F1 News: Doohan's father slams Alpine after Flavio's boy crashes

(GMM) Jack Doohan’s famous father has aimed a clear jibe at Alpine after the rookie Australian was axed from the race lineup.

Franco Colapinto, highly rated but also heavily backed by corporate Argentina, was already off Pierre Gasly’s pace when he entered what would become a disastrous debut qualifying session for the Enstone based team.

First, when the 21-year-old’s engineer told him to “creep out” of the garage following a red flag, Colapinto ignored the instruction and drove to the end of the pitlane – earning him a grid penalty.

But even worse was yet to come for Doohan’s replacement when he crashed extremely heavily. “I was getting closer and closer to Gasly,” Colapinto said afterwards.

“I felt good. It’s a very different car to what I’m used to.”

Doohan, at Imola in his new role as official reserve, was captured on the live world feed just moments after Colapinto’s crash unable to hide his smile.

Jack Doohan smiles after the driver who replaced him, Franco Colapinto, wadded up his Alpine

Also at Imola is Doohan’s famous father Mick, the multiple motorcycling world champion.

When asked about his son losing his seat just six races into his career, Mick Doohan told DAZN: “It’s disappointing to see how things have turned out.

“On paper, he looked quite good. But anyway, this is Formula 1. And it seems that Alpine is a customer team now,” he quipped, referring to speculation that Doohan was ousted simply because Colapinto’s sponsors could offer more money.”

Immediately after the Colapinto news originally broke, 59-year-old Mick Doohan posted a social media ‘story’ that demonstrated how Jack’s 2025 result statistics compared favorably with those of teammate Gasly.

“It wasn’t my story,” Doohan senior smiled, “it was someone else’s story, I just re-posted it. I was just making a point.”

Mick admitted he’s “not sure” if Doohan and Colapinto have spoken at all at Imola. “I have no idea. He’s a grown man so I don’t know who he’s been speaking with,” Doohan answered.

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Flavio Briatore said this week he is only asking new Alpine Formula 1 driver Franco Colapinto three things: to be fast, not crash, and score points.

Shunting heavily in Q1 at Imola immediately falls short of one of those demands, as well as making a point-scoring debut very difficult.