2 weeks Ago
Aussie young gun Jack Doohan says his Alpine team is satisfied with his performances over the first two rounds of the year despite the French-owned squad failing to score in either grand prix. Doohan is making his full-time debut this season but has started his Formula 1 career under a cloud of speculation that he could be replaced by reserve driver Franco Colapinto as soon as the end of the month. While the Australian is confident of his position at the team and is adamant he will see out the season, Alpine principal Oliver Oakes has passed up several opportunities to quash the rumours.
“We’ll start the year with Pierre and Jack, I can guarantee that,” he told Le Parisien earlier this year in just one example of his equivocation. “After that we’ll see as the season progresses.” Fox Sports, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every qualifying session and race in the 2025 FIA Formula One World ChampionshipTM, LIVE in 4K with no ad-breaks during racing.
New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited time offer. But while paddock chatter of the gravity of the threat to Doohan has varied, the Australian has the advantage of incumbency in his fight to save his seat, and he’s so far wielded it well.
His single-lap speed has been particularly impressive, with his average qualifying deficit to teammate Pierre Gasly over the first two grands prix standing at just 0.043 seconds, continuing the sizzling single-lap form of his junior career. His race pace has been harder to read, however.
His Australian Grand Prix was curtailed by a first-lap crash in treacherous conditions, and while he was able to see the chequered flag in both the sprint and the feature race in China, he ended each with two penalty points for causing a collision and pushing another driver off the track respectively. But speaking to media in Suzuka on Thursday, Doohan insisted that the underlying markers of his Shanghai performance were competitive, with his race pace comparable with that of teammate Gasly. “Underneath all that the pace was strong on one lap and actually race pace,” he said.
“Race pace was very, very similar [to Gasly] until I was holding off a fighting [Isack] Hadjar for the remaining 15 laps. “Over that 46-lap hard stint, even defending for my life, it was less than 0.07 seconds on average difference between myself and Pierre.
“It’s 0.07 seconds slower, yes ..
. but a lot of positives to take forward.” PIT TALK PODCAST: Yuki Tsunoda will make his highly anticipated but high-pressure Red Bull Racing debut at his home grand prix in Suzuka this weekend, but could he really be the solution to the team’s chronic second-driver problems? Despite the scoreless start to the year — though Gasly is also yet to score after being disqualified from ninth in China for running underweight — Doohan took great confidence from his generally smooth transition into the sport.
“What’s important is the team’s opinion,” he said. “The engineers and everyone have been very happy, especially with the race in China. It was strong.
The penalty for sure was a shame, but the guys were very happy with the defending and with the race pace in general and the results. “At the end of the day we just need to string a weekend together, me and Pierre, and try to get some points. That’s the most important thing at the moment.
“But I’m definitely feeling better than I was in testing, in Australia, and then it’s only been growing.” Race management inevitably presents as a steep learning curve for rookies. Integral to a good Sunday performance is an affinity for Pirelli’s delicate tyres, which are unique to Formula 1, and that only comes with seat time.
Despite Doohan having run thousands of kilometres in private testing last year in previous-spec Alpine cars, the regulations dictate that a specific demonstration Pirelli tyre must be used, limiting the usefulness of the sessions to the development of strong race pace. China therefore stood out as a particularly important weekend for the 22-year-old, with a stint in the sprint followed by a full race distance in representative dry conditions, contributing to his Pirelli knowledge bank. “In Abu Dhabi at the end of last year I was very weak in my race pace and understanding the tyre,” he said.
“Knowing so much now coming into this year on how much different the race tyre is compared to the [tests], it was very important that I pushed [in China] — and still, to be honest, I could have pushed more. “[The tests] were excellent to prepare me in a way for driving a Formula 1 car, of the working aspect in a Formula 1 situation. “But like everything, testing for the race, especially there with the different tyres, there’s still a lot to come through, and when you’re on a track on your own, no-one in the grandstands, there’s obviously no pressure there.
“I felt a lot more pressure in Abu Dhabi and was a lot more nervous. I was not feeling, to be honest, at all comfortable at that point, having to look down for my button changes, sort of stressing quite a bit more. “Then already in Australia, a place where I was supposed to feel a lot more pressure, I didn’t, to be honest, at all.
I was really quite chill and calm and felt super comfortable straight away.” It stands Doohan in good stead for this weekend at one of the season’s most difficult tracks, the fearsome Suzuka Circuit. Confidence in the car at this old-school circuit is key to getting a good result, with the margin for error low at a track skirted by gravel and surrounded by unforgiving barriers.
Doohan will start his weekend on the back foot by not starting the weekend at all. Alpine reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa will commandeer his car for first practice, knocking the Australian’s seat time down to two hours before qualifying. The Queenslander typically took the setback in his stride.
“It’ll be good, two,” he said. “In China it was a 40-minute session — we obviously got cut short. “It’s just more opportunity to show that we can do great things.
” The clock is ticking, but Doohan is backing himself to beat it..
