Jack Doohan breaks silence after brutal Alpine F1 demotion

Jack Doohan has been Colapinto, 21, will now be given his chance alongside Pierre Gasly.

Doohan, 22, has been demoted to reserve driver. His future has been in doubt since Colapinto signed from Williams in January.

Colapinto has until the end of the Austrian Grand Prix on June 29 to prove himself in a race seat. Alpine say they will then assess their options ahead of the British Grand Prix a week later.

Doohan out-qualified Gasly for the first time but he also crashed out of two of his six appearances – on his debut in , and then in practice for the Japanese Grand Prix two rounds later. He failed to score a championship point in six outings.

The 22-year-old Australian admits that his demotion is hard to take, but has vowed to keep his head down over the next few months.

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"I am very proud to have achieved my lifelong ambition to be a professional driver, and I will forever be grateful to the team for helping me achieve this dream," Doohan stated. "Obviously, this latest chapter is a tough one for me to take because, as a professional driver, naturally I want to be racing.

"That said, I appreciate the team’s trust and commitment. We have long-term goals as a team to achieve, and I will continue to give my maximum efforts in any way I can to help achieve those. For now, I will keep my head down, keep working hard, watch with interest the next five races and keep chasing my own personal goals."

Doohan added: “I am very proud to have achieved my lifelong ambition to be a professional Formula One driver and I will forever be grateful to the team for helping me achieve this dream.

“Obviously, this latest chapter is a tough one for me to take because, as a professional driver, naturally I want to be racing. That said, I appreciate the team’s trust and commitment.”

On Tuesday, it was revealed that British team principal Oliver Oakes had resigned as team principal after just nine months in the role,

Briatore said: “Having reviewed the opening races of the season, we have come to the decision to put Franco in the car alongside Pierre for the next five races. With the field being so closely matched this year, and with a competitive car, which the team has drastically improved in the past 12 months, we are in a position where we see the need to rotate our line-up.

“We also know the 2026 season will be an important one for the team and having a complete and fair assessment of the drivers this season is the right thing to do in order to maximise our ambitions next year.

“We continue to support Jack at the team, as he has acted in a very professional manner in his role as a race driver so far this season. The next five races will give us an opportunity to try something different and after this time period we will assess our options.”