‘Proud’ Aussie Jack Doohan accepts brutal F1 demotion from Alpine team

The F1 world has turned on the Alpine team after it finally addressed Aussie Jack Doohan’s fate amid a “rotation” policy.

Jack Doohan has officially been axed, at least for now.

In a move that has been handled about as well as Peter Dutton’s election campaign, Doohan’s Alpine team finally confirmed the news on Wednesday, albeit with a massive caveat.

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Young Argentine driver Franco Colapinto will inherit Doohan’s seat, the team announced, but only for the next five races as the outfit adopts a “rotation” policy.

“As part of an ongoing assessment of its driver line-up, the team has made the decision to rotate one of its race seats for the next five rounds of the 2025 FIA Formula One World Championship,” Alpine said in a statement.

“BWT Alpine Formula One Team therefore announces that Franco Colapinto will be paired with Pierre Gasly from the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, ahead of a new evaluation before the British Grand Prix in July.

Franco Colapinto (left) will replace Jack Doohan in the Alpine seat. Photos: Getty Images

“Jack Doohan remains an integral part of the team and will be the first-choice Reserve Driver for this period of time.”

The move comes on the same day Alpine’s team principal Oliver Oakes resigned after less than a year in the job.

Rumours of Alpine making the call to promote reserve driver Colapinto have swirled since the Australian Grand Prix.

Doohan has endured a nightmare start to his 2025 campaign, failing to score any points for the team and crashing out on Turn 1 of last week’s Miami Grand Prix.

The Aussie was also quoted in the Alpine statement, backing the move by the team.

“I am very proud to have achieved my lifelong ambition to be a professional Formula 1 driver and I will forever be grateful to the team for helping me achieve this dream,” he said.

“Obviously, this latest chapter is a tough one for me to take because, as a professional driver, naturally I want to be racing.

“That said, I appreciate the team’s trust and commitment. We have long-term goals as a team to achieve and I will continue to give my maximum efforts in any way I can to help achieve those.

“For now, I will keep my head down, keep working hard, watch with interest the next five races and keep chasing my own personal goals.”

Doohan will remain with the team. Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images.

Doohan’s Turn 1 crash with Kiwi Liam Lawson at the Miami Grand Prix on Monday morning was the final nail in the coffin.

French driver Gasly has also outperformed Doohan throughout the season.

Gasly leads their head-to-head battles 6-2 in qualifying (including sprint races) and 5-1 in Grand Prix races.

However, the call to make such a brutal cut so early in the season has led to an immediate backlash against the team.

Then-team principal Oakes said during the Miami GP the plan at the time was for Doohan to continue racing for the team.

However, he was far from convincing with the level of support shown to the 22-year-old driver.

“Yeah, as it is today, Jack is our driver along with Pierre. We’ve been pretty clear on that. We always evaluate, but yeah – today, that is the case.”

He added: “Jack needs to continue doing a good job. But it’s natural that there’s always speculation there.”

Doohan had a turbulent weekend in Florida after his team botched its strategy during qualifying for Sunday’s sprint race.

The Aussie driver was livid after a pit lane blunder saw him eliminated in the opening qualifying session. He had been caught in a queue in the pit lane and was not able to get back on track for a final flying lap before the session ended.

Doohan gave his team a serve on radio — and was seen continuing to rant as he walked along the pit lane after the session.

“That’s not acceptable,” he fumed over team radio. “If you’re going to send him [Gasly] before me, you have to make sure he’s ready.

“I can’t turn out and have to turn in because he’s going to turn into me.

“Then you put me out in Q1. That’s a joke.”

His pit wall engineer responded on the team radio with a sheepish “sorry”.

Gasly and Doohan in the Lego drivers parade prior to the Miami GP. Photo: Clive Rose/Getty Images/AFP.

Doohan has not scored a championship point in Formula 1 – but he would have hoped for better treatment than this.

Alpine’s poor handling of its driver line up has seen the team come in for criticism.

“Doohan deserved better,” was one comment on Instagram to the news.

“That’s quick,” wrote another with an astonished face emoji.

“What’s the point of having rookies anyway?” asked a third.

“Alpine is really an unlikeable team,” declared a fourth.

The writing was on the wall for Doohan as soon as Alpine made the move to sign Colapinto as their reserve driver on a multi-year deal.

The Argentine had been granted permission to leave Williams in January in order to take the reserve role with Alpine.

Colapinto raced in nine grands prix for Williams in 2024 after the team axed Logan Sargeant during the season.

There will always be an argument Doohan could have achieved much more if the team had given him enough support.

But the tough reality was summed up in a comment from former world champion Damon Hill, who wrote on X responding to a report about Doohan’s sacking.

“Looks like some drivers need better contracts,” he said.

Originally published as ‘Proud’ Aussie Jack Doohan accepts brutal F1 demotion from Alpine team