to manage as a driver. It's not only driving as fast as possible. And it's a lot about management, but also giving the right feedback of what is happening on track and the conditions. And if it's raining, you have a lot to do in the car to give the information in the pitfall. How do you like sharing a car with another driver? It's good. is it really? Obviously when you're alone your car is set up for you but when you share it's compromises but no it's a good experience to share cars and to be involved to such a big team that everyone is putting their 100 % effort to succeed is beautiful and it's good to to share and talk between drivers and the team because everyone has his way to to think and way to approach and sometimes we can grow faster you know so it's um it's very interesting i hope we're allowed to say this but richard verschill is one of your teammates isn't he now richard's a great guy he's had lots of success in formula two uh he's now part of i think the mclaren young driver program but he's quite a lot bigger than you so how how does it work at a pit stop who who's the least comfortable you or richard we we have to ask him but uh we make the seats feed two weeks ago and was a nightmare to be honest because he's 187 and what are you i'm 160 so so how does that work it's a mess it's a big mess so him is the base of the seat basically he's doing insert that stay always in the car but obviously the full pedal are not um we cannot adjust it when we are it's fixed in the chassis so they are all the way forward obviously and me uh obviously i'm very laid down you know on the on the car so he's the base and i'm doing an insert on the base of richard but are you comfortable not really it's kind of hard we try to but how long is the stint at le more two hours uh depends depends the strategy but sometimes you can triple the stint with the same tires so it's it's three times 40 45 minutes okay so 42 minutes yeah so it's it's quite long but also him he's not very comfortable he's very tall he has the knee almost in the cockpit so he's um it's always a compromise but it's like this this episode is sponsored by indeed there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes of this show, booking guests across time zones, tight turnaround edits, and constant time management.

19:09And when things get chaotic, you realise pretty quickly how important it is to have the right person on your team. If I had to hire someone tomorrow, I wouldn't just want a good editor. I'd want someone who understands pace in long form interviews and can work fast under pressure. And in moments like that, you think, this is a job for sponsored jobs. Because Indeed Sponsored Jobs boosts your listing in search results, helping you reach the candidates with the specific skills and experience you actually need. And it works. Sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed are 95 % more likely to report a hire than non-sponsored jobs.

19:45That's a serious edge when the pressure's on. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. And listeners of this show will get a$75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at Indeed.com slash podcast. Just go to Indeed.com slash podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire?

20:24This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. This episode is sponsored by Indeed. There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes of this show, booking guests across time zones, tight turnaround edits, and constant time management. And when things get chaotic, you realise pretty quickly how important it is to have the right person on your team. If I had to hire someone tomorrow, I wouldn't just want a good editor. I'd want someone who understands pace in long-form interviews and can work fast under pressure. And in moments like that, you think, this is a job for sponsored jobs. Because Indeed Sponsored Jobs boosts your listing in search results, helping you reach the candidates with the specific skills and experience you actually need.

21:08And it works. Sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed are 95 % more likely to report a hire than non-sponsored jobs. That's a serious edge when the pressure's on. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. And listeners of this show will get a$75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at Indeed.com slash podcast. Just go to indeed.com slash podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast.

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22:07back to mercedes how much contact have you had over the last couple of years with the other mercedes juniors and with george and kimmy antonelli yeah i mean sometimes we see each academy i was in the same weekends as formula one so i was able to um to chat with them and to have some advice from from them to ahead of the weekend and it was very useful for me obviously going to a track that i don't know like montreal last year or las vegas i was able to have some

22:52or we see each other on track to see some onboards or some data so I can have the full information and full picture of what I expect before the weekend. What kind of advice would George give you? Because the racetrack is very different in an F1 Academy car versus a Formula 1 car, right? Yeah, for sure. But it's mainly driving the approach, the curbs usage, the track characteristic. F1 and F4 is very different for sure. but track has a characteristic and whatever you have more downforce or high downforce the corner is the same you know what I mean for sure they will in high speed they will have much more speed than us but it's the same approach in terms of driving so those kind of feedbacks from a driver a Formula Land 1 driver is fundamental because it's the best feedback that I can have before jumping in the car.

23:54And I know what to do in high speed, what to approach this corner with elevation, not elevation, curb usage inside, outside. So like bumps as well on braking zone. You have a lot of information that you want to know. And when you jump in the car and you have no question in your head, that's the best way to perform. So that's the thing that I'm always looking for before starting a weekend. How often, though, are you jumping in the car with no questions? A bit like a footballer is very rarely fully fit. Yeah. But they still play. Yeah. How often are you getting in the car? Most of the time, to be honest, because I really like to get prepared well before each event, each session I'm doing, each runs.

24:44So normally I know everything, but you know, what happened on track, you never know. You will never guess before you are actually in the moment. And then it's yourself. You are trying to adapt to the situation and try to perform as best with what you have at the moment. But going on track without any thought and only connecting to the presence, it's the best. And it's how I managed to perform here. But Dorianne, I think you're a driver who can adapt. And I look at the Las Vegas season finale, right? You had every weather thrown at you. And you were one of the ones who sort of kept your head. Yes.

25:26And that ultimately helped win the title, right? Yeah, because before each weekend, I'm visualizing the track. If it's dry, damp, wet, fully wet. So I have the whole picture in my head. And I know what to do with the car. I know how I adapt to the situation, all different situations. I try to visualize where to overtake, where to surprise, where to safety carry start, where to, you know. So I have the full picture in my head. And it's then easier to adapt to things, you know, when you're fully prepared. So then it's natural. I can so see that you've spoken to George a bit because I feel like I'm speaking to George Russell.

26:10He's always so incredibly prepared. We're chatting in China and, you know, he came up with a line yesterday in the press conference where he said, you know, this was the second grippiest start of the year last year. You know, he's just looked at everything. And you strike me as a similar approach. We have a thing in common then. Look, while we're talking racing drivers, can we just discuss inspirations for you? I mean, let's look at the current grid. Who in Formula One has inspired you when you were younger to get involved? The one who inspired me is Lewis Hamilton, mainly, because when I started watching Formula One when I was very little with my dad at home, it was Lewis Hamilton, obviously winning titles.

26:58And my first memories is when he won his first title with, I mean, his first title with Mercedes, second title for him. in 2014 so that was my first memory when then they keep fighting with his teammate nico rosberg so was it a bit surreal then when he would come down to the academy paddock it was it was because i was watching him since a very long time and uh and the first year i joined mercedes he was still in Mercedes so I was able to have some advice and support from him and it's still now up to last year we discussed a bit sometimes when we see each other and you know he's there to help and very easy to talk with so I'm glad we met and I'm glad I had the chance to have some advice from him What about Antonelli?

27:59Have you come across Kimi much? Yeah, definitely. I mean, the last year, obviously. Yeah. We spent some time together between the team, also for media and for events outside the track. But we were able to discuss a bit and also had some advice from him, especially when we had our first test in F1 Academy in the 2025 season. We were testing in Jerez, and I had no idea about anything in Réalés because I never drove there. And he actually, two weeks ago, before I went, he did a F1 test there. So I had the full onboard and the full advice from him as well. So it was good. That's amazing. But how useful is an onboard of F1 if you're not driving F1?

28:52It's still good because they are very good drivers. Obviously, you can get a lot of information watching their onboard. in terms of track usage and overall the balance of the car. You can see a lot on onboard. So even if it's not the same top speed, not the same braking point, actually it's close, the braking points, but the minimum speed and stuff, it's completely different. But as I said, in terms of driving, the lift in high speed and stuff, it's pretty similar, even if you have different speeds. So it's still very, very useful. But obviously, the best thing is to have an onboard from the category you're driving.

29:38But sometimes when we go to Las Vegas and there is only Formula One racing in Las Vegas, you have no choice. And you have to get ready with a full onboard of Formula One. And you have to deal with it. And that's it. What's really coming across is all the Mercedes drivers. It's kind of one family. Is that how it feels on the inside? Yeah, very much, yeah. Do you feel you can ring anyone? Yeah, I can. Yeah, yeah, I can ring anyone. Yes, yes. They are very good, very close to each other, helping each other. Very friendly as well. So, yeah, I met a lot of amazing people within the team and very proud to have this chance to be with the Mercedes family and learning from them and spending time with them and winning with them as well.

30:30Winning with them. We're going to come on to that. But can I ask you about Susie Wolfe? I'm guessing you've had a lot to do with her, both obviously Toto Wolfe's wife, but also what she does at F1 Academy. How much of an inspiration has she been? She has been a big inspiration. Obviously, the project that she created, F1 Academy, is huge and is expanding every year. and she was a driver herself. So she had experience and she knew exactly what we need to us have the same opportunities as the men. And that's why she created this platform, I think, is to give us the opportunity to race, the opportunity to work with a manufacturer and to have the visibility also for our career.

31:23and it's good for us and it's a big chance that we have once in a lifetime. So it's a chance to have her around us. You've already said, Dorian, that you were watching Louis in 2014. So do you remember Susie doing her practices for Williams in 2014? Yeah, it was. But I don't remember the moment where she went on track, but I, yes, I know what she experienced and it's amazing. You seem like a sponge for information. You've talked about advice from George and Louis and Kimmy. What about Susie? What advice has she given you? The best advice she gave me, it's you have to be fully there. And if you are 98 % or 99 % there and you let the 1 % at home or whatever, you don't extract the full potential of your career.

32:32and those things are very important for us because we have opportunities that are not coming every day and we have to take fully and to know to make sure that we are fully ready and to make sure that we are working with the team and the team is there to help you. And it's also important for us to have a very good communication with everyone that is around, you know, everyone that is helping you in your career. And that's what she tells us and she tells me. Is it focus we're talking about here? Or is it more than that? It's more communication. You know what I mean? Like, you have your opportunity, but you have to make sure that everyone is on board, basically.