Not even a week had passed into the new year and already a seat is under threat for one of Formula 1’s rookies for the 2025 season.
You always got the sense that Jack Doohan was never the favourable candidate for Alpine, but they were given no choice when Esteban Ocon decided to jump ship amid a fractious relationship and uncertainty about the future of the team.
The Australian had mixed results on his way up competing in Formula 2 and was more of a ‘headline name’ signing, given the fact he is the son of multiple motorcycle champion and friend of Michael Schumacher, Mick Doohan.
Flavio Briatore is known for driving a hard bargain in F1, and the decision to put pressure on Doohan by signing Franco Colapinto to their test and reserve driver pool.
It was the second driver they announced in the space of a few hours alongside Toyota WEC star Rio Hirikawa, and the third test driver alongside F2 racer Paul Aaron.
It gives Alpine a range of options to choose from should Doohan fail to deliver the results, but it also proves one other thing Kevin Magnussen once said about the team in an interview with Autosport.
Kevin Magnussen claimed Renault culture ‘toxic’
Magnussen joined the Enstone-based team just after Renault decided to get involved, following a tumultuous few years as Lotus was owned wholly by Genii Capital.
It was also before Briatore got back involved with any F1 team, but the overhang from his years involved was visible according to the Dane when looking back on the period.
“I ended up coming back to F1 with Renault, but only for one year [in 2016] – and that was toxic. I could have continued. Even though they denied offering me a contract – I can show you the contract they offered me. But the whole thing was toxic there, so I was glad to get the chance to go to Haas and find that stability and that support,” said Magnussen.
Briatore is a businessman and they like to see results. Given that F1 is a results-based business, it makes sense that those in charge have to make tough decisions.
But sometimes they could create unwanted and unnecessary scenarios for drivers, which is what could happen with Doohan if they decide to put him under pressure at the start of the season.
Is Alpine creating another Jolyon Palmer with Jack Doohan?
Alpine had already given Doohan an extensive testing programme in 2024 as part of their allowance under Testing of Previous Cars in the regulations. The FIA has tightened up these rules for 2025, so you can’t help but think Alpine has missed an opportunity to exploit this for a more favourable driver last season.
Colapinto might have endured a scrappy end to his 2024 campaign as a super sub at Williams, but there was clearly something promising about the 21-year-old. Not only was he rather bewitching when speaking to media, but on track he showed the type of speed and determination that are all the hallmarks of a star driver.
Everyone in motorsport knows that it’s much easier to slow down a fast driver who is crashing a lot instead of making a slow driver go faster. Usually, when the latter takes hold, the driver is ousted anyway.
This was the case with Jolyon Palmer. A capable driver who simply did not have the speed to be successful in F1. He concluded that it always escaped him when up against Nico Hulkenberg in 2017 whom Palmer described as a ‘career killer’ in F1.
Palmer also highlighted the top management approach when he was struggling in his Beyond The Grid interview. After a nightmare start at the opening round in Australia, in which he crashed in practice, qualified last and retired after 10 laps, team principal Cyril Abiteboul and advisor Alain Prost reminded him of their expectations.
This is even though the team had built his car wrong from the offset after his FP2 shunt, although this was only found out after the race weekend. Palmer ended up being ousted before the season ended in favour of Carlos Sainz.
Doohan will likely endure similar pressure to improve results if he isn’t close to Pierre Gasly, who is a tough driver to compete against given his impressive lack of crash damage in 2024.
Renault is cutting its losses by closing its engine factory in Viry-Chatillon in a bid to be more competitive, but is it still expecting too much of its drivers when it hasn’t produced a car capable of finishing in the top three for a decade?
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