Jack Doohan hasn’t confirmed whether he knew the Miami Grand Prix would be his final race for Alpine. But he certainly had the demeanour of a driver who was under extreme pressure.
In Sprint qualifying, Doohan raged at his Alpine team for their execution at the end of SQ1. That cost him a chance to advance.
After finishing the Sprint in P16, Doohan enjoyed one of his best moments in Grand Prix qualifying as he outpaced Pierre Gasly. However, any hope of scoring his first points from 14th was extinguished by first-corner contact with Liam Lawson.
Doohan and Lawson met at the apex of turn one in a typical race-start incident. Neither driver was penalised, but the former pulled over to retire with damage, and the latter didn’t see the chequered flag either.
On Wednesday morning, Alpine confirmed that Doohan had lost his seat. He drops back into a reserve role, with Franco Colapinto replacing him for at least the next five races.
Jack Doohan says ‘I don’t know what I could have done’ in last Alpine radio messages
Sky Sports have now shared Doohan’s final communications. Engineer Stuart Barlow suggested that Lawson hadn’t given him ‘any room’.
Doohan felt he was powerless to avoid the contact, protesting that ‘Formula 1 cars don’t disappear’.
His penultimate message – ‘I don’t know what I could have done’ – rather sums up his career. Key decision-maker Flavio Briatore wanted Colapinto in the car and was perhaps waiting for an opportunity to make a change.
One report even claims that Briatore deliberately tried to expose Doohan’s shortcomings, thereby creating a pretext for the swap. With so little experience and so much negative publicity, he was perhaps always set up to fail.
The radio exchange went as follows…
Barlow: “Okay Jack, we’re going to need to retire the car please. Let’s try and find a marshall post and we’ll pull [over] on track.”
Doohan: “Copy.”
Barlow: “Sorry about that, mate.”
Doohan: “I don’t know what I could have done.”
Barlow: “No, he didn’t give you any room in there.”
Doohan: “I guess yeah, Formula 1 cars don’t disappear.”
Barlow: “No, they do not. That’s the last car has gone through, let’s do a proper switch-off here and go P-zero and we’ll see you a bit later.”
Why Jack Doohan needed security at the Miami Grand Prix
Colapinto will bring even more backing to Alpine as he ascends from reserve to race driver. That’s one area where Doohan couldn’t compete, even if the two drivers are of a similar level based on F2 performances.
The Argentine must have felt he was likely to get a promotion when he joined Alpine. Otherwise, he would likely have remained at Williams.
It’s unclear whether or not he received any assurances. His legion of fans have been clamouring for him to get a chance ever since his arrival was announced.
Doohan even hired security at the Miami GP, aware that there may be a larger-than-usual presence of Colapinto supporters. Theoretically, he could return to the cockpit later this year, but that feels highly unlikely after a vote of no confidence from Briatore.
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