Alpine driver Jack Doohan will start a race from the back row of the grid for the first time in 2025 at the Japanese Grand Prix after qualifying in just 19th place at Suzuka.
The 22-year-old recorded his worst qualifying performance of the 2025 F1 season so far this Saturday. Only Aston Martin pilot Lance Stroll lapped Suzuka slower than Doohan in Q1 with a 0.394-second margin between the Canadian and Australian for the final places on the grid.
Doohan posted a personal-best lap time of a 1:28.877 in Q1 despite Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly finishing the opening part of qualifying for the Japanese GP in P9 with a 1:28.186. The Frenchman would qualify P11, as Gasly missed out on Q3 by 0.039s to Williams’ Alex Albon.
It marks Doohan’s worst qualifying result of the season so far after securing P14 in Australia and P18 in China. It also comes at possibly the worst time for the Gold Coast native, with F1 Oversteer exclusively reporting Doohan expects Alpine will drop him after the Japanese GP.
Jack Doohan’s gratitude after a 185mph Japanese GP crash was key to keeping Alpine on his side
The Australian has had his back up against the wall all weekend at Suzuka as Alpine benched Doohan to run reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa in FP1. Alpine chose to put the Japanese driver in the 22-year-old’s car as they wanted to conduct some tests and felt Gasly was best suited.
His weekend then took a further dent when Doohan crashed at 185mph minutes into FP2 at the Japanese GP. Alpine found he had not manually closed the DRS flap before turning in for Turn 1 rather aggressively, causing his A525 to rapidly flick left and send him into the barrier.
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Alpine’s mechanics worked into the early hours of Saturday morning to rebuild Doohan’s car for him to run in FP3 and in qualifying. Doohan was very grateful for both sides of the Alpine garage working on the car, and Naomi Schiff feels it was crucial to keep the team on his side.
Schiff told Sky Sports F1 (05/04, 6:28) after seeing Doohan head around the Alpine garage to personally thank the team’s mechanics ahead of FP3: “That’s what you’ve got to do because in those moments, that’s when you kind of slowly start to get the team against you.
“Obviously, it’s his first time having a big shunt like this with the team. But you’ve got to show your gratitude in those moments cos those guys had to put in a hard shift last night. Everything on that car has been changed, other than the PU [power unit].”
Jack Doohan must fight through the field at Suzuka with his Alpine future on the line
Doohan will now hope to repay Alpine’s mechanics for their hard work by producing a better showing in the Japanese GP this Sunday after admitting he made a mistake in qualifying. The Queensland native thinks he would have made Q2 without an error exiting the Spoon Curve.
With his future potentially on the line – and Jacques Villeneuve believes Alpine have already told Doohan he will be replaced after ‘a few races’ – climbing through the order this Sunday might be more beneficial than his words in the garage ahead of next week’s race in Bahrain.
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