Mid-season sackings are nothing new in F1. But rarely has the guillotine been deployed so brutally and so early in a season.
After Liam Lawson’s dramatic demotion just two races into his Red Bull career, now it is Jack Doohan’s head which is very much on the chopping block over at Alpine.
Heading into Sunday morning’s Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, Doohan – the son of motorcycle legend Mick Doohan – is a man under serious pressure.
Full footage of Jack Doohan's huge crash in FP2!#F1#JapaneseGP#Formula1#f1jppic.twitter.com/r7Kn2Zw4Lu
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A huge shunt in FP2 on Friday, ploughing into the barriers on the outside of Turn 1, was the latest error in a season which has started badly for the Australian rookie.
Fortunately, Doohan was able to climb out of the wreckage relatively unscathed. But sympathy for the youngster soon turned to alarm when it emerged that he had been the architect of his own downfall, leaving his DRS open in an apparent gamble to unlock more pace. Auto Motor und Sport claimed the 22 year-old was trying to replicate a trick he tried in the simulator.
Perhaps he was simply trying to make up for lost time, his team having opted to run reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa at his home race in first practice.
Either way, Alpine advisor Flavio Briatore – who appears to be very much enjoying his Bond villain reputation in his second F1 coming – will no doubt have taken a dim view. The crash damage was estimated at $1.5 million (£1.16m).
Briatore’s blade has been poised since before the season even started, with Franco Colapinto brought in as the team’s reserve in January, on a multi-year deal.
Colapinto is highly rated after replacing another axed rookie, Logan Sargeant, at Williams midway through last year. He is understood to be Briatore’s preferred option to line up alongside Pierre Gasly. Either way, his arrival ensured Doohan had to face questions about his Alpine future before he had even got behind the wheel of the car in testing.
Predictably, those questions have ramped up with each passing week as F1 figures have lined up to pass judgment. Red Bull’s motorsport advisor Helmut Marko was probably most scathing. The 81-year-old was asked by ServusTV to grade the rookies on the grid. He slapped Alpine’s new recruit with a “C driver” grade and added: “I don’t think he’ll complete the full season.”
Doohan’s team are doing little to dampen the speculation. “We know there’s a bit of unrest around Jack’s position,” team principal Oli Oakes acknowledged to Sky Deutschland ...
