Alpine team consultant Flavio Briatore has shed light on the team’s decision to drop Jack Doohan just six rounds into his first Formula 1 season.
Doohan’s ousting after the last round of the championship in Miami was widely predicted after Briatore signed Franco Colapinto as the team’s reserve driver. Alpine signed deals with Colapinto’s sponsors, one of which accidentally revealed before the Miami Grand Prix that he would be in the car by this weekend.
Doohan crashed out on the first lap in Miami, as he also did in the season-opener in Australia. “I believe at one point with Jack it was very difficult and it was difficult for Jack as well,” Briatore told the official F1 channel before yesterday’s qualifying session. “I believe at one point Jack needed a break.”
“We had the possibility to have Franco Colapinto in the team and we try to swap, to see if it’s better for the team, if it is better from Franco on one side as well,” he added.
“It’s nothing against one [driver] or the other one. The team needs to find the best way possible to be competitive.
Alpine announced last week it will re-evaluate its driver line-up in five rounds’ time. Briatore said “only the performance” will influence the team’s decision about its future driver line-up.
“Franco is in the car, the team [will] decide if it’s three races, five races, or the whole season,” he said.
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“We’ll see the performance. Now, we need two cars because it’s very tight. Everything and we need two cars all the time. Let’s see.”
Alpine has also lost its previous team principal Oliver Oakes since the last round in Miami. They announced his departure due to personal reasons the day before.
“I feel sorry about what happened with him,” said Briatore. “We know it’s something that’s nothing to do with the team. It’s a personal decision, him resigning [as] team principal. I wish him to have a fantastic career [and he] clears up everything with whatever it is.
“But Olly resigned and we accept the resignation because he had some personal issue to fix and he believes it’s much better to do that not [as] a team principal but [as] Oliver Oakes.”
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