Alpine are heading into the 2025 Formula 1 season in a fascinating position with Pierre Gasly and Jack Doohan preparing for a more positive campaign than last year.
At the beginning of last season, Alpine started from the back of the grid with an overweight and inefficient car.
Progress was slow and Oliver Oakes was brought in as team principal while Flavio Briatore returned as an executive advisor to Renault.
It coincided with a change in Alpine’s fortunes and while their sixth-place finish in the constructors’ championship might have been slightly disingenuous, it meant the campaign ended on a positive note.
Their double podium in Sao Paulo was vitally important to their position in the standings and came completely out of the blue, but Gasly did end the campaign on a high, scoring points in four of the last five races.
Gasly looked very good in pre-season testing too and Doohan had 12 hours on track to get up to speed as quickly as possible.
However, Doohan’s position at Alpine is already under threat despite only making his debut at last season’s finale in Abu Dhabi.
Alpine signed Franco Colapinto on loan from Williams and their expectation is that the Argentine is much more likely to find himself in a race seat with the Anglo-French team than if he had stayed as reserve driver behind Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz.
Martin Brundle was speaking to Naomi Schiff and Simon Lazenby on The F1 Show and explained what Jack’s legendary father Mick Doohan has told him about the 22-year-old’s feelings about his situation behind the scenes.
How Jack Doohan feels ‘behind the scenes’ amid Alpine future speculation
Lazenby admitted Doohan was ‘fed up’ with how often he was being asked about his future during his media duties in the build-up to the race in Australia.
It was put to Brundle that Doohan could be under pressure due to the arrival of the likes of Franco Colapinto and Paul Aron over the winter break.
When asked how Doohan can compartmentalise the position he’s in, Brundle explained: “It’s really hard for him.
“I saw a picture with four drivers in it which was Pierre Gasly, him, Franco Colapinto and Paul Aron.
“And if I was Jack, I would be thinking, ‘This should be a two-driver shoot, not a four-driver shoot.’
READ MORE: Who is Alpine F1 driver Jack Doohan? All to know from his girlfriend to dad
“Talking to Mick, his dad, he said he’s calm behind the scenes. He’s being reassured that he’s got a contract.
“You don’t really need that in your mind. You don’t want to be having to drive every weekend… I had it once in a team where you’re fighting [all the time].
“You’ve got to drive for yourself, every session, every time you’re out of track, you’re thinking of yourself, your career because it might be over by the end of the weekend.
“And then the car starts sliding, you get all nervous because you don’t want to crash it. It just adds pressure to what Jack’s got to achieve.”
Alpine set to be a key player in the F1 driver’s market going forward
Doohan has to meet certain expectations to save his Alpine seat and may need Gasly to be slightly off the pace to achieve them.
The only person that any driver can truly be compared to is their teammate because they’re in the same car.
Unfortunately, the grid has converged to such a point that if Doohan is just a few tenths off Gasly that could be the difference between reaching Q2 or Q3 and they may end up starting several rows apart.
READ MORE: All you need to know about Alpine F1 Team from team principal to lineage
Briatore is no stranger to making drastic driver changes and replacing Doohan with Colapinto might not be the only swap he considers.
Ralf Schumacher wouldn’t rule out Alpine trying to sign Max Verstappen if he became available in the future.
Doohan might not be happy if he ends up losing his seat to Colapinto but he’ll struggle to argue with the decision if Briatore pulls off the coup of the century and manages to hire Verstappen.
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