Jack Doohan has defiantly stated he’s not giving up on his Formula 1 dream and will be watching Franco Colapinto’s five-race Alpine audition with interest.

Alpine announced on Wednesday that Doohan had returned to the reserve driver role that he held last season with Colapinto stepping up as Pierre Gasly’s newest team-mate.

Can Jack Doohan return to the Alpine cockpit?

However, the Argentinean driver, who made a name for himself last season when he impressed many in the paddock as he scored points as a replacement driver at Williams, has just five races to show Flavio Briatore that he’s the man for the future.

Alpine announced that Colapinto would be in the car for the next triple-header as well as June’s two races, Canada and Austria, ‘ahead of a new evaluation before the British Grand Prix in July’.

The Enstone team did not state whether that evaluation, which is being conducted with F1 2026 in mind, could see Doohan return to the cockpit of the A525 or whether they’d then give Paul Aron an opportunity.

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New team boss Briatore’s decision to swap Doohan and Colapinto came in the wake of ongoing speculation that the Australian had just four or six races this season to secure the Alpine race seat.

Briatore did little to calm those waters when he told a French publication that nothing except “death” is guaranteed, and then days later signed the highly-rated Colapinto as an official reserve driver.

Doohan, while grateful to have raced in Formula 1 even if it was just for a short period, has made it clear this is not the end of him.

“I am very proud to have achieved my lifelong ambition to be a professional Formula 1 driver and I will forever be grateful to the team for helping me achieve this dream,” said the 22-year-old.

“Obviously, this latest chapter is a tough one for me to take because, as a professional driver, naturally I want to be racing.

“That said, I appreciate the team’s trust and commitment.

“We have long-term goals as a team to achieve and I will continue to give my maximum efforts in any way I can to help achieve those.

“For now, I will keep my head down, keep working hard, watch with interest the next five races and keep chasing my own personal goals.”

As for Colapinto, the 21-year-old is raring to go as he seeks to stamp his authority on the Alpine race seat.

“I have stayed sharp, and I am as ready as possible with the team’s race support testing programme, as well as on the simulator at Enstone,” said Colapinto.

“I will do my best to get up to speed quickly and give it my all to deliver the best possible results alongside Pierre.”

According to reports, Colapinto is expected to take part in a TPC [Testing of Previous Car] at Zandvoort on Wednesday.

Alpine’s driver swap comes in the wake of Oliver Oakes stepping down as team principal with immediate effect.

The team issued a brief statement that read, “BWT Alpine Formula One announces that Oliver Oakes has resigned from his role a Team Principal. The team has accepted the resignation with immediate effect.

“As of today, Flavio Briatore will continue as Executive Advisor and will also be covering the duties previously performed by Oliver Oakes.”

It is unclear if Oakes’ resignation is at all related to the driver swap, though Oakes has been a public supporter of Doohan during the driver’s F1 campaign.

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