OPINION: Only Jack Doohan can kill his grand prix drive.
Jack Doohan has one simple mission as he starts his first full-time season in Formula One – drive it like you stole it.
If Doohan drives as well as he can, as fast as he can, and as smart as he can, then he will survive despite the vultures who are already circling the Alpine pit.
He might even prosper.
Doohan was considered an outside chance for a grand prix race seat when he first started climbing the ladder to Formula One, in sharp contrast to the meteoric rise of fellow Aussie Oscar Piastri.
While Piastri starred, Doohan had to battle to the top – despite the cash and commitment of his legendary father, five-time MotoGP world champion Mick Doohan.
Jack's old man never made things easy for the kid, even if he backed him all the way from karts to the day he signed his F1 race contract with the mercurial and controversial Flavio Briatore.
It's the slick Italian who controls Alpine and he also signed Franco Colapinto, the speedy Argentinian who made his mark last year with Williams, as a reserve driver for 2025.
The arrival of Colapinto has triggered plenty of talk that Doohan is on borrowed time and could have as few as five races to cement his status alongside Pierre Gasly.
But Alpine insiders have told Race.news there is more – a lot more – to the story.
For a start, Doohan has a rock-solid "multi-year contract", although nothing is ever really rock-solid in F1.
Secondly, although there are "performance clauses" in his contract, nothing triggers after the first five races. And, besides, every grand prix driver has some form of performance clause – sometimes allowing them to leave if the team is not performing.
And then there is the hard work done by Doohan to earn his race place, including all the donkey work last year at the Alpine simulator in the UK. While Gasly and his former team mate, Esteban Ocon, battled each other to set the quickest lap time, it was the Aussie who was trying to make the car faster.
On the financial side, Alpine has also spent millions to ensure Doohan is up to speed and ready to race – not just through supporting his time in F2 and F3, but also in dedicated track sessions – which can easily cost more than $250,000 each time – in just-superseded Alpine F1 cars last year.
On the money front, Alpine has made a smart move to nab Colapinto because he brings an estimated $30-50 million in personal backing. And he also has a huge fan base in Argentina which is potentially worth many more millions to F1 and its owners at Liberty Media.
But no-one is overlooking Colapinto's costly start to his grand prix career with Williams.
He was speedy, for sure, but the bill for his crash damage would probably have rivalled the total for Logan Sargeant, the underwhelming American who was punted in his favour.
Time will tell, as it always does in the piranha club of Formula One, and there are plenty of storylines at Alpine in 2025.
Why does the team have three reserve drivers – as Colapinto is on a roster that already included Rio Hirakawa and Paul Aron?
What are the 'performances clauses' in Doohan's contract, and when are they triggered?
Does Flavio Briatore want Doohan, or does he favour Colapinto over the long run?
Is Briatore trying to make Alpine competitive, or just readying it for a sale?
So many questions and so few answers – except the blunt reality that Jack Doohan is the only one who can keep himself in Formula One.
