Alpine driver Jack Doohan will know all too well that he could be running out of time to save his Formula 1 seat.
Franco Colapinto and Paul Aron tested at Monza over the weekend while Doohan was racing at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Alpine are the only team who have yet to score a point this season, with Pierre Gasly and Doohan both failing to trouble the top 10 in any of the first three races this year.
| Position | Constructors’ Standings | Points |
| 1 |
McLaren Racing |
111 |
| 2 |
Mercedes-AMG Petronas |
75 |
| 3 |
Red Bull Racing |
61 |
| 4 |
Scuderia Ferrari |
35 |
| 5 |
Williams F1 Team |
19 |
| 6 |
Haas F1 Team |
15 |
| 7 |
Aston Martin F1 Team |
10 |
| 8 |
Racing Bulls |
7 |
| 9 |
Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber |
6 |
| 10 |
Alpine F1 Team |
0 |
Gasly has come close to breaking his duck, finishing 11th in Australia and China before he was disqualified in Shanghai.
Doohan, on the other hand, hasn’t quite reached the Frenchman’s level just yet.
His best finish of 13th at the Chinese Grand Prix means he doesn’t currently sit bottom of the drivers’ championship, with that unfortunate honour falling to Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto.
However, Doohan’s Alpine future is at risk, and executive advisor Flavio Briatore won’t be too happy with what he’s seen so far this year.
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Journalist Michael Schmidt was speaking on the Formel1.de YouTube channel about the driver situation at Alpine.
With Colapinto preparing for his first free practice run for Alpine at the Bahrain Grand Prix, Schmidt said: “We hear that Franco Colapinto is already in the car for the next race.
“Now, there’s a good argument for Flavio Briatore, he doesn’t even need to look at the stopwatch.
“Things aren’t looking so bad for Doohan, he’s not that far from Gasly.
“But he delivered two total write-offs, and that, of course, goes into the budget cap.
“Melbourne, first lap at 250 km/h, he hit the wall and the tyres flew off the car. There wasn’t much left of the car.
A huge impact for Jack Doohan at Turn 1 😲
Doohan is OK and out of the car #F1 #JapaneseGP pic.twitter.com/E0eyamwiVj
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 4, 2025
“And now that was, I would say, one of the worst accidents in recent times.
“When you saw the camera perspective from the side, the speed at which the car hammered into the tyre well. It was really terrifying.
“You fly towards the first corner at 320 km/h, he left the DRS open because it worked on the simulator, and there was no accident.
“And then he thought, maybe it always works like that; he should have asked Gasly beforehand.”
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A report from the Spanish outlet Marca suggests that news could come ‘at any moment’ that Doohan will be replaced by one of Alpine’s reserve drivers.
What’s so unfair about the position Doohan finds himself in is that his performances haven’t dictated the pressure being placed on him.
He made a rushed debut in Abu Dhabi last year after Esteban Ocon was released, and by the time he reached Bahrain for pre-season testing, talk in the paddock was already suggesting that he was in danger after Alpine moved to sign Colapinto from Williams.
Drivers had sympathy for Doohan’s crash in Australia, with five other racers also finding the barriers and Kimi Antonelli narrowly avoiding an identical shunt at the same moment on the opening lap in Melbourne.
However, his error in Japan is harder to justify, with his decision to leave the DRS open leaving him vulnerable to such a high-speed crash.
Alpine haven’t made things easy for Doohan, and while team principal Oliver Oakes won’t admit that FP1 is a straight shootout between the Australian and Colapinto, it’ll be hard for comparisons not to be drawn between their performances during that hour of running.
