How Renault boss Luca de Meo feels about Jack Doohan’s Alpine future amid potential Franco Colapinto swap

Alpine driver Jack Doohan can’t do anything more to save his Formula 1 seat ahead of the next race at Imola.

After the first six Grand Prix of 2025, Jack Doohan is one of four drivers who has yet to score a point.

The Alpine rookie is in good company, with two-time world champion Fernando Alonso also scoreless at this stage.

However, Alonso’s future only appears to be in danger if Red Bull’s Max Verstappen decides to make the leap to Aston Martin ahead of the upcoming regulation change in 2026.

F1 Oversteer understands Doohan could be swapped out immediately for reserve driver Franco Colapinto.

The Australian has struggled to win over all the senior personnel within Alpine, with Flavio Briatore unwilling to back Doohan throughout his time alongside Pierre Gasly.

Team principal Oliver Oakes has been more sympathetic towards his tricky start, but Renault CEO Luca de Meo’s stance might just have sealed the 22-year-old’s fate.

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

Luca de Meo is a big fan of Franco Colapinto as Jack Doohan faces Alpine axe

Journalist Scott Mitchell-Malm was speaking on The Race’s Patreon about the driver situation at Alpine following the Miami Grand Prix.

Reacting to the Australian’s situation, he explained, “The worry is that Doohan hasn’t used the big weapon that he had to full effect, which is the incumbency.

“The fact that he is in the seat right now, if you’ve done a fantastic job the first six races of the year, it wouldn’t matter that it’s only the first six races because Alpine would be convinced and a lot of this would have stopped.

“We know that there’s been some division, let’s say, within the team and the decision makers but also even in the engineering department, they think it’s the right decision, which is obviously consistency.

“You want to carry on with the driver that you’ve done the pre-season testing with and all this development work with.

“There’s been a desire from Flavio Briatore and I think Luca de Meo is also an admirer of Colapinto, they wouldn’t have brought him into the fold if they didn’t seriously think he was an option for the race team, but those on the race team side are thinking, we started with Doohan, we see flashes there.

“And actually, we talk about Doohan’s performance and pace, he actually impressed Alpine with how quick he looked at the start of the year, I think they were surprised by that.”

READ MORE: All you need to know about Alpine F1 Team from team principal to lineage

Damon Hill reacts to Jack Doohan’s potential Alpine exit

Considering how long the likes of Logan Sargeant, Nicholas Latifi and even Nyck de Vries were given to try and prove themselves in Formula 1, Doohan’s potentially imminent exit seems extremely harsh.

His debut at the end of last season wasn’t representative of his ability, as he came up against 19 drivers who had far longer to learn about the intricacies of their cars than he did.

However, there have been a few concerning signs through the first quarter of 2025 that might have made Alpine’s mind up.

Doohan was caught out by the horrific conditions in Australia, failing to complete the first lap, and he’s picked up several penalty points already.

Alpine lost out financially after Doohan’s shunt in Japan, with the 22-year-old putting himself even further behind his rivals that day after giving up his car in practice to now departed reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa.

Damon Hill believes Doohan needed a stronger contract at Alpine to avoid being moved aside so easily.

Unfortunately, he was never in a position of strength within the team, and that looks to have cost him at this early stage of 2025.