Alpine staff should be worried about one alarming Jack Doohan trait Franco Colapinto also possesses

Alpine have finally confirmed that Franco Colapinto will replace Jack Doohan after the Miami Grand Prix.

The Aussie was facing increasing pressure to keep his seat in F1 before he had even stepped into an F1 car at the end of 2024. After his retirement in Miami, Alpine have dropped Doohan back to his reserve role, with Colapinto replacing him.

There was disagreement between Oliver Oakes and Flavio Briatore about Doohan and his future, with the latter wanting him to be swapped for Colapinto. Oakes’ resignation as Alpine team principal meant the writing was on the wall for the Aussie.

In his six Grand Prix in 2025, Doohan failed to score points as Alpine sit ninth in the constructors’ championship. While he kept pace with teammate Pierre Gasly for much of the races, several errors cost him.

Heavy crashes in Australia and Japan proved costly to the team, with Doohan racking up £1.12 million in damages – the highest crash bill of any 2025 F1 driver. Briatore used his accidents to justify a driver swap with Colapinto.

Briatore even used Doohan’s debut to highlight his shortcomings in Abu Dhabi last year, indicating that he wanted the Argentine in the car as soon as possible. The issue is that the 21-year-old is, like Doohan, far from perfect.

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Alpine staff should be worried by how crash-prone Franco Colapinto is after replacing Jack Doohan

Many staff wanted to see their second driver afforded more time in the car, with Alpine engineers saying Doohan was ‘nearly there’ after showing some encouraging signs of performance. But his crashes were too much for Briatore, with Colapinto being given an opportunity.

However, some Alpine staff were not keen on signing Colapinto when they brought him on board from Williams on a long-term contract. This may have likely been down to the multitude of crashes the Argentine suffered in 2024 – an alarming trait he shares with Doohan.

While the 21-year-old was an improvement on Logan Sargeant in his nine appearances last season, scoring five points and proving strong competition for Alex Albon, Colapinto was prone to heavy crashes.

Williams had a torrid 2024 campaign, with several accidents damaging the team financially. The Sao Paulo Grand Prix was a nightmare, with Albon and Colapinto crashing heavily in qualifying.

The former’s car could not be repaired on time for the race, while the latter managed to get out for the event. only for him to suffer another accident on lap 32, completely destroying his FW46.

Colapinto cost Williams roughly £1.3m that weekend, with the Grove outfit’s crash bill totalling up to just shy of £2m. While the Argentine has shown he can be fast, and crashes are common for rookies, Doohan was let go by Alpine for this exact reason.

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Alpine have made the same mistake with Franco Colapinto as Jack Doohan with his race spell

Alpine staff should be worried by Colapinto’s proneness to accidents, particularly when he has cost teams the same, if not more, in damages than Doohan did in six races in 2025.

The Argentine will be eager to make an impression with the Enstone outfit as he returns to an F1 race seat. However, like his tenure at Williams, his spell will be short – initially anyway.

Colapinto will replace Doohan for at least five races, with Alpine set to have another evaluation after the British Grand Prix. With this, the team have repeated the same mistake they made with the former when he joined in 2025.

Doohan allegedly had a six-race contract, with appears to have been proven by his exit after Miami. With the pressure that was on him and the limited time to perform, it is no surprise that errors were common from the Aussie.

With Colapinto now being given an even shorter spell than Doohan, and with his crash record being similar to the 22-year-old, it could be a disaster for Alpine if too much pressure is applied.