‘Complete’ 21-y/o risks being wasted after what Alpine F1 boss has now said

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Alpine risk wasting Jack Doohan now team principal Bruno Famin has revealed that early contract talks are underway with their F1 duo, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly.

The Renault-owned squad have big decisions to make regarding their ongoing driver line-up in Formula 1. Both of Ocon and Gasly are set to be out of contract with Alpine after the 2024 term. Doohan is also patiently waiting for a chance to break into the pinnacle of motorsport.

Alpine added Gasly to the team before the 2023 season to replace Fernando Alonso beside Ocon. The Enstone natives opted to overlook a quick promotion from Formula 2 for Doohan after Oscar Piastri snubbed the vacant drive to sign with McLaren after a year on the fringes.

Alpine ‘especially’ pushed Jack Doohan against racing in 2024

Piastri was Alpine’s next big hope and was announced as replacing Alonso a day after Aston Martin signed the Spaniard in August 2022. But Piastri denied the agreement and ultimately joined McLaren after a contract dispute. Now, history can repeat itself with Doohan in 2024.

Doohan has admitted that Alpine ‘especially’ pushed him against accepting any offer to race in 2024. The Enstone outfit want him to focus exclusively on being their reserve driver after finishing the 2023 Formula 2 season in third. It was his second full year in the junior series.

The 21-year-old told Speedcafe: “I had quite a number of really good options for next year, in all championships under Formula 1, which was great.

“However, myself and the team – especially the team – they want me to just fully focus and be on-site, be in the sim and try and make the most of being a Formula 1 [reserve] driver, which inevitably will help me, hopefully, when I can get a seat in the very near future.

“If I was racing in another championship, I just wouldn’t be able to have that full clarity on that role.”

Jack Doohan is a ‘complete’ and ‘very quick’ young driver

Doohan initially took up a reserve driver role for Alpine in 2023 but coupled it with a second full year in Formula 2. He would finish the season behind Sauber junior Theo Pourchaire and Mercedes talent Frederik Vesti. He also won three Feature races with Invicta Virtuosi Racing.

Virtuosi’s team principal, Andy Roche, lauded Doohan as the ‘complete package’ after taking successive Feature race victories in Hungary and Belgium. The latter victory edged him up to fourth place in the drivers’ championship with Virtuosi ranked outside the top-five F2 teams.

“Jack is really, really good to be fair,” Roche told Formula Scout last August. “Even when we were struggling at the beginning of the year, he stayed calm and collected and worked with the team and he’s been really strong. Jack is the complete package now. He really is.”

Doohan also impressed Alpine’s ex-team principal, Otmar Szafnauer, at the Australian’s first taste of a Formula 1 weekend in October 2022. The Renault-owned outfit put Doohan in for FP1 at the Mexico City GP and Szafnauer appreciated his ‘very solid’ and ‘very quick’ efforts.

Alpine hold early contract talks with Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly

But Doohan’s chances of turning his reserve driver role into a full-time race seat in 2025 may be slim after Alpine’s current team principal, Famin, revealed the Renault-owned outfit have already held initial talks with Ocon and Gasly, with the Frenchmen due to be out of contract.

He told Autosport: “We have not waited for [Lewis] Hamilton going to Ferrari to talk to our driver. We are talking permanently to our drivers. I’m very happy with the relationship with have with them, with the communication we have with them and the job they are doing.

“We regularly talk to them. We talked before Hamilton and after. To be honest, we all, of course, have a look on the drivers’ market. We have also our academy and it is our duty to see what is going on, to know what is going [on].”

But Alpine re-signing Ocon and Gasly after leaving Doohan on their pit wall risks wasting his talent. The Enstone natives should likely have learned from leaving Piastri as their reserve in 2022 after winning back-to-back F3 and F2 titles to ensure Doohan is on the path toward F1.