"Leave him alone": Alpine boss pulls no punches as he defends his F1 driver

Even before the start of the 2025 season, speculations regarding Jack Doohan's job security at Alpine had raised question marks across the paddock. With the Japanese Grand Prix mediocre at best for the Aussie driver, rumors started hurling Doohan's way regarding his stay with the French team, which led team principal Oliver Oakes to intervene in the matter and defend the rookie driver.

After Esteban Ocon's departure was confirmed within the Enstone-based team, Alpine started looking around for their new driver. With the Oscar Piastri saga relatively fresh in their minds, the team opted to sign their junior driver and help propel the team's junior academy.

However, Franco Colapinto's debut last year turned heads; especially, the senior figures of the French team were stunned by the Argentine's performance. He was then bought out from his Williams contract, leading people to start a countdown for how long Doohan would remain in the team.

Jack Doohan's first two rounds were disappointing, and he hoped for a better outing at the Suzuka Circuit. But he was made to sit out the FP1 to allow Ryo Hirakawa and crashed in the subsequent session due to a costly mistake.

The 22-year-old then ultimately recorded a 15th-place finish, which led the speculations regarding his tenure at the team to spark up again. However, Oliver Oakes had enough of such questions, and said (via Racing News 365):

"He's (Jack Doohan) going to stay with us, whatever happens. It's a clear yes: he's one of our drivers. There's a lot of pressure on him, but he can handle it well. Leave him alone!"

The Aussie driver was one of the few drivers to have made their way up the grid during the 53-lap race.

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Alpine's Jack Doohan reflects on his Japanese Grand Prix outing

Alpine's Jack Doohan at the F1 Grand Prix Of Japan - Source: Getty

Jack Doohan has been looking to prove himself as worthy of a seat on the F1 grid. Despite his overtakes throughout the race, the Alpine driver was unable to score points in the race.

This has left Alpine as the only team in the F1 stable not to have scored points in the 2025 season so far. Sharing his thoughts on his Japanese Grand Prix performance, Jack Doohan said (via Speedcafe):

"The strategy was aggressive. It gave us the best opportunity to move forward, however, I don’t think it was the best strategy for overall race time. We were able to execute the undercut, which was great, however, with 25 lap to go we were in a bit of a tricky situation when it came to tyre life because I pushed like a dog from coming out of the box."

"We were able to move forward in a race like today; we’re just going to keep our heads high, keep pushing and try to bounce back and get some points in Bahrain."

With one round of the triple-header done and dusted, the F1 circus will move over to the Bahrain Grand Prix for the next race on Sunday, April 13.