Jack Doohan lands F1 spot at Alpine with Pierre Gasly

23/08/2024 08:00

Alpine has finalized their driver pairing for the 2025 F1 season

On a steamy Friday at Hard Rock Stadium ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, I walked out of Alpine's hospitality space after spending lunch with reserve driver Jack Doohan. The one thought that was in my mind after that meeting?

Doohan was going to be a full-time driver on the Formula 1 grid sooner rather than later.

Sooner has arrived.

Alpine ended weeks of speculation, confirming this morning ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix that Doohan would be driving alongside Pierre Gasly next season, with the Australian driver signed to a seat with the team on a "multi-year" deal.

The team began teasing the announcement early Friday morning, beginning with this quick video of Gasly sneaking into an office inside Alpine's hospitality space, and asking an Amazon device who his teammate would be next year. (For those are viewing this article on Apple News you can see the post here):

The official announcement followed shortly thereafter.

Doohan last drove full-time during the 2023 season, finishing third in the Championship while driving for Invicta and winning three of the last five feature races. Instead of returning to the F2 grid this season, Doohan decided to focus his full attention on his reserve duties for Alpine, in the hopes of earning a spot on the grid.

Doohan walked me through his duties when we talked in Miami.

"Staying ready to hop in the car," said Doohan when I asked him what his job entails. "What comes along with that is participating in all media briefings, engineering briefings, pre-session meetings, post-session meetings as well as being utilized for marketing activation, marketing meetings, spending time with [communications teams and social media teams]. I'm trying to maximize myself and my time here to make sure that I'm as ready as I can be."

And now, Alpine believes he is ready.