Jack Doohan says his Alpine Formula 1 promotion is still sinking in as he contemplates the significance of the achievement after 18 months of uncertainty over his racing future.
Alpine announced on Friday that reserve driver Doohan would be moved up into Esteban Ocon’s seat next year to partner Pierre Gasly.
Doohan has been the team’s reserve driver since the middle of 2022 and has impressed management with his raw speed and work ethic, putting him in the mix for a drive as soon as it became clear Ocon would be leaving the team at the end of the season.
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But the Queenslander had his future clouded by the team’s late and aggressive pursuit of Carlos Sainz in the months before the mid-season break, with new management targeting the Spaniard as a statement signing.
It took until Sainz committed to Williams on the first Monday of the mid-season break for the way to be cleared for Doohan, who duly put pen to paper later that week during a Pirelli tyre test at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.
“It was a crazy moment … on the Wednesday after Spa,” he told select Australian media, including Fox Sports. “It was a cool experience.
“I was there with my father, who witness signed it, and my coach, Sergi [Bou Garcia], but also a lot of the team who were still there.
“It was a crazy experience and something that, to be honest, has still taken a long, long time to sink in, just because there’ve been so many times that I’ve felt like I’ve been so close.
“I just couldn’t believe it until it was announced, like today, until it was up there on F1 and out for everyone.
“It’s almost like it couldn’t be taken back.”
Doohan said the achievement was equally significant for his father, 500cc motorcycle champion Mick Doohan, who has committed his post-racing life to supporting his son through the four-wheel racing ranks, starting with junior karting in 2012.
“It’s something he’s dedicated the whole second part of his life to and is investing and sacrificing for to get me to this moment,” he said. “I think it’s an amazing feeling for him, also for myself, that all this hard work has paid off.
“But very quickly you know that the real hard work and the real dedication starts now.
“He was emotional and very happy but also knew what lies ahead. It’s another stepping stone, another milestone.”
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That level-headedness has been a significant asset to Doohan’s pitch to become a Formula 1 driver, having trod a path to the top that hasn’t always been smooth.
He had to make the difficult decision at the end of 2021 to leave the decorated Red Bull development program to join Alpine’s largely unproven academy at just 18 years old, betting that the French squad could offer a more direct line to the F1 paddock.
Meanwhile, his F1 bid was almost undone by a run of poor results in his critical second Formula 2 season last year, when he had been expected to contend for the title.
The cause of his unexpected barren run was a cracked chassis that his Virtuosi Racing team had been slow to diagnose. He surged home as the highest scoring driver in the final five rounds after repairs, albeit too late to vie for the championship.
It put him in a difficult situation for 2024, when he had been hoping to crack the Formula 1 grid with a junior title in his pocket.
Alpine recommended that he bench himself from racing for a season to commit to his role of reserve driver. It was a gamble that could have dropped him out of the driver market conversation and made him less attractive on the open market, but his loyalty to Enstone paid off with an in-house promotion.
“To be honest, the decision on not racing — I probably would have raced if I could have,” he admitted. “But with my testing, the sim and needing to be at the track for every single day, I wasn’t able to.
“I looked at that — at the team wanting me to be at the track and wanting me to focus on Formula 1 — as a good thing.”
Doohan said he never allowed himself to doubt that he would make it to Formula 1, even if in retrospect he can see that the odds were often stacked against him making it onto the grid.
“The whole time I completely had faith that I was going to be on the grid next year,” he said. “Whether, if it came down to the moment, I really thought it was 100 per cent going to happen, I don’t completely know. But that’s all I was thinking.
“I only [wonder about] that now when I look back. In the moment that was completely my goal and my mindset. I didn’t really think of anything else.
“I don’t think I ever got to a point where I never thought it was going to happen. Until it was over and written in big red letters in front of me, I don’t think I was going to ever let my mind go there and ever give up.
“As much as that seems realer now and there were definitely chances and possibilities [that it wouldn’t happen] — that was 100 per cent a possibility — I never really let myself get to that point.”
Source Agencies
