Jack or Franco?

Image credit to 'The Sport Rush'

Is Jack good, or just a middle-field driver, and was money the only reason he got the opportunity?

Alpine, like most teams, went with a rookie in the 2025 season: Jack Doohan, an Australian driver and the son of Mick Doohan, a five-time motorcycle World Champion.

Jack grew up in Queensland.

At 9 years old, he started his karting career when Michael Schumacher gifted him a Go Kart.

In 2015 and 2016, he won the Australian Karting Championship. 

In 2017, he joined the Red Bull junior team and left them in 2021. 

In 2018, he joined the junior formula. In the same year, at 15, he drove in the F4 British Championship alongside Dennis Hauger and also in the Italian and German F4.

A year later, he got the promotion to F3. At first, he drove in the F3 Asian Championship, where he ended up as a runner-up, before going to drive in 2020 for HWA Racing in the FIA F3 Championship. He didn’t score points and crashed a lot. After that year, he tested for Trident during the post-season tests and switched to them. It was the best move he could do, because he won 4 races, got a pole, and with the last win, he made sure that Trident was able to win the teams' championship.

Although he didn’t win the championship and only ended up as runner-up, he got the promotion to F2 after replacing Richard Verschoor for the last 2 rounds and doing an amazing job.He drove 2 years in F2 with Virtuosi Racing, finishing 6th and 3rd in the standings with 6 wins. Since 2022, he was part of the Alpine Academy and was even considered to replace Alonso in 2023. In the end, Gasly got the seat and Jack became a reserve driver.

For two years he was a reserve driver, and in August 2024 they announced that he would drive in the upcoming season.

Not long after the announcement, he already got the opportunity to show his potential and to get some experience in a Formula One weekend. He drove at the Abu Dhabi GP instead of Esteban Ocon.

Before the 2025 season even began, they said that they would replace him. He didn’t even drive a race. But why should they give him the chance to compete if they’re going to throw him out?

We will never know, but the thing we might be able to see is if they’re going to replace him. They said he has 6 races to prove himself, and the 6th race is this weekend. Are we going to see him afterwards? 

The media in Australia also questioned whether this would be his last home GP.

A possible replacement for him is Franco Colapinto, a former Williams driver who replaced Logan Sargeant mid-season. At the beginning of this season, he announced his departure from Williams and his contract with Alpine.

But is Franco really the best and only option?

Franco isn’t the only option for Alpine; they have 4 reserve drivers: Paul Aron, Kush Maini, Rio Hirakawa, and, of course, Franco Colapinto. But the problem is Franco has a lot of sponsors that drivers like Aron don’t have.

Franco drove half of the last season for Williams. At first, he was really good, made some good points, but at the end, he began to struggle with the car and crashed a lot. In races like Brazil, they had a total loss of the car, and Williams couldn’t bring updates because all the updates were destroyed during the races. At the end, Williams had a lot to pay because of the crashes.

They had losses, and Franco has not exactly contributed little to this.

And also a thing that speaks for him is that he already has race experience compared to the others.

Is Alpine good this season? 

Gasly does a good job. He scored points at the last GP, where he qualified P5 and after the penalty of Antonelli, he got promoted to P4. In the race, he did an amazing job, but in the last lap, Max passed him, which was unnecessary

In FP1 in Jeddah, he was the fastest with an amazing lap, and in the second training session, he was also in the top 10. 

Is this a sign that Alpine is good, or only that Pierre is an amazing driver? 

We all know that Pierre is a very good and strong driver, and he’s clearly better than his teammate. Is this a sign that they should replace Jack? Is this also the reason he’s one of the Rookies with the lowest salary: $500,000?

This season Jack was consistent, but he also crashed a few times. He didn’t score points, but at the Bahrain GP he was in the points for a long time; however, after a mistake, they all passed him.

In Jeddah, he had some problems in the trainings, and at the beginning of the season, he was compared to Pierre. Not bad, but now he is beginning to struggle.

So, should Alpine replace Doohan with Colapinto or will it lead to disaster? Only time will tell.

Article written by Mia Fabbricotti

Edited by Thomas Suddards