F1 | Alpine and Jack Doohan part ways with immediate effect
The Enstone-based team announced this morning a mutual agreement with the Australian driver. The two sides separate after a difficult 2025 season for both, with the son of a racing legend now set to explore new opportunities in motorsport.
The paths of Alpine and Jack Doohan have now definitively diverged. The Enstone-based team announced this morning that it has reached and signed a mutual agreement with the Australian driver, formally terminating all contractual ties between the two parties.
This means that, effective immediately, Jack Doohan will no longer be part of the Alpine Formula 1 team in his role as third driver and test driver.
The press release issued by the French team states: “BWT Alpine Formula One Team confirms that it has reached a mutual agreement with Jack Doohan to no longer retain his services for the team for the 2026 FIA Formula 1 season, allowing him to pursue other opportunities for his career.”
“Jack became the first member of the Alpine Academy to be promoted to a race driver role when he made his debut at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.”
“The team would like to thank Jack for his commitment and professionalism shown during his time with the team over the past four years, both on and off the track, and wishes him all the best for the future.”
As mentioned, Jack Doohan made his Formula 1 debut at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, replacing Esteban Ocon. The French driver had already committed to joining the Haas team, and Alpine decided to put its young academy driver straight into the car in order to speed up his adaptation process.
However, this solution failed to deliver the hoped-for results, also due to a car that proved to be deeply uncompetitive. The A525 was widely regarded as disastrous, and Doohan’s start to the 2025 Formula 1 season reflected those struggles. After the first six races of the championship, he had failed to score a single point, recording a 13th place, a 15th place, a 14th place, a 17th place and two retirements.
Following this run of results, Alpine decided to replace him with Franco Colapinto. A driver change that had seemed only a matter of time since the very first race of the season, and therefore well beyond Doohan’s actual sporting shortcomings. After taking over the seat, the Argentine driver went on to contest 16 Grands Prix without scoring any points, effectively continuing the same points drought experienced by Doohan.
Only at Zandvoort did the South American driver manage to come close to the top ten, finishing in 11th place. For the most part, however, his races merely reflected a team already fully focused on 2026. The only driver able to deliver tangible results was the far more experienced – and arguably more naturally gifted – Pierre Gasly, who managed to secure five points finishes for the Enstone team across 24 races.
The final departure of Jack Doohan marks the end of a turbulent chapter for Alpine’s talent development program. While the Australian showed flashes of the speed that earned him his F2 accolades, the combination of a struggling A525 chassis and a high-pressure environment ultimately stifled his rookie campaign. As Alpine shifts its full focus toward the 2026 technical revolution with a finalized lineup, Doohan now enters the driver market as a free agent, eager to prove that his brief and difficult stint in Enstone was not a true reflection of his potential in the top tiers of motorsport.
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