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Reserved Alpine Formula 1 driver Jack Doohan has emerged as a serious candidate for a race seat in 2025 even before Esteban Ocon’s departure was announced at the end of the year.
The promotion of the Alpine Academy is attractive given the sense that he will ‘avenge’ the loss of Oscar Piastri to McLaren, but far more important is the work Doohan is doing in the shadows to make his case.
The 21-year-old has been on the Alpine’s books since early 2022, making five FP1 starts and leading twice in the post-Abu Dhabi Grand Prix test. This year, he is benefiting from a trend towards using academy drivers more consistently in the driver simulator program on the Alpine circuit. There is also a testing program for this year, using a 2022 Alpine A522, which began in Zandvoort last month.
As fate would have it, this is the means by which he is promoting a promotion to Formula 1 in 2025 rather than a racing program in Formula 2 or elsewhere. His assertive and professional approach, as well as his undeniable pace, have won him admirers within the team and means he has a credible chance of earning a career-making opportunity.
“Staying on the sidelines doesn’t seem ideal,” he said to The Race in an interview shortly before the start of the Canadian Grand Prix. “However, given the circumstances, it is entirely appropriate and would be for the greater good. I am in the simulator at every European race when I can, and I also have 10-11 days in the A522, which is more than I could have imagined.
“It’s a great opportunity, not to be a full-time driver, and there are FP1 sessions. I haven’t run much here, so I’m looking forward to more, but I’m as prepared as I can be for Formula 1.”
Doohan is not far behind in coming forward to make his case. This is not surprising given that he was quick to defend himself when it became clear that the losses of Fernando Alonso and Piastri left Alpine Light the driver. This led to an unexpected outing in the first FP1 of 2022 that was originally scheduled for Piastri, and he was a legitimate contender for the race seat that Pierre Gasly eventually took.
With another ill-starred season in Formula 2 under his belt, one in which a fractured chassis that went undetected for so long hurt his title chances, his candidacy is stronger for 2025. He faces tough competition given the vast experience and great speed of Valtteri Bottas. In discussions with Alpine, however, Doohan truly represents a credible option – and is doing everything he can to advance his case.
“You have to make it your own way,” Doohan says. “You can sit here and put on a T-shirt and cross your fingers and hope that someone will say to you ‘this is a Formula 1 contract’ but it doesn’t happen that way. I’ve made sure I do my best from morning to night to make the most of myself and give myself the best possible chance.
“Nothing goes to waste and there’s no one here to hand anything over for no reason, so I try to make the most when I’m in the car whether it’s during testing, on a chip or even make the most of my marketing. And communications duties and maximize them well.” Formula One “It’s a big picture, and yes being fast in a car is very important, but our source of funding is sponsorship and marketing and that’s very important. We also represent Renault and Alpine Cars, so there’s a big picture.”
The desire to put himself in the right position was evident again in 2022 among Piastri Farrago, with Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi sending a direct message on social media to make his case, and his lobbying team manager Otmar Szafnauer. This is a symptom of a personality that is confident enough to push through without veering dangerously into entitlement.
It’s the same approach Doohan takes now, backing up the quality of his work to champion himself while making sure he seizes every opportunity he can. Doohan will be well aware that this is probably the best chance he will ever have of getting a seat in a Formula 1 race.
“Like everything, there is the right ratio, the right time and place, and the right people to be opportunistic with,” he says. “My ambition is to be on the Formula 1 grid and every day is a new feature to make myself the best possible candidate for this role. We’ve been given so many opportunities, it would be a waste of everything I’ve done to just sit back and hope it falls into my hands.
This means simulation contributions. He speaks of his satisfaction with the work done over the weekend in Monaco where he spent 10 hours working on the simulator after the team endured a dismal Friday.
The team spoke about his contribution in an article published on its website, describing him as Monaco’s “unsung hero” thanks to his “herculean” efforts helping Gasly – who, it should be said, is attracting attention from elsewhere, particularly Sauber/Audi. But he is likely to remain in the Alps until 2025 – scoring a rare point.
Driving a simulator isn’t really about proving your speed, it’s instead about demonstrating the aptitude for reliable and accurate feedback, the willingness to put in the tough hours and speaking the right language with the engineering team. If you’re a young driver gunning for a race seat, engineers can make or break your chances and Doohan has his back in this regard as he’s focused on getting the job done for the team, not just himself.
“It’s very easy to jump in the simulator and get up to speed,” Doohan says. “There’s no element of fear, those consequences [of a crash], so you can get there quite easily. You’re jumping, you don’t have a greasy track, you don’t have typical wind conditions or a different tire compound – it’s literally the perfect scenario. So it is very easy to start and operate.
“What can make a difference is working with the team to make sure the feedback is as accurate as possible. When you don’t know, you don’t know, and when you do you are assertive.
“But there’s a different aspect to the reactions in the car. In FP1, you have to be decisive, short and precise, and there’s a time and place for that in the simulator as well. But you also have to be very thoughtful, have enough time to go through every single corner and be Accurately it’s about having the right key to meet your feedback with the people you work with.
The quality of feedback is essential, because it is easy for drivers to exaggerate their desire to contribute and demonstrate their quality. As Doohan says, he understands that “this is not me trying to be cool.” This is not a mindset that all aspirants can easily achieve.
Simulation work allows him to showcase his game elements, but real-world driving is also important. His participation in Canada in FP1 was limited to just two slow laps, and although it cost him a chance to advance his candidacy, he “knew this wasn’t the be-all and end-all.” Perhaps most important are the opportunities for him to focus fully on his own driving during the days he spends in the A522. This allows Alpine to guide him through his paces in a wide range of conditions to assess his speed over the lap and race distance, as well as testing his adaptability.
“It’s an assessment, but it’s also preparation,” Doohan says. “We went from doing two qualifying editions to two full race editions with 73 laps, double pit stops, and soft-hard-hard. We have the aero and tire guys there and they can see if I’m not driving the car to the department they want, and if I’m not I achieve maximum aero There are a number of factors that make me much faster than expected or much slower and whether the track conditions are not good or very good there is no hiding from the performance, so it is a great opportunity to show what I can do and also prepare myself – And to say: ‘Is this guy doing the right things?’
Doohan’s speed has been evident throughout his career. Although he never won a championship in motor racing, he won at Formula 4, Formula 3 and Formula 2 levels and was always viewed as a fast driver. Being seriously fast is a prerequisite for a Formula 1 drive and Alpine has had the opportunity to build a comprehensive picture of its level of performance.
His final season in Formula 2 in 2023 may have been an opportunity to raise Doohan’s name from the pantheon of fast drivers to those who are hot favorites for Formula 1, but he could only manage third place after car problems at the start of the season. Alpine was well aware of the problems, and their statistical analysis showed that once the problems holding him back were taken into account, he was the strongest driver that season.
“At the end of the day, we look at the stats, and there’s no little information box that says Jack Doohan’s frame was cracked for five rounds,” he says. “This is the reality you have to accept, and I did.
“When I have the opportunity to jump in a Formula 1 car, I make sure I’m as fast as possible. And I was. I’ve been up against Esteban and Pierre and they can see that, which is important. Even when I qualified 17th in Baku last year, the week before that I was in a test Silverstone with Pierre on board the A521 and the conditions were faster or whatever.
something
“So they can see that I can perform and they can understand that I am not 1.7 seconds behind in a Formula 2 car because Pierre Gasly is not 1.7 seconds behind. It was not easy to figure out the problem, but from then on I scored the most points and won three of the last five points [feature] Races.”
These are the concrete means Doohan uses to make his case, but he also argues that his youth has value due to its lack of preconceptions. In most respects, a lack of experience is a disadvantage, but there is value in some freshness of perspective, especially when leading a team that is struggling and will likely continue to do so for some time. After all, although it is a seat that many experienced drivers would not occupy unless they had to undergo Alpine struggles, Doohan’s desire to obtain it is beyond doubt.
He points to the fact that he has some basic Formula 1 experience despite having never started any Grand Prix, so he won’t come into the race seat completely cold. Combining this with an open mind makes a powerful combination, he argues – citing an example from MotoGP to illustrate his point.
“There are other experienced candidates, but I’m experienced too,” Doohan says. “I’m fast, I’m young. And I feel we need young people because I feel like I’m the future of the team. We have a different way of thinking, we haven’t been exposed to any previous generations of Formula 1 cars. We’re coming to drive the car and get the most out of it. We’re not complaining about the balance, the ride, the traction, Just jump in and appreciate the opportunity and make the most of what we have.
“It’s a similar circumstance with Pedro Acosta in MotoGP [works] KTM riders have a preview of older MotoGP bikes with less aero where they can feel a lot and the power that Pedro Acosta gained as a rookie and does so well is that he doesn’t know anything else. He just knows that he has that bike to ride and he’s making the most of it. He doesn’t know what’s going to happen in the middle, he doesn’t think about the past – ‘I had this’, ‘I had that’ – so it’s ‘this is my bike, I’m going to ride it’ now, I’m going to make the most of it.
“This is where I feel for myself as a young person who can make that difference to come in and have a clear mind and a new direction to say, ‘Hey, we have something to build, let’s move forward.’”
Doohan also addresses the mental side of his game. This is crucial because no matter the pressure of expectations young drivers face as they climb the ladder into Formula 1, this is nothing compared to the reality of being a Grand Prix driver. There are many who can be fast, but it takes a strong mentality to ensure that speed appears on a regular basis.
“As a driver, my weakness was the mental side of things, especially as a younger driver,” he says. “I was very emotional and passionate about what I was doing and I needed to contain it. I worked a lot with mental coaches, to get my head in the right place.
“I definitely have strengths, but I look to improve every day. I would say in every aspect of my life, but also in racing, I can still improve because I wouldn’t say any of us are complete. There are always places I can continue to learn and continue to maximize.”
Doohan is certainly increasing his chances with the Alps. Whether that will be enough to warrant his promotion to the racing seat remains uncertain.
But he has a chance. It is something in which we all participate.
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