Alpine Reserve Driver Franco Colapinto replaced Jack Doohan for five races ahead of the Imola GP. However, did Alpine swap out the drivers before Doohan had his time to shine?
After the Miami GP, Alpine made many personnel changes with Team Principal Oliver Oakes resigning before the team promoted Franco Colapinto to a full-time driver, thus demoting Jack Doohan. With only a quarter into the season, was demoting Doohan too premature?
Colapinto’s special entry to Formula 1
Since Franco Colapinto entered the Alpine family, rumors circulated that Jack Doohan’s confirmed seat was in danger. When Colapinto joined Team Enstone, Doohan had only one full GP weekend-filling in Esteban Ocon at the 2024 Abu-Dhabi GP- compared to the Argentine’s nine.
In August 2024, Colapinto replaced Logan Sargeant at Williams, taking over the F1 seat during his rookie Formula 2 season as a member of the Williams Racing Academy. At his time at William’s, Colapinto finished six out of nine races, finishing in the points twice.
Even with his performance, the Argentine was not able to continue in his Williams seat, as race-winner Carlos Sainz signed for the seat before Colapinto was called up.
Although Williams’s guaranteed a reserve-driver role, Colapinto accepted Alpine’s reserve driver offer in January 2025. This move kicked started the long-standing rumor that Doohan only had a couple races to prove himself, although he signed with Alpine for the full 2025 season in August 2024.
Colapinto has an advantage over Doohan, experience. However, Colapinto’s experience was how the cards fell for Williams. With Sargeant’s lack of performance and Sainz taking over the seat in 2025, Colapinto was in a gray area.
Doohan only had seven full GP weekends under his belt before the swap. The Australian finished five of his races with two DNFs.
If he had two more points under his belt in the next two GP’s, Doohan could have equalled Colapinto’s stats. But we will never know if Doohan found his footing before the change-up.
Transition Periods
The 2025 season saw many driver changes, but one of the biggest moves was Lewis Hamilton’s from Mercedes to Ferrari. However, with six races into the season, Hamilton is still getting used to his new team.
At Thursday’s Press Conference before the Miami GP race weekend, Hamilton admitted he was “working hard to adjust” to Ferrari.
Before the Miami GP, Hamilton’s highest finish in Red was fifth at the Bahrain GP. Hamilton told the media: “When I joined Mercedes, the first six months were tough, getting attuned to working with new people.
“Obviously the engineers that I’m working with now are used to setting up the car for a different driver and a different driver’s style, and I’m used to driving a car with a different driving style, so it’s just a combination of different things.”
If a very experienced driver like Lewis Hamilton needed time to adjust to a new team, what about a rookie? Yes, Doohan was a part of their Driver Academy, reserve driver, completed an FP1 test, and subbed in for Alpine.
But being a full-time driver week in and week out is a different beast. Like with any job promotion, it is going to take time to adjust to a new work schedule and responsibilities, attributes Doohan did not have in his previous positions with Alpine.
Colapinto is also going to need time to adjust to a new team as a full-time driver. Although, he has done it before with Williams, Colapinto still requires time to adjust to taking this role on full-time. Alpine is now taking a gamble. If Colapinto takes too long to adjust, would have taking Doohan out would have been worth it?
