Alpine: Flavio Briatore dismisses Franco Colapinto speculation, but pressure mounts on Jack Doohan. Alpine's Jack Doohan vents frustration after Sprint Q1 exit amid growing rumours of a Colapinto replacemen.

Flavio Briatore doesn’t want to hear talk of pressure. The reference is to the situation Jack Doohan is facing in his first Formula 1 season as a full-time driver, bombarded by market rumours suggesting Franco Colapinto’s arrival in the team is imminent. What happened yesterday at the end of the Q1 qualifying session in Miami, however, could easily be interpreted as the reaction of a driver who feels the ground slipping beneath his feet. After his first flying lap, Jack Doohan returned to the pit lane to prepare for his second run. All went according to plan, but when he exited the garage, he found himself blocked by the car of teammate Pierre Gasly, who was also heading out.

The mechanics had to push Jack Doohan’s car back to give him the space needed to enter the fast lane, costing him precious time and ultimately preventing the Australian from crossing the line in time to start his final flying lap. Jack Doohan thus ended up seventeenth and eliminated, a result he voiced openly over team radio: “This is not acceptable, it’s not acceptable. If you send him out of the pits (Gasly), you have to make sure he doesn’t stop me from going out. You’ve just knocked me out of Q2, it’s a joke.”

Once he had calmed down after returning to the garage, Jack Doohan spoke less emotionally but did not change his message: “We know everything depends on the final flying lap, things were going well, the feeling was good, but in the end I got blocked while exiting the pits, and it was a disaster because it was the other car’s fault. In the end, I couldn’t launch the final timed lap, and we know that’s the lap where you usually improve a lot. I think we had everything to make it to Q2, but given how it turned out, we’ll never know.”

Jack Doohan’s frustration was immediately linked to the uncertainty surrounding his future. The Miami weekend marks the end of the first quarter of the season — a period that, according to many rumours (especially from Argentina), coincides with a deadline regarding Jack’s future. However, it was Briatore himself who played down the persistent rumours about Franco Colapinto’s arrival, at least in the short term, implying that Jack Doohan should be confirmed alongside Pierre Gasly for now. We will soon see whether the Australian’s outburst is interpreted by the team as a sign of disrespect or as the reaction of a driver who was determined to perform well at a key moment in his career.