Jack Doohan is out and Franco Colapinto is in, at least for five races, with Alpine announcing the driver swap ahead of the Imola Grand Prix.

It had been rumours for months already that Doohan was on borrowed time, now it’s been confirmed, but even Colapinto is guaranteed a long stay in the A525.

Has Alpine made the right call to swap Jack Doohan for Franco Colapinto?

20 F1 drivers in a world of 8 billion people…

By Michelle Foster

Alpine have not put their best wheel forward in the past 24 hours. I suppose the only good thing to say about it is that they at least honoured Jack Doohan’s six-race contract.

Doohan arrived on the Formula 1 grid with an axe hanging over his head, and instead of taking steps to reassure the debutant, now-new team principal Flavio Briatore signed his replacement – even before the first race of F1 2025.

Briatore’s predecessor Oliver Oakes attempted to calm the waters, he even tried to point the finger at the media for making a mountain out of a mole hill, but it’s hard to argue that it is coming from the team when Briatore is telling the world that the only thing guaranteed in life is “death” and that he’ll “change him” if a driver who isn’t bringing in results.

Oh, and let’s not forget simply looked at his watch when asked when Doohan’s ‘time will run out’. It left the impression that the rookie was done before he ever started.

I’d argue that’s not fair. But given that 20 people out of eight billion can call themselves Formula 1 drivers, should fairness to a factor? I’d like to think so.

Doohan obviously had the talent for Alpine to sign him in the first place, the team bringing him in as a junior driver, then a reserve and finally a race driver. They believed in him, until a potentially better option came along in Colapinto – the driver who scored, but crashed, for Williams last season.

But like Doohan showed signs of promise in his handful of races mixed with a few, admitted big, mistakes, so too did Colapinto in his races as a Williams driver. The big difference between them? The Williams in late 2024 was a better car than today’s Alpine. Notably. Perhaps Alpine have swung the axe in the wrong department?

And if Colapinto picks up where he left off in his final few races with Williams, well, I know one Aussie who’ll be smirking.

The brutal world of Formula 1:

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There’s logic to Flavio Briatore’s thinking

By Thomas Maher

I’ll preface this by saying that it’s very exciting to have Franco Colapinto back on the grid, as I believe he’s got the ‘X Factor’ that some drivers just have.

They might not be the type to always bring home the solid and steady points finishes but there are some drivers – think Gilles Villeneuve, Jean Alesi, Kamui Kobayashi – who have that little bit of spark that makes them exciting, and I think Colapinto could well end up in that type of bracket over time.

It’s for this reason that it’s difficult to argue with the logic of what Flavio Briatore is doing by bringing him into the fold. It all makes sense in terms of Colapinto being an exciting talent who could be a superstar, but what doesn’t make sense is why Jack Doohan was given the opportunity to race if he was never going to be given time to acclimatise.

After all, it’s taken until his third year for Oscar Piastri – a driver few would now argue isn’t potentially a world-beater – to address his inconsistencies and days of anonymity.

If it takes that long for highly-rated drivers like Piastri to get to grips with F1, then it’s hardly surprising Doohan – lacking the same pedigree – might need a little longer than six races, coupled with knowing he’s under pressure, to start showing at his best.

It’s to his credit that Doohan remained professional throughout his races despite the pressure, with his frustration only really boiling over when he could see the writing on the wall in Sprint Qualifying in Miami. Outqualifying Pierre Gasly on Saturday showed that he was making progress and, given time, would likely develop into a solid and dependable driver.

But, given Briatore’s past, being solid likely isn’t enough. Like Red Bull, he’s after superstars – drivers who excite him, as Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, and Mark Webber have in the past. Briatore knows how to spot talent and, given Doohan is one of his own drivers, it appears he hasn’t seen enough to be convinced Doohan has that star quality.

Is it better for Doohan to have had any chance at all to impress, even under these difficult circumstances, or to have sat on the sidelines all along awaiting a chance elsewhere? After all, after a total of seven races with not much to show for it, will another team now be willing to take a gamble on him? It doesn’t appear likely.

Is Franco Colapinto really an upgrade?

By Jamie Woodhouse

We will find out the answer to this question in the Argentine’s five-race audition ahead, but it feels like unnecessary further disruption at Alpine, and a blow that Doohan should not have had coming.

Usually, a mid-season driver change comes along as a last resort, an attempt to inject fresh energy as a struggling driver departs, but Doohan out, Colapinto in screams of a sideways move.

The Alpine A525 has hardly been the class of the field so far this season, making the top 10 only once courtesy of Pierre Gasly, but alas, if Alpine were smelling a chance to improve those fortunes by taking Doohan out of the seat – seemingly the ambition all along – then promoting Colapinto feels like a choice that falls flat.

Yes, he joined Williams team-mate Alex Albon in the points last season in Baku, and picked up another in Austin as the only Williams to score, a fantastic start to F1 life. But then, the errors started to pile up.

A rookie at the absolute limit and at times going over it desperately trying to secure an F1 future? Perhaps. Or, a driver that was fighting settling into his level after that early buzz? Maybe.

A look at the respective junior racing paths of Doohan and Colapinto would paint Doohan as the stronger of the two, but of course, F1 is the big one. Doohan has not really had the fair chance to prove himself under a more normal degree of pressure, and as Colapinto now comes in, this one feels unjust and underwhelming.

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