Ralf Schumacher claims Jack Doohan does not know if he’ll be in the cockpit of the Alpine A525 in Bahrain after yet another difficult weekend in Suzuka.

Doohan’s weekend got off to the worst start possible when the Australian driver had to hand his A525 over to test driver Ryo Hirakawa for one of Alpine’s young driver outings.

Has F1 seen the last of Jack Doohan?

Coming at a time when Doohan needed mileage in the car, that was evident when he suffered a huge 180mph crash on only his fourth lap in second practice.

Amidst debate as to whether his car bottomed out or he caught a tail wind gust, Alpine revealed it was a “misjudgment” from the driver that led to the high-speed crash at Turn 1.

“It was a misjudgment of not closing the DRS into Turn 1,” declared team principal Oliver Oakes. “It is something to learn from.”

Doohan went on to qualify 19th for the Japanese Grand Prix, but collected one accolade come the end of the 53-lap race as he made up four places, the most of any driver.

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But if you ask Schumacher, it’s not enough to save his seat.

“He’s spurred on by his own team, but also by his driving,” the former F1 driver told Sky Deutschland. “He makes a lot of mistakes and is not fast enough.

One more thing happened this week. Ryo Hirakawa, who got into the car in the first practice session, was directly on par with Pierre Gasly.

“He gets in and makes this fatal mistake. This will be analysed from the team’s point of view.

“At the moment, he is overwhelmed by the situation. The team will sit down with him and I am curious to see what happens.

“He’s not sure he’ll be at the next race.”

Schumacher’s comments came as Alpine put reserve driver and 2024 super sub Franco Colapinto through a private test at the Monza circuit behind the wheel of a two-year-old A523.

The Argentinean driver was in action a day after Alpine’s other reserve, one of four, Paul Aron testing the car.

Schumacher isn’t the only former driver waiting to see what happens next, Jacques Villeneuve telling Sky F1 in Japan that he believes Doohan’s mistakes are down the huge pressure that the 21-year-old is facing amidst the constant rumours of his soon-to-be Alpine exit.

“The problem is,” said the 1997 World Champion, “he’s known before the first race that he probably would not finish this season. He’s been put under tremendous pressure by Flavio [Briatore, Alpine advisor] mainly, with Colapinto there in the wing, and the writing was on the wall.

“And his driving has been one of desperation, having to prove that he’s at least better than [Pierre] Gasly, so they should keep him.

“When he’s already been told that, ‘Look, you do a few races, but then you’ll probably be replaced’, and you can see it in his driving. It’s not comfortable. It’s really not comfortable.

“And when the driver is in that situation, even, psychologically, the driving will not be natural and small mistakes will start happening.”

Alpine remains the only team yet to score a point this season.

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