Who is Jack Doohan? 2025 Alpine driver to make F1 race debut in Abu Dhabi

In 2019, a move up the motor sport ladder saw the Aussie compete in Italian Formula 4, the ADAC F4 Championship and the Asian F3 championship. He finished second in the latter, and repeated the result in that series the following year.

Facing star-studded opposition in the 2020 FIA Formula 3 Championship, Doohan struggled to impress against the likes of Oscar Piastri, Theo Pourchaire, Logan Sargeant, and Frederik Vesti as he ultimately fell to 26th in the standings, failing to score a single point. However, he bounced back in 2021 to finish second in that year’s F3 Championship, while also making an F2 debut with MP Motorsport for the last six races of the season, scoring points twice.

Ahead of his first full-time season in F2 with Virtuosi Racing, Doohan parted ways with the Red Bull junior academy and moved to Alpine – which at the time only had one other academy member: fellow Aussie Oscar Piastri. Nevertheless he continued to move from strength-to-strength, scoring his first feature race win at Spa-Francorchamps and ultimately finished sixth in the drivers’ standings.

In 2023, the Aussie continued to impress Alpine bosses with further F2 feature race wins in Budapest, Spa and Yas Marina, finishing third in the championship before being announced as the team’s official F1 reserve for 2024.

Life as a reserve 

Doohan has been a common presence in the F1 paddock throughout the 2024 campaign and has even made appearances as a trackside TV pundit. But it’s his work behind the scenes for Alpine that has seemingly earned him his F1 promotion.

Alongside countless hours of simulator work and impressive FP1 appearances in Mexico City (2022 and ‘23), Abu Dhabi (2022 and ‘23) and Canada (2024) Doohan also turned heads during a private test at Le Castellet, France, in July this year. Working through a programme alongside other F1 hopeful Mick Schumacher, both drivers “performed very well” according to then-team principal Bruno Famin, who later admitted that Doohan was on a “long list” of Ocon replacements.

“I think he’s an option, for sure,” Famin said during an interview with Sky Sports F1. “We’re preparing him. He has a quite heavy testing programme, and we are happy with that. Let’s see how he develops. He’s one possibility among others, but he’s one possibility.”

With his F1 future now confirmed, it could be expected that Doohan will make more FP1 appearances over the course of the 2024 season in preparation for his race debut on home soil in Melbourne for the first race of 2025.

F1 promotion 

Doohan was announced as Alpine’s newest F1 driver at the start of the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix weekend – completing the Enstone outfit’s line-up for 2025.

“I am so happy to secure promotion into a full-time race seat in 2025 with BWT Alpine F1 Team,” said Doohan. “I am very grateful for the trust and belief by the team’s senior management.

“It’s exceptionally satisfying to be the first graduate of the Alpine Academy to be in a race seat with the team and I’m extremely thankful to those who supported me along the way to make this a reality.

“It’s an exciting moment, a proud day for my family, and I look forward to taking it all in and pushing hard behind the scenes.”

After Oscar Piastri dramatically announced his exit from the Alpine driver academy in 2022 in favour of a full-time drive with McLaren, Doohan will officially become the first academy driver to be promoted into a full-time F1 position with the team since Romain Grosjean in 2009 – an “exceptionally pleasing [result] for the team and its young driver pathway” according to team principal Oakes.

“We are very excited to promote Jack into the race seat from next season and, in doing so, giving him the opportunity to showcase his skill and talent in Formula 1.”

According to Doohan, Flavio Briatore, Alpine’s executive advisor, had made clear to the Aussie that he would be racing in F1 before his official contract started in 2025 — hence the call up in Abu Dhabi. And he’s looking forward to the challenge.

“There’s no real expectation,” he said. “It’s to build it up over Friday, FP2 is new territory for me, so really just to progress through Friday and continue that progression. To finish the race and just to learn as much as possible before 2025.

“I’m super grateful to [Renault CEO] Luca de Meo, Flavio and Oli [Oakes] for this opportunity, the whole Alpine Academy, the TPC test team who’ve been preparing me for a long, long time and I’ve been a part of the programme since the end of 2021. To finally be the first Academy driver to race, and to make my debut this year ahead of next, is amazing.”

Jack Doohan’s career so far