Damon Hill believes some F1 drivers need “better contracts” as Jack Doohan’s time as a race driver at Alpine is set to come to an end.

After the first six races of the F1 2025 season, Jack Doohan looks set to be replaced by Franco Colapinto for the rest of the year.

Damon Hill weighs in on Jack Doohan speculation

Alpine is yet to confirm its intentions with Jack Doohan for the rest of the season, with the Australian set to lose his race seat ahead of the Imola Grand Prix as the Enstone-based squad is lining up reserve driver Franco Colapinto to take over the cockpit alongside Pierre Gasly for the rest of the year.

PlanetF1.com understands Doohan won’t be parting ways entirely with Alpine, suggesting that he may slot back into a reserve driver role alongside Paul Aron – clarity on the situation is not expected until closer to the Imola weekend.

Doohan, who stepped up to a Formula 1 race seat with Alpine for the last race of the F1 2024 season, has raced under a cloud ever since arriving on the grid, with rumours linking Colapinto with his seat even before Alpine signed the Argentinean driver as reserve driver on a contract understood to extend out until 2029.

Colapinto made a big splash when he arrived in Formula 1 last season, proving a capable match alongside Alex Albon during his first handful of races at Williams, before the pressure of attempting to secure a full-time race seat appeared to get to him as he went through a series of crashes before ending the season on a more solid footing.

His proven points capability and a bevy of lucrative sponsors make him an alluring prospect alongside his driving capabilities, with Renault executive advisor Flavio Briatore apparently willing to sideline Doohan – a driver he manages and a product of the Alpine Academy – in favour of Colapinto.

The speculation surrounding Doohan has always suggested the Australian was only ever assured of the first six races of the season in his contract – rumours which were never shut down properly by Alpine – although his recent form had suggested this evaluation period may have extended out until the summer break.

But a tough weekend in Miami, which started with Doohan lashing out at an “unacceptable” team error in Sprint Qualifying and ended with a first-lap retirement following a collision with Liam Lawson at Turn 1, appears to have sealed his fate.

Multiple publications are similarly reporting that Doohan is set to lose his seat, with 1996 F1 World Champion Damon Hill resharing the BBC’s reporting of the same on his social media, posted with the caption “Looks like some drivers need better contracts!”

Replying to a commenter who said “At least you got to finish the 1996 season”, in reference to Hill’s relationship with Williams ending before the conclusion of his title-winning year, Hill replied, “Thankful for small mercies!”

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Following Doohan’s retirement from the Miami Grand Prix, Sky F1 reporter Ted Kravitz said that he had spotted the 22-year-old being “consoled” by his father Mick – this follows some reports suggesting Doohan was informed of Alpine’s decision to swap drivers before he had left the paddock on Sunday evening.

““He had an incident with a Toro Rosso (sic) and then a puncture and then damage from the Racing Bulls,” Kravitz said.

“And that was him out, I’ve just seen him in the paddock actually being consoled by his dad.

“His place is delicate enough within the team even though Franco Colapinto and the threat of him seems to be gone, but you never know.

“He needed to try and score a point this weekend again and hasn’t, but then again neither has Pierre Gasly.”

While Doohan is one of the four drivers yet to score a point this season, Alpine has scored just a single points finish from its 10 race starts in F1 2025. In a car that has proven to have sporadic pace so far this year, Gasly scored seventh place in Bahrain but, otherwise, has also gone without points.

In the week prior to Miami, the CEO of a prominent sponsor of Colapinto, Horacio Marin of YPF, ‘let slip’ during a television interview that the Argentinean driver will be back in F1 at the Imola round.

Alpine team boss Oliver Oakes responded to this slip by saying,  “I saw it, like everyone else. I think it was a sponsor from Argentina off-camera giving his view on Franco, when he’s going to be in the car.

“I’m sure there’s a lot of people in Argentina who’d like him in the car this Sunday. We’ve been pretty open as a team that that’s just noise.

“Jack needs to continue doing a good job. But it’s natural that there’s always speculation there.”

Asked directly to state whether Doohan would be in the car at Imola, Oakes did not shut down the possibility of change.

“Yeah, as it is today [Friday], Jack is our driver along with Pierre,” he said.

“We’ve been pretty clear on that. We always evaluate, but yeah – today, that is the case.”

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