Australia's Jack Doohan to make F1 debut in final race of the season
‘He impresses me’: Australia’s Jack Doohan to make F1 debut in final race of the season
Formula 1 great Alan Jones says Jack Doohan’s debut in Abu Dhabi in the final grand prix of the season this weekend will help set the Australian star up for a strong 2025 campaign.
Team Alpine confirmed Monday that French driver Esteban Ocon has been released and that Doohan will line up on the grid for the first time.
The 21-year-old Doohan, son of former motorcycle world champion Mick Doohan, was third in Formula 2 last year and has been a full-time reserve for Alpine in 2024. He was to have replaced Ocon ahead of next year’s series opener in Melbourne.
Jack Doohan will make his F1 debut for Alpine next weekend.Credit: Alpine
His presence will again give F1 two Australian drivers on the grid next year alongside Oscar Piastri, who has shown his ability with victories at the Hungarian Grand Prix and Azerbaijan Grand Prix for McLaren this season.
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With so few seats available, F1 is one of the most competitive sports in the world. Doohan, the first driver to come through Alpine’s academy, will be only the 16th Australian to start in a race.
Jones, the 1980 F1 drivers’ champion, said on Tuesday that Doohan’s rise was “fabulous” for the sport, and he was confident the emerging driver had what it took to compete with the best in the world.
“I think it’s fabulous, it really is. It’s great for Jack and for Mick because I know they have put a lot of time and effort into it,” he said.
“He impresses me, I think he is a fine young man. He holds himself very well, he is not a big-noter. He is not a show-off, or anything like that. I think Mick should be really proud of him by the way he has raised him, to be honest.”
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Doohan has been Alpine’s reserve driver since the start of last year after rising through the ranks in Formula 3 and Formula 2. The role had been formerly filled by Piastri before his graduation to the F1 grid with McLaren. Doohan and Piastri go back a long way to their days karting as kids.
“I think it’s fabulous. It gives him an opportunity to get the butterflies out, you can test and do whatever you want, but there is nothing like an actual race,” Jones said of Doohan’s debut.
“When you are on a grid waiting for those actual red lights to go out, I know they have simulators, and they have all that, but, at the end of the day, you can’t beat the real thing.”
Doohan’s F1 debut will come 30 years after his father won the first of his five motorcycling world championships.
Piastri and Doohan are precocious young talents, and Jones said an eventual battle between the pair for the championship was “a big ask, but not impossible”.
Motorcyclist Mick Doohan was a force on two wheels in the 1990s in what is now known as MotoGP, winning five straight titles from 1994-98 at a time when international races were broadcast on free to air late on Sunday nights and the early hours of Monday mornings.
Doohan, though, does not feel any pressure that comes with the family name.
“It’s something I’m very familiar with early days in karting or racing, and in the single-seaters,” Doohan said when he signed his contract. “[I] very quickly found out my dad’s last name can only get me so far. I think if it was on two wheels there’d be some expectation.”
Alpine had announced in June that Ocon would leave at the end of the season after a troubled start to the year in Formula 1 for him and the French-owned team.
The team said in a statement that the line-up change would allow Ocon to take part in post-season tests with his new team Haas. Doohan will be Pierre Gasly’s teammate.
“There’s a lot of pride and joy. I haven’t thought about it in that perspective, regardless of Australia, it is a very exclusive club. There’s 20 seats,” Doohan said.
Happy days: Mick Doohan, a five-time world motorcycle champion, and son Jack.Credit: Getty Images
“For this year, there was no driver change at all. It’s something that is very difficult to get into. I’m very happy regardless of what plays out, I can make my dream come true.”
Alpine had announced in June that Ocon would leave at the end of the season after a troubled start to the year in Formula 1 for him and the French-owned team.
The 28-year-old Ocon was in 14th place in the driver’s standings. He crashed out of the Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday.
Gasly was 11th in the standings and the two Frenchmen have had a tense working relationship at times, after being friends and rivals in their junior karting days.
Ocon made his F1 debut in 2016 with Manor and joined the then-Renault team for 2020. His sole career win came at the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2021 for Alpine after a crash in wet conditions took out much of the field. Ocon has three other podium finishes, including an unexpected second place at the Brazilian GP last month. Gasly placed third in a rare bright spot for the beleaguered Alpine team, which is battling with Haas for fifth place in the constructors’ championship.
Ocon will partner 19-year-old British driver Ollie Bearman at Haas next season.
with AP
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