Between missing out on FP1 and crashing in FP2, Jack Doohan hasn’t had an easy start to the Japanese Grand Prix weekend.

After qualifying 19th on the grid, the Australian driver admitted that he’d “asked a bit too much” of his Alpine, but that he’s hoping for a stronger race.

Jack Doohan on a tough “bounce back” in Japan

Australian racer Jack Doohan missed out on FP1 in Japan as a result of his team giving Ryo Hirakawa a shot behind the wheel; in FP2, he only managed a few laps before crashing hard into the tire barriers.

It was discovered that Doohan had failed to deactivate his DRS, and as a result, he went careening off the track.

Speaking to media, he admitted that trying to rally his confidence for FP3 was tough.

“Not the easiest to bounce back for FP3, and yeah, obviously confidence — you take it to be honest,” he said after qualifying.

“Yesterday, I was quite in a good way and just a rebuilding over P3, taking it easy, but as well we only got three laps with both red flags, so not much time to also tune the car and also myself.

“And yeah, just unfortunate that I have to obviously then take such big steps to get back to it.”

More analysis from the Japanese GP:

👉 Winners and losers from the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix qualifying

👉 Revealed: The secret design details uncovered at the Japanese GP

Doohan likened Suzuka to a street track, “where FP1, FP2, FP3, you keep taking steps forward and you sort of build up your stones and then you start from there.”

The crash drama meant “I was sort of having to jump a bit more and in the end of Q1, the potential of Q2 was on the cards, would have been, to be honest, a great effort.

“I had to just take, obviously, big steps forward, and my final lap, I just asked a bit too much through Turn 14.

“I was gonna run wide, so I had to get out of it. If I didn’t do that, I’d still be speaking to you now, but I had to give it a go, and unfortunately, I would have liked to have done that over FP.”

When it comes to finding the pace he’s missing, Doohan also admitted that many of the struggles were internal.

“It’s more my confidence but also on the fact that just getting the car to my liking for those high speed corners can contribute to it,” he said.

“I still think I look back now, maybe I could have done a .5, .6, a few tenths away from Pierre, and I can probably go into that a bit in Turn 2, maybe a bit all into these entries for the high speed corners.

“I was happy with the step we made from P3 to Q3,” he said, “although on timesheets I looked poorly.”

Regarding the crash, he noted that he and Alpine had discussed the issue internally, and that now the focus is on maximizing the rest of the weekend.

“Hopefully the weather can help us out a little bit,” Doohan said, referring to the wet forecast for Sunday’s race.

“We really can move forward and we’re just looking to learn as much as I can in the wet, but also maximize any possibilities or circumstances where we can get further up the grid.”

Read next: Uncovered: The puzzling DRS data that adds to Doohan’s mystery crash