JACK DOOHAN – OUR TAKE ON HIS PROGRESS

Jack Doohan has been the recipient since being announced alongside Pierre Gasly at Alpine, yet the Australian has faced every question with a straight bat and a considered response.

 

Even comments on our own page from ‘informed supporters,’ which do not represent our views at Velocity Motorsport Magazine, have been less than kind.

 

We spoke to Jack at the Australian Grand Prix and was blown away with his response to the never ending questions he has to answer about Briatore, Colapinto and the second seat at Alpine.

 

“I kind of laugh it off now,” Doohan said in a most humble tone.

 

 

It means that he accepts that the media are harping on this point and biting back won’t achieve anything.

 

James Wharton is racing in the FIA F3 championship and has seen the likes of Doohan, Lawson, Colapinto and co in his rise through the ranks of karting.

 

Wharton was adamant that every debutante on the grid in 2025 deserved to be there.

 

Lewis Hamilton made specific mention of the 2025 rookies with Kimi Antonelli at his side and asked the media to give them some time, offering both himself and Carlos Sainz (who was also at the press conference) as potential alternatives for the rampant rumour mill.

 

And now we have Suzuka and the Japanese Grand Prix.

 

Having missed FP1 Doohan did a handful of laps in FP2 before a high-speed crash ended his day and gave the team a lengthy overnight rebuild of his damaged Alpine.

 

The rumour mill revved up again, fuelled by this latest incident. It went into overdrive when it was revealed that Jack had not manually engaged the DRS cut-off which was required due to the peculiarities in the DRS zone and flat out Turn 1. When Doohan was later reported to have said the he had intentionally kept the DRS flap open, it only added to the intrigue.

 

During the Sky Sport telecast, Anthony Davidson stated that he had compared the situation to the 2024 British Grand Prix, in which Davidson declared had a similar DRS attribute to Japan and that both Alpine drivers had suffered a similar spin.

 

Media also questioned Jack Doohan’s unwillingness to continue to answer questions about the crash for the remainder of the weekend.

Really?

 

Does it really take a genius to figure out that a driver wants to move on from an accident such as that and then concentrate on what lies ahead rather than behind?

 

Doohan felt that there was more in the car during qualifying and that Friday’s incident may have had him a tad more circumspect than usual, which is a fair point on his behalf.

 

And then there was the race itself. Doohan was one of the few drivers to make progress during the course of the race and led teammate Gasly before being asked to move aside, which he did.

 

In the final wash, Jack Doohan finished fifteenth, two places behind teammate Gasly and ahead of Nico Hulkenbreg, Liam Lawson and Esteban Ocon.

 

Now we have footage of Doohan struggling to get out of his Alpine post race, seemingly unable to use his left hand and struggling to walk away.

Media ‘experts’ are suggesting that he carried an injury into the race and may have violated an FIA extraction rule in doing so, amongst other such comments.

 

One has to ask if any of these so-called ‘experts’ have every race themselves or played any competitive sport at all!

 

In my humble and somewhat short Superkart journey, I found that muscle fatigue, pain and soreness went hand-in-hand with racing in general.

 

From being thrown around in an unpadded fibreglass seat (yes it was some time ago), the bouncing of the rear end as the tyres gripped and slipped through hard cornering, or the unintentional contact with the top of the barrel and spark plug as I threw the arms around in an ever wider arc, there was no end to the ways that I found ways to experience pain.

 

To make life more interesting, I often played football (soccer to the Aussies) the day before and keeping goal meant muscle strain and bruising. A fact which led to no-end of arguments with my teammate at the time.

 

My point is, that there would be no doubting that Jack Doohan went into the race with some degree of discomfort, but not concealing an injury as serious as one to his left hand or forearm.

 

However, the strains and g-forces exerted on a driver over the course of the 53 lap race, would undoubtably bring out the worst of the side-effects from the impact 48 hour before.

 

Doohan isn’t the first driver to struggle out of a car at the end of the race and won’t be the last.

 

Rather than circle footage and lay accusations at what ‘experts’ interpreted from post-race videos, maybe we should applaud a strong drive in trying circumstances.

 

The ability to push aside all the doubters and never ending rumours pitched and to drive through any soreness or pain from a significant incident just two days prior, should be cause for congratulations not accusations.

 

Jack Doohan climbed from nineteenth on the grid (he missed Q2 by 3/10ths) to finish the race in 15th. As we wrote earlier, that was two places behind teammate Gasly.

 

Neither Alpine driver has scored points thus far, and Alpine is the only team without a point to its name.

 

Doohan finished ahead of Gasly in sprint qualifying for China and finished the Grand Prix less than 2 seconds from a points paying position (before a 10 second post-race penalty).

 

“I’ll take a few days to rest and recover,” said the son of MotoGP legend Mick Doohan. “I’m looking forward to racing again in Bahrain, where the conditions will be completely different.”

 

Here’s hoping that the Doohan rumour mill stops for a few days and that he can give it some jandal in Bahrain this weekend.