Formula E's female presence grows as Mercedes' Pin gets Citroen role

F1 Academy champion Doriane Pin has become an official development driver for the Citroen Formula E team and is set to drive the Gen4 car later this year as she becomes part of the team's testing programme ahead of the homologation period this September.

Pin, who already has a Stellantis motorsport contract and works in a similar role for the Peugeot World Endurance Championship team (as well as the Mercedes Formula 1 team), will now officially be part of the Stellantis young driver programme.

The Race has learned that Pin is yet to drive a Formula E car but will soon get a taste of Gen3 power before potentially also getting a run in the Gen4 test and development car later this summer.

She is highly likely to appear in the official pre-season test at Jarama in November, where Formula E plans to run a third edition of the all-female test sessions.

Stellantis has been investing hugely in drivers for the past 12 months with Nick Cassidy and Theo Pourchaire both having signed long-term deals. Additionally, The Race understands that Formula E title contender Mitch Evans has also completed a deal with the company to race for Opel for several seasons, with confirmation of that deal expected at the end of the present season.

But more than that it also has links to Mercedes via a technical partnership with the UK-based Mercedes High Performance Powertrains division. It is working with this entity on the Gen4 Stellantis project, which will involve providing specific aspects of the motors that will be used on the Citroen and Opel entries next season.

Cassidy and Pourchaire work with Mercedes - Cassidy as an occasional F1 simulator driver and Pourchaire as a fully-fledged one - while Pin has long since been affiliated to Mercedes through her two seasons in F1 Academy.

She won the title last year in a Prema Racing-run Mercedes entry, and last month made her F1 car testing debut at Silverstone.

Pin role strengthens Formula E's female push

When Jeff Dodds took over the reins as CEO at Formula E in June 2023, there were several goals that he laid out for his tenure at the only all-electric world championship.

While several of those are ongoing in terms of absolute achievement, his and Formula E's push to foster more opportunities for talented female drivers is getting strong traction.

Of the 19 drivers on the first all-female test entry list at Jarama in November 2024, six have roles at teams: Alice Powell (Envision); Bianca Bustamante (Cupra Kiro); Sophia Floersch (Opel); Abbi Pulling (Nissan); Nerea Marti (Andretti); and Gabriela Jilkova (Porsche). While some of those already existed prior to that test, the foundation of Formula E's backing and promotion of the test itself will certainly have helped maintain and perhaps solidify those roles too.

With Pin joining that list and becoming an active, dedicated development driver, Dodds' assertion that Formula E can add a new female name to the exploits of Katherine Legge, Simona de Silvestro and Michaela Cerruti - who all raced in the Gen1 era - starts to edge closer to reality.

It feels as though Pin has a genuine chance of becoming the next woman to actually race in Formula E. That's not just because of her pedigree in sportscars and in F1 Academy, which is proven, but also because Stellantis really believes that she can contribute significantly behind the scenes.

Her next step will be attending races as an official reserve driver, something which is believed to be possible for the 2026-27 season.

"Seeing Doriane join the likes of Abbi Pulling, Juju Noda, Nerea Marti and Bianca Bustamante in regular roles with teams shows that Formula E has become the genuine destination for the best female talent in world championship-level motorsport,” Dodds told The Race upon Pin's recruitment to Stellantis's roster.

"By putting her at the heart of Gen4 development, Citroen is giving Doriane a real seat at the table to shape the future of our technology and make a real impact on team performance."

In a way, Pin brings a new layer of credibility to Dodds's and Formula E's vision. She is clearly one of the top female drivers on the planet and, while her F1 possibilities are slight, Formula E could be a genuine home for her in the coming years.

If you have the pace, you might get a place (on the grid). That's the mantra of all credible championships that are not reliant on pay drivers or elaborate corporate imperatives. That is why Dodds, sometimes very capable of over-egging multiple promotional puddings, is right when he asserts that in some ways Formula E is "breaking down those old barriers and showing that if you have the pace, this is the championship where you’ll get the tools to prove it".

"Doriane is a fantastic addition to the Citroen team and I'm excited to see the contribution she makes."