£690m F1 team told they signed one driver for 2025 due to a ‘marketing operation’

Follow us on Google Discover

The driver market in the 2024 season has been one of the busiest in recent memories, with a lot of moves being made between teams and drivers throughout the grid.

Formula 1 will welcome three new rookies next season in the form of Oliver Bearman, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, and Jack Doohan.

Both Bearman and Kimi Antonelli impressed during various outings and test sessions, despite lacklustre seasons in F2 this year after their team struggled to get on top of the new car.

Doohan has been parachuted into Alpine having been part of their young driver programme, and will replace the outgoing Esteban Ocon. Alpine initially wanted to sign Carlos Sainz, but he instead elected to join Williams instead of returning to Enstone.

Although Doohan’s name carries some weight in the motorsport world, with him being the son of motorbike world champion Mick Doohan, he is a relatively unknown driver in F1 having not won any titles on his way up the junior ranks.

Discussing his appointment by the French team on Soy Motor’s YouTube channel, journalist Jesus Munoz has explained why Doohan will be a key asset for the £690 million F1 team from next season.

Jack Doohan a ‘pure marketing operation’ for Alpine

Alpine faces an uncertain future after parent company Renault decided to ditch their in-house F1 engine project ahead of the rule changes for 2026.

Part of this was down to the rising costs and the lack of sales from the car market to justify the continued expenditure, with Munoz highlighting a key aspect of the deal to employ Doohan for Renault’s marketing in Australia.

“In Australia, Renault hit a sales record of 11,525 units sold but from there the numbers fell and reached poor figures of just 6,904 cars sold in 2020. Renault needs a solution to cover this and try to sell more cars [in Australia],” said Munoz.

“Effectively the signing of Jack Doohan is a pure marketing operation because if Renault is going to take their new car to Australia, putting an Australian driver in their car along with announcing the new model, you will see it become a best-seller.”

Oliver Oakes shares ‘unfortunate’ thing he ‘realised’ after taking over Alpine

Oliver Oakes replaced Bruno Famin as team principal of Alpine over the summer break, as the latter helped with their transition away from being an engine manufacturer.

Alpine’s form on track has not been the best in recent races, with the team currently behind Williams, Haas, and Visa CashApp RB heading into the final six races of the season.

READ MORE: Oliver Oakes opens up on the ‘bad’ aspect of taking over as Alpine team principal

Oakes believes it might take a bit more time to address some of the problems at the heart of Alpine’s poor form, having also come in midway through a season.

With minimal changes to the regulations in 2025, Alpine will likely face another difficult season if they are unable to make any strives forward with their current package.