The point of the season has been reached in which speculation has consistently suggested Jack Doohan’s seat security at Alpine may have ended.

Ever since the F1 2025 pre-season, the rumour mill has suggested the Australian was only assured of the first six races of the season, and PlanetF1.com understands the driver situation will be looked at closely before the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in two weeks’ time.

Jack Doohan endures a nightmare weekend in Miami

With Miami representing the sixth and final race of Doohan’s speculated safety net, the Australian endured a difficult weekend in Florida despite showing strong pace in qualifying.

Out-qualifying Pierre Gasly for the first time as teammates, Doohan lined up in 14th but was eliminated on the first lap when he and Liam Lawson came together at Turn 1 – spinning Lawson out, and ripping Doohan’s left-front wheel apart.

It was his second first-lap retirement of the six races, following on from his crash at his home race at Albert Park in the first round.

“It seemed that I was squeezed into Turn 1,” he explained to media, including PlanetF1.com.

“Yeah, nowhere really to go and unavoidable contact and damage, so disappointing, but not much I could do.

“Obviously, at the moment, yeah, you’re disappointed and you’re mad, but you never know. He could have had a car on his inside, squeezing him. I don’t want to put any blame in any direction. Obviously, it didn’t end well for me, which is disappointing. I’ll have to also reflect to see if there’s anything that I could do differently. But at this current point, I don’t think there was much.”

Shortly after the chequered flag, Alpine cancelled team boss Oliver Oakes’ scheduled media session, citing a change in travel plans, with the team having done the same in Japan.

Following the first six races, Doohan is one of four drivers yet to score – but it must be pointed out that, of the 10 race starts so far, Alpine has only scored once as Gasly came home seventh in Bahrain.

Alpine has consistently remained tight-lipped about Doohan’s contract situation and has not explicitly shut down the scenario that Doohan could be replaced at some point this season – the possible replacements being from the team’s reserve driver pool with the leading candidates appearing to be Franco Colapinto and Paul Aron.

On Sunday, Aron posted a picture of himself in the garage with the caption “Soon”, with this post being deleted shortly afterward – PlanetF1.com understands this was due to it being posted with an incorrect caption. It has since been reposted without any caption.

With Alpine – as with every team – required to hand over four practice sessions to a rookie driver in an expansion of this rule for F1 2025, Aron is highly likely to appear in an FP1 session for Alpine very soon, in order to start ticking off this requirement – Colapinto has taken part in too many race weekends to still be eligible to fulfill these rookie outings.

More on the Miami Grand Prix

👉 Miami GP: Piastri continues winning streak after more Verstappen v Norris fireworks

👉 Tempers flare between Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari in Miami GP radio transcript

Oakes was asked about the speculation over Doohan’s seat ahead of the beginning of the European season when he appeared in Friday’s FIA press conference and, once again, left the door open for the possibility of a change.

“Yeah, as it is today, 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.”

Last week, the CEO of a prominent sponsor of Franco Colapinto, the Argentinean rookie who Alpine signed as a reserve driver on a long-term deal ahead of the F1 2025 season, ‘let slip’ on a live microphone during an interview on Argentine television that Colapinto may make his F1 return “in Imola”.

Of this ‘admission’, Oakes said, “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.”

The speculation surrounding Alpine’s second seat stems back almost six months at this point, with Flavio Briatore having been keen on signing Colapinto as the Argentinean driver impressed early in his stint as a replacement for Logan Sargeant at Williams.

With Doohan already signed as a race driver, Colapinto joined Alpine as a reserve driver – on a contract understood to be for five years – and recently took part in a TPC outing at Monza with the Enstone-based squad.

Recently, Doohan appeared to have earned enough leeway to be given until the summer break to impress Alpine, but that situation may have changed over the Miami weekend.

Doohan’s frustrations with the on-track events of the weekend appeared emphasised, with a team error compromising his exit from the garage in SQ1 – an error that cost Doohan significant time and, as a result, prevented him from getting in his second flying lap and consigning him to 17th.

“Man, that’s not acceptable, that is not acceptable,” he angrily said over team radio.

“If you’re gonna send him [Gasly] after me, you have to make sure he’s ready or before me – I can’t turn out and then pull out because he’s going to run into me. And then you guys put me out of Q1, that’s a joke.”

With the Imola Grand Prix two weeks away, Doohan said the upcoming week will be spent in the factory and the sim preparing for the next onslaught of races.

“We have some sim work to do on the car, and then some sim work to do on preparing for the upcoming few races,” he said.

“So [it’s] a good time now to reset, although I feel like I haven’t really even done much driving! So there’ll be just shifting the focus straight to what’s to come.”

Read Next: ‘No eureka moment’ ahead for Red Bull with Miami GP issues explained