Alpine has announced Aussie rising star Jack Doohan will be the team’s official reserve driver for the 2023 Formula 1 campaign at the French marque’s season launch in London.
Doohan, 20 years old, will combine his F1 duties with a second full-time campaign in Formula 2 with Virtuosi Racing, which powered him to three wins and sixth in the drivers championship last season.
The Gold Coast native wasn’t on hand at the launch of the 2023 car due to Formula 2 testing obligations in Bahrain overnight.
Jack, son of legendary five-time 500cc motorcycle champion Mick, had already become something of a de facto reserve driver after the team’s sensational meltdown in relations with Oscar Piastri in the middle of last year.
His standing in the team saw him fielded in several private tests in old machinery and in a pair of FP1 sessions, in Mexico City and Abu Dhabi, at the end of last season, as well as the post-season test. He was also embedded inside the Alpine garage for several late-season races during the break in the Formula 2 calendar.
Speaking to the F1 website earlier in the year, Alpine boss Otmar Szafnauer said he expected the young Aussie to be a title contender this season.
“He’ll be part of the Alpine family going forward but his focus for [this year] will be to win the [Formula 2] championship,” he said. “He is really, really good. He is very professional for a young man, and he works hard, he prepares himself well. He drives within himself too, so he’s got great potential.”
The 14-round F2 season starts on the F1 undercard in Bahrain next month. Doohan will get his first chance to race in front of his home crowd at the Australian Grand Prix in April when the series makes its first ever stop Down Under.
‘MORE FINISHES, LESS RETIREMENT’ AS ALPINE TARGETS MIDFIELD CONSOLIDATION
Alpine was the last team to launch its 2023 car, which is focused on delivering a machine capable of scoring more consistently in the battle to head the midfield.
The 2022 car secured fourth place in the constructors championship, but regular power unit failures meant it took until the last round of the season to secure the place ahead of McLaren by just 14 points.
Fernando Alonso, albeit never afraid to pump up his own tyres, estimated he lost in the vicinity of 70 points through suffering most of the team’s problems, with Esteban Ocon also counting the cost of a pair of retirements among other issues.
But the unreliability was a feature of sorts rather than a bug. The French team chose to squeeze as much power as possible from the motor before last year’s rules froze engine development knowing that it would be allowed to make reliability fixes as it went.
Alpine otherwise impressed with a steady stream of car updates that constantly drove it forward, justifying management’s claims that it was on the right path.
This year the power unit should be much more steadfast, and combined with a revised chassis, including major suspension changes, the team expects to take a major step forward in performance.
But Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi was keen to keep expectations of in check.
“We were fifth in 2021, fourth in 2022, and naturally now we’re looking at the top spots,” he said. “But the gap to third was rather large, and we need to bridge that gap.
“So we want to finish fourth again — the very minimum target assignment for all these guys, and I know they can do it — but this time in a more robust fashion: more finishes, less retirements, less DNFs, more points and possibly also more podiums to make our lives sweeter, also because we really need to get to that stage if we really want to aim at podiums permanently.
“So we’re going to continue learning, and improving momentum is key.”
Team principal Otmar Szafnauer said his team would need to outperform the frontrunners off-track this season to have any hope of joining them in coming years.
“We’ve got to close that gap, but in order to do so we must develop at a higher rate than any other Formula 1 team out there, which isn’t easy to do,” he said. “Even the top three — for us to catch them, that means our development rate is higher, and that’s what we’re looking to do, and that’s what this A523 will hopefully do for all of us.”
The car launch also gave the team a chance to officially introduce Pierre Gasly as an Alpine driver after the formerly Red Bull-backed Frenchman switched from AlphaTauri at the end of last season.
“It’s a new beginning for me, the start of a new journey, and I must say I’m extremely motivated and just cannot wait to hit the track,” he said. “Personally I must say I’m super excited.
“It’s a great project. I fully believe in this new project, and from what I’ve seen so far at the factory — back at France, in Viry, and in Enstone — there is just massive potential.
“We’ve got the resources, so now it’s just about putting the work in, and I’m sure the results are going to follow.”
His teammate will be childhood rival Esteban Ocon. Both drivers are from the Normandy region from France but fell out on their way through the ranks to Formula 1, having been on frosty terms for much of their time in the top category over a so-far undeclared dispute.
Ocon has developed a reputation for intrateam rivalries, having stirred up both Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso during his time in the sport. He also came to blows with Max Verstappen after crashing into him while trying to unlap himself at the 2018 Brazilian Grand Prix.
But both drivers have assured the team that they’ve put the spat behind them and are ready to work together to drive the team forward.
“We want to progress, get faster and catch the top three teams,” Ocon said. “So the target is going to be obviously keep fourth and get closer to third.”
