Relentless and Racey:

How Doriane Won the 2025 F1 ACADEMY Championship

Starting Strong in Shanghai

At the start of the year Doriane said that the F1 ACADEMY opener in Shanghai was the circuit she was most looking forward to racing at, and she laid down an immediate marker in the feature race on Sunday morning.

A daring, but brilliant pass around the outside of Ferrari-supported Maya Weug at Turn One off the rolling restart set Doriane on her way, and she would not be troubled again over the course of the 11-lap race.

It was the perfect start to season two, and another podium would follow in Saudi Arabia a few weeks later, before the series moved to the Sunshine State for the first time in May.

Flying in Florida

With shorter events and evenly matched race cars, few F1 ACADEMY races are won from outside of the front row. But Doriane had other ideas for the Miami reverse-grid race.

P3 in Qualifying saw her start P6 on the Saturday morning, and a clean start coupled with a collision up ahead at Turn One left her P2 by Turn Two.

From there, the French racer dispatched Emma Felbermayr in the Sauber and set about leaving the field in her wake.

Doriane said before the season started that the 2024 Miami race had left determined to master the track this time around, and this was a performance that laid all those demons to rest.

With race number two cancelled due to inclement weather, Doriane left Miami just a point behind Weug, before the next stop in Canada in June.

Teamwork Makes the Dreamwork in Montreal

An extra race was added to the schedule in Canada to make up for the race lost to the conditions in Miami, and as always Doriane ensured she maximised her extra racing opportunity.

Having never been to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve before, Doriane sat down with F1 polesitter from the previous year George before the weekend to help her learn the track.

Both would go on to stand on the top step of the podium that weekend.

A win in race one from P3 on the grid gave her the Championship lead – which she would keep until the chequered flag in Vegas.

A further podium in race three after a P4 in the reverse-grid race gave the Iron Dame a healthy Championship advantage with three rounds of the season to go.

Hanging Tough

Championships aren’t won in a race, they’re won over a season.

In four races in Zandvoort and Singapore, Doriane found her route to the top step of the podium blocked by a hard-charging Weug and a series of strong performances by others on the grid in what was an ultra-competitive F1 ACADEMY line-up for 2025.

But she found the rostrum twice more across those two events, a P3 in Zandvoort and P2 in Singapore – both in the higher-scoring Feature Race – gave her a nine-point lead heading to Nevada.

Victorious in Vegas

The momentum seemed to be with Weug heading from Singapore to a title showdown along the Vegas Strip, but in changeable conditions in Race One, Doriane once again showed her class, kept her head, and mastered the slippery track surface to record win number four of the campaign.

A DNF for her Ferrari title rival put her on the brink of the title a day later, and the crown was secured by 15 points thanks to a P5 finish.

There was time for parc ferme hugs with Toto, Susie, and so many of the Mercedes team members who have supported her on this journey over the past two seasons.

On the biggest weekend of her career so far, Doriane did her talking on track, and like so many famous stars and racers before her in Las Vegas, Doriane’s name was now up in lights as the 2025 F1 ACADEMY champion.

“Doriane’s story is great, I'm really happy for her,” said Toto.

“She was strong all season, and that is something to be proud of. I’m proud of Mercedes that we were able to achieve that with her.”