F1 Academy Driver Accidentally Takes The Checkered Flag Twice, Costs Her A Win

F1 Academy — the all-female support series for Formula 1 — kicked off its season over the weekend and it wasn't without some controversy.

The series made its debut last year, but this season sees 10 of the drivers on the grid representing F1 teams and driving cars with matching (or close enough) liveries to the big team.

It's a great series and allows some talented ladies a chance to get their foot inside the F1 paddock.

Their first race weekend came in Saudi Arabia on the high-speed Jeddah Corniche circuit.

French Driver Doriane Pin — who drives for PREMA Racing and is supported by Mercedes — earned pol for both races of the series season-opening doubleheader. While she had Alpine's British driver Abbi Pulling on her gearbox practically the entire race, she won the first race by leading from lights to flag.

And speaking of the flag, that cost her a win in the second race of the weekend.

Pin — a rookie in the series who comes from a sportscar racing background — led the second race of the season from lights to flag, once again with Pulling in hot pursuit, however, Pin did drop her after a late safety car restart to breeze to a win.

Or so we thought…

Doriane Pin (28) and Abbi Pulling of Great Britain and Rodin Motorsport (9) battle for track position during the second race of Round 1 Jeddah of the 2024 F1 Academy season at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)

Communication Error Cost Doriane Pin A Weekend Sweep

Pin didn't see the flag — likely because she was focused on setting the fastest lap of the race, which she did — and her team was too busy celebrating to tell her over the radio that she had won the race. So she effectively played to the whistle and hammered in another full-speed lap around the circuit.

Can't fault her for that.

Still, it's a problem because drivers are supposed to take a cool-down lap around the circuit and ease back into the pits, or in Pin's case, onto the grid where drivers in the podium places parked for post-race interviews.

Pin flew past the pit entrance and crossed the line again.

After a red flag was thrown, she returned to the pits, but that in fraction handed her a 20-second penalty, which was only dished out after the podium celebration.

Given the late restart and the fact that this is a spec series — meaning all the cars are identical — that 20-second penalty was huge. It dropped Pin from a race win down to P9.

Here's the kicker, Pulling was elevated to the race win. That means despite Pin dominating the weekend from start to finish, it's Pulling who will head into the next race weekend in Miami with a substantial lead in the standings. Pin dropped to P3 behind her PREMA teammate Maya Weug.

This will be interesting because at least in Saudi Arabia, Pin and Puling were far and away the top drivers all weekend.

If that continues, the championship could be decided by this incident, which would be wild.

Judging by her series debut, points won't be hard to come by for Pin, but that could be a costly communication error.