FRECA: Doriane Pin improves personal best of the season, Maya Weug makes series return at Hungaroring
- MACIEJ JACKIEWICZ
- 5 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Doriane Pin and Maya Weug gained valuable experience during a challenging Formula Regional European Championship weekend at the Hungaroring, with Pin achieving her season-best finish of P17 and Weug stepping in last-minute and returning to the series with a P22 in Race 1.
Doriane Pin and Maya Weug completed a challenging, but valuable weekend of Formula Regional European Championship at Hungaroring. They both made moves forward in the race, gaining valuable experience in the Formula Regional machinery.
Both Maya Weug and Doriane Pin are currently competing in F1 Academy; the French driver, supported by Mercedes, sits at the top of the standings, while Weug, who is backed by Ferrari, is in third, with 72 points to her name. Alongside F1 Academy, Doriane Pin has been competing in the Formula Regional European Championship, where in her second year with three top 20 results, she is gaining experience in the faster Formula Regional car.Â
Maya Weug competed in FRECA full-season in 2023 with KIC Motorsport before moving to F1 Academy. She has returned to the series for the Hungaroring round to replace injured Tim Gerhards in the Saintéloc Racing team.
FRECA drivers headed out for pre-event collective tests on Thursday, and both Maya Weug and Doriane Pin drove over 50 laps around the renovated Hungaroring circuit. Their tests continued to Friday, when the collective tests were held. They once again completed numerous laps, continuing to learn the quirks of the Hungarian venue.
The first important session of the weekend was held early in the morning on Saturday. As per usual, the competitors in qualifying were divided into two groups to give everyone a fair chance of completing a clean lap. Maya Weug found herself in Group A, while Pin was assigned to Group B.
Group A qualifying started first, and instantly as the green flag appeared Maya Weug went out on track. After three laps, which were used to heat her tyres, the Ferrari Driver Academy member started her first flying lap, which initially put her in fifth, but after improvements from others she dropped to last position in the group. The next lap was better, and advanced the Dutch racer to P13. With two minutes to go, she again improved, but it was not enough to go higher in the order. She ended the session in P15, with a 1:39.451 lap time, which was certainly not what she hoped for.
Group B, which featured Doriane Pin, was next on track. Similarly to Weug, Doriane Pin was instantly out of the pits. She started with preparation laps, and with five minutes to go, she set a 1:38.730, which placed her in P4 of the group. She remained in this spot until two minutes to go, where even with an improved lap of 1:38.587, she dropped to P5. After the chequered flag, the Mercedes-backed driver set a nearly identical lap time, but despite that she was classified in P9, as others went quicker on their last laps.
For the first race of the weekend Pin lined up in P17, and Weug started in P30. The first lap saw Ean Eyckmans have an issue, which resulted in him pitting and Weug moving up to 29th. On the following lap Pin dropped to 19th, behind Michael Belov and Giovanni Maschio. After that, both Pin and Weug were closely following their competitors ahead, but were not able to make a move - on the notoriously hard track to pass.
On lap 8 the safety car was deployed, as Édouard Borgna made contact with Saqer Al Maosherji in turn 3. The Kuwaiti competitor retired from the race, and Borgna dropped to the back, which allowed Weug to settle in P27. Two laps later the neutralization ended, and on the restart both female drivers gained a place, as Trident’s Ruiqi Liu encountered issues. Both of them, however, returned to their positions, as Pin was overtaken by Zachary David, while recovering Ruiqi Liu gained a spot at Weug’s expense.
Pin lost another position on lap 13, this time to Enzo Yeh. She was not able to recover this place, as Edu Robinson stopped in turn 1, and triggered another neutralization. The race was resumed with one lap to go, and despite plenty of battles in the pack, both Pin and Weug retained their positions.
At the chequered flag Doriane Pin was classified 20th, while Maya Weug finished in 26th. After the race however, three drivers were disqualified and on top of that Enzo Richer received a five-second penalty. All of these penalties promoted the Mercedes Junior Team driver to P19 and the Ferrari-backed competitor to P22, marking Doriane’s third top-20 of the season up to that point.
At 8:30 am on Sunday FRECA’s second qualifying commenced, and this time it was Group B who went out (on track) first. The first half of the session was spent for preparing the tyres; with 7 minutes to go Pin set a 1:40.799 time, but it was deleted due to track limits. Another lap, this time a 1:39.486 had put her in P4, but after other drivers improved she dropped to eighth. On the next flying lap, she improved by around six tenths of a second, but it was not enough to progress up the timing sheets. At the end, the French national finished tenth in the group.
Weug headed out on track next, with the rest of qualifying’s Group A. Her first flying lap came with 7 minutes to go, as she set a 1:39.891 time. On the next lap she improved by seven tenths, but it was only enough for P12 in the group. After a cooldown lap, she again set a faster time, but was not able to progress up the field. At the chequered flag, she fell to P13, which was still a better result than the one in Qualifying 1.
The last race of the weekend began with Doriane Pin in 20th, and Weug in 25th. After the start the Dutch driver dropped to 26th, but after Giovanni Maschio’s car went wide in the chicane, both female competitors moved up a position. On lap 4 Maya Weug was involved in an incident with Édouard Borgna, which resulted in Weug retiring from the race. Due to this incident, she was penalized with a five-place grid drop for the next race she will participate in.
Pin driving in P19 was keeping herself in touch with the RPM car of Enzo Yeh, but couldn’t get by before the safety car appeared due to Pin’s teammate, Jack Beeton's car had caught fire at turn 1. The race resumed on the next lap, and Pin initially retained her 18th position, but after running wide in turn 12 she dropped to P20. She was however able to regain one position, as Jin Nakamura came in contact with Dion Gowda, which resulted in the Japanese driver dropping to the back of the field.
The rest of the race was calm, as Pin stayed within one second to Zachary David, but was not able to overtake the Maltese. She finished the second race in nineteenth, but again penalties were applied after the race: Ruiqi Liu received a ten-second time penalty, and Enzo Deligny, who finished second, was disqualified for erratic driving after the chequered flag. This resulted in the young, talented Mercedes Junior Team member to be classified seventeenth in the race - her personal best finish to date this year.
"It was a challenging weekend, but we have to take the positive out of it. I think the pace was decent, even if I didn't put everything together in the qualifying."
"We are getting there, and performance is getting better. We have to keep improving the racecraft, and we are looking forward to the French race in Le Castellet. We will continue working, and I think we can deliver something good there.", said Pin after the weekend.
While neither Weug nor Pin broke into the points at Hungaroring, both continued gathering valuable mileage. For Pin, consistent top-20 finishes show solid foundations. For Weug, stepping in last-minute highlighted the challenge of adapting quickly. Both will aim higher in two weeks’ time at Paul Ricard, where Pin’s experience could prove vital.