Jack Doohan should be very worried by what Flavio Briatore was spotted doing at the Bahrain Grand Prix

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Jack Doohan has endured a difficult start to 2025, with multiple accidents hampering his season. It is not what he needs amid rumours that he could lose his seat.

The Aussie has been put under pressure by Alpine signing Franco Colapinto to a long-term contract as a reserve driver over the winter. Speculation has grown that Doohan could be out before the summer break – it seems to be getting to the 22-year-old.

He crashed out on the first lap of his home race in Melbourne and endured a torrid weekend in Shanghai, incurring four penalty points to his superlicense.

Doohan suffered a monstrous crash in FP2 at the Japanese Grand Prix, destroying his A525 after spinning at turn one. While the incident was caused by the Aussie not shutting the DRS in time, Alpine made a costly mistake not giving him mileage in FP1 – they gave Ryo Hirakawa an outing in his place.

Flavio Briatore has a ‘good argument’ for dropping Doohan as his accidents will affect the budget cap. Alpine suffered £1.3m worth of damages from the 22-year-old crash in Japan.

Doohan’s situation is not helped by Colapinto outshining Paul Aron in a private test at Monza. The Argentine is eager to get back into a full-time seat, putting even more pressure on the Aussie to perform at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Flavio Briatore was spotted personally getting involved in Alpine’s operation at the Bahrain Grand Prix

Doohan could be dropped if he crashes in Bahrain – Alpine cannot afford another accident after their poor start to the 2025 season.

The Enstone-based outfit are the only team yet to score a point after three races. Doohan’s teammate Pierre Gasly narrowly missed out on the top 10 in Melbourne with P11 and repeated that finish in Shanghai before he was disqualified.

While it was only practice, it did not look like Alpine’s fortunes have improved at Sakhir. Doohan and Gasly were P14 and P17 respectively in FP2, the latter being almost 1.5 seconds off table topper Oscar Piastri.

Their performance has prompted intervention from Briatore, who Ted Kravitz spotted next to Oliver Oakes in the Alpine garage during the session. Doohan should be worried as the 74-year-old could seemingly end his F1 career at any moment.

“Look at this, this is quite interesting. Flavio Briatore, he’s spent the whole session standing at the central control panel area with Oli Oakes, getting personally involved with what’s going on with the team and telemetry and drivers,” said Kravitz via Sky Sports F1.

“I mean, he’s now sort of wandering around the garage. Taking personal interest in what’s going on, as well he might, as they are of course yet to score and they want to change that this weekend. Not looking stellar so far.”

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Alpine are not giving anything away about Jack Doohan’s F1 future

The general feeling around the paddock is that Doohan does not have long left to save his F1 career. Colapinto is ‘very bored’ on the sidelines as he waits to get a shot at Alpine, with one more crash seemingly the final straw for the Aussie.

Despite the speculation, his team have not given anything away about their driver situation. Alpine reiterated Colapinto has a multi-year deal in Japan, which could be seen as their commitment to Doohan without publicly saying so.

However, with the Argentine’s contract and the fact Doohan allegedly has a six-race deal, it only looks like it is going to go one way at Alpine.

Kravitz says Doohan has until Miami to find some performance and keep himself on the F1 grid. He cannot afford to have more crashes as Briatore watches over him with glaring eyes.