Jack Doohan has not been able to get off to a good start to his maiden F1 season, and if he doesn’t turn his season around immediatly, his time in the series is as good as done.

When Doohan was appointed as the second driver in Alpine’s line-up, next to Pierre Gasly, the decision was met with mixed feelings, since the Australian had failed to give a compelling demostration of what’s required to be in F1.

After doing a comprehensive TPC (Testing of previous cars) programme for the French marque, he was ushered in as Esteban Ocon’s late season replacement for the final round of the 2024 season, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

In his first outing for the team he failed to be on the pace of his rivals and was well behind his teammate. However, during the winter, progress should have been made ahead of his first full fledged season in F1.

This, dissapointingly was not the case, with a crash in the opening lap at his home race in Australia, and a difficult weekend in China with crashes, spins and penalties marking the first sprint and feature races where he amanged to see the chequeared flag, always far away from his teammate, Gasly.

Doohan’s ‘rookie mistake’ shows the pressure he’s under at Alpine

For FP1 for the Japanese Grand Prix, Alpine reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa took over from Doohan, managing to pip Gasly in the timesheets in his furst outing for the French team, something that did not shine the most complimentary light on Doohan’s time at Alpine.

Where the Japanese driver was comfortable and found lap time as the session went on, Doohan instead, as he climbed back into his car for FP2, crashed when the session had barely even started. The reason? He forgot to close the DRS going into Turn 1.

According to former world champion Jacques Villeneuve the crash was contributed to by the psychological pressure Doohan is under, particularly from Flavio Briatore, and small mistakes are beginning to show.

A rookie mistake? Or is the pressure on the young Australian’s shoulders proving to be too much for him? Either way it does not bode well for Doohan as Hirakawa reportedly made the switch over from Haas because Alpine represented a better shot for him to get on the F1 grid. In place of whom? Exactly.

The Japanese driver is not the only Alpine reserve who could take over from Doohan, with Argentian Franco Colapinto also waiting on the sidelines for a chance to get his F1 career back on track.

GPblog then makes the case that provided he can’t turn his season around in the upcoming races, Doohan doesn’t have a long future ahead of him in F1.

Let us know what you think in the comments!