Alpine Moves Fast Amid Doohan Rumors in 2025 Seat Drama
Nov.14 - Alpine has apparently reacted swiftly to rumours suggesting Jack Doohan could be ousted from his Formula 1 race seat before turning a wheel in 2025.
Bolstered by Bernie Ecclestone, who told Blick newspaper Williams' $20 million release fee would be "no problem" for Alpine advisor Flavio Briatore, it was rumoured the Enstone based team may snap up Franco Colapinto.
According to the rumours, rookie Doohan would be the victim of the move. But in a new social media post, Alpine added the caption "2025 in progress" on a video of Australian Doohan, 21, training.
Also already under contract at Alpine for 2025 is incumbent Pierre Gasly, but the Japanese source as-web.jp claims there is tension in his early relationship with Briatore - the key executive F1 advisor to Renault CEO Luca de Meo.
The report suggests Briatore, who apparently reprimanded the Frenchman in front of the entire race team in Mexico, has become increasingly enraged by Frenchman Gasly's tendency to be late to the circuit.
Briatore may have punished the 28-year-old by ordering him to attend a test of Alpine's two-year-old car in Qatar immediately after the Brazilian GP.
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I made the relevant points about Doohan before already, but in short, Alpine (& his manager Briatore) wouldn't have decided in favor of giving him a chance in the first place if they weren't going to do so anyway as he's a driver whose career they've invested in, not to mention he's done lost of testing for preparation purposes, which otherwise wouldn't have been done either.
Alpine could've easily offered, for example, either Bottas or Magnussen after the Sainz rejection, had they wanted to, all these thoughts they'd go back on their decision regarding Doohan are unrealistic & foolish.
As for Gasly, interesting claims, especially the part about being late, if true.
For now, I don't put any relevance on these without a solid foundation.
wouldnt be the 1st time a driver with a contract for the next season has been let go/replaced
Yes, but a bit different when the driver in question is someone a team has invested in, i.e., even more clearly a decision to hand a full-time drive wouldn't be made if any doubts existed & or unless honoring that decision would be fully certain.
Otherwise people should push for him to replace Antonelli as well, or even Bearman if previous decisions done for a reason didn't matter at all, & while at it, Leclerc as well, given Ferrari has a multiple world champion for the medium term.
Whether it will or wont happen, its what Flav thinks is best for the team , thats why hes there ,to be the Bad man and be very well paid for it, if it happens , its just bad luck for Doohan, it happens
Indeed
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