Ready or not, Jack Doohan, 19, may get his F1 chance in 2023 — MPH
F1
As the final seats on F1's 2023 grid are being decided, F2 driver Jack Doohan has a decent chance of claiming one of the remaining slots, writes Mark Hughes. But is it too early for the 19-year-old?
Alpine junior Jack Doohan has already driven Alpine's F1 car on a filming day earlier this year
The fall-out from Sebastian Vettel’s retirement continues in the driver market as the vacant 2023 seats at Alpine and Williams are negotiated over.
There is a direct link between those seats, just as there was going to be with Oscar Piastri before he despaired of getting his future sorted by Alpine and took matters into his own hands by signing for McLaren instead.
The loose plan at Alpine even before Vettel announced his retirement was to place Piastri at Williams for a couple of seasons, with the likelihood of an Alpine drive in 2025. Piastri and his management took that out of Alpine’s hands. When, a few weeks later, Vettel announced his retirement and Fernando Alonso – just as despairing of Alpine’s negotiations as Piastri had been – jumped ship too, it left both Alpine and Williams flailing somewhat to get someone suitable.
Initially it seemed nailed-on that Alpine would buy Pierre Gasly’s contract from AlphaTauri/Red Bull and AlphaTauri would recruit IndyCar star Colton Herta in his place. But this was on the assumption that the FIA would make an exception in granting Herta a superlicence when technically he hadn’t qualified for one. The indications from the FIA are that an exception will not be made. There is the option for Herta to gain the necessary points by winning some FIA-recognised lower category ‘winter’ series. But Alpine cannot afford to be waiting on the outcome of that, its destiny completely in someone else’s hands. So it looks like Gasly may be staying put for another year.
Early release from AlphaTauri contract isn’t looking likely for Gasly
Red Bull
Talking of his options, Alpine boss Laurent Rossi said in Monza that his preference would be for “someone who can score points big points right away,” rather than a promising rookie. But that Alpine Academy driver and F2 front-runner Jack Doohan was definitely in the picture. The 19-year-old son of motorbike legend Mick Doohan, he has been increasingly competitive in the latter part of his rookie F2 season and scored a particularly impressive victory in the wet at Silverstone and another at Spa. It may be a little early to throw him into F1, but who knows?
Nyck de Vries’s super-impressive F1 debut at Monza as a Williams stand-in has put him very much in the picture and we understand there is a firm Williams offer but also that de Vries will be included in a private Alpine test in the coming days in a 2021 car at the Hungaroring. Others said to be lined up for that test include Doohan, Nico Hülkenberg and Antonio Giovinazzi.
After the shocks in the 2023 Formula 1 driver market caused by Sebastian Vettel’s retirement, Fernando Alonso’s move to replace him at Aston Martin and then the Oscar Piastri/Daniel Ricciardo…
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It’s a potentially tricky situation for de Vries who looked like he had missed the F1 career boat until recently. Does he take the certainty of the Williams offer or wait to see how things pan out at Alpine? Circumstances can change quickly and unpredictably in F1 and just because there’s a Williams offer now doesn’t mean there still will be by the time Alpine has made its choice.
Herta, Gasly, Doohan, de Vries, Hülkenberg and Giovinazzi makes it at least six drivers in this equation for two seats and there may be more. If I were a betting man, I’d suggest that de Vries will brave it out, take the Alpine test and be sufficiently impressive that he will be signed to partner Esteban Ocon there for next year – and that Alpine will place Doohan with Williams to partner Alex Albon.
That isn’t how anyone picture the cards would fall before Vettel’s retirement announcement is it?
