The clause in Jack Doohan’s contract that could prevent Franco Colapinto racing for Alpine in 2025

Jack Doohan has not yet stepped into Alpine’s 2025 car and is already at risk of losing his seat.

The Aussie will partner Pierre Gasly at the Enstone-based squad this season as he is finally afforded his chance in F1. The 21-year-old is the first driver from the Alpine Academy to graduate to a race seat.

Doohan did not compete in any category in 2024 as he committed to being Alpine’s reserve driver. Gasly praised Doohan’s efforts in the simulator which proved useful to the team as they enjoyed a resurgence in performance at the end of the season and finished sixth in the Constructors’ Championship.

Doohan made his debut earlier than expected at the 2024 season finale in Abu Dhabi, which left many in F1 feeling unimpressed including Jolyon Palmer. As he heads into 2025, he is under huge pressure to keep his seat.

Alpine have signed Franco Colapinto from Williams, with the Argentine set to serve as their test and reserve driver. The 21-year-old is the third reserve driver the team have signed after Ryo Hirakawa and Paul Aron.

F1 fans already think Colapinto will replace Doohan at some point in the season, mainly due to the rumours of how the Aussie’s contract is set up.

Jack Doohan has performance criteria in his contract that could prevent Alpine from dropping him

It has been reported that Doohan’s contract is only for six races, giving him very limited time to prove himself in F1. Despite this, Alpine are backing Doohan as they plan to start him and Gasly at the season opener in Melbourne.

Speaking on The Race F1 Podcast, journalist Scott Mitchell-Malm discussed Doohan’s contract further as he heard that there is a ‘performance criteria’ where Alpine could replace him with Colapinto.

READ MORE: Who is Alpine F1 driver Jack Doohan? All to know from his girlfriend to dad

He states that this ‘presumably’ means there is a performance criteria that, if Doohan can achieve it or exceed it, the team will have no way to drop him.

“What I have been told myself and what I now know that others have heard separately, that Doohan’s got a six-race exit clause in his contract,” he said.

“Which, especially [for] a young driver for performance reasons, definitely isn’t unheard of in Formula 1. I feel like six races would be a particularly aggressive version of it.

“That means that there’s a performance criteria to hit whereby Alpine can drop him. Which presumably therefore means there’s a performance criteria that Doohan can hit whereby Alpine can’t drop him.

“And if he hits that and exceeds that, then Alpine should have no reason to or mechanism to get rid of him easily.”

Can Jack Doohan keep his seat in 2025?

Considering the money Alpine would have spent on bringing in Colapinto – Red Bull were willing to offer £15.4m to Williams when they were interested – it is hard to imagine the team want to keep him sidelined for too long.

The Argentine impressed in his nine-race stint with Williams. Despite having multiple heavy crashes, he scored five points in that time and put pressure on his teammate Alex Albon.

Colapinto has more race experience than Doohan and brings incredible commercial value through his sponsorships and huge fanbase in South America.

Even Williams were surprised by Colapinto’s commercial impact and Alpine will certainly be looking to take advantage of that.

But for now, they are seemingly committed to Doohan, but he has limited time to show what he can do. Performing in the first six races under pressure from Colapinto would arguably be as impressive as what the Argentine achieved last year.