Jack Doohan landed in the United States with the obligation to perform a good performance in the Miami Grand Prix. However, the Australian did not start with the right foot in the street circuit and It was outside the SQ1 of the Shootout classification for the Sprint race on Saturday, so it will begin in the 17th place of the grid. The oceanic exploded against the strategists of Alpinesince he could not make a second fast -back attempt for leaving the boxes late.
After a first turn in which Doohan marked a time of 1: 29,171the 22 -year -old pilot was in the lower part of the table and needed a second attempt to improve his record. But, due to a failure in the strategy by the engineers of the French team, the Australian left his box in the absence of three minutes to the end of the batch and was stuck in the Pit Lane for having several cars ahead, including his partner Pierre Gasly.
Lost time, Doohan did not have time to open a quick second round to improve his time and was relegated to the seventeenth placeto 0.257 of the Racing Bulls of Liam Lawsonwho marked the elimination line in the 15th place. In addition, it was 0.826 seconds from Gasly, who positioned himself eleventh. Once he returned to the boxes, the oceanic exploded against Alpine’s strategists and showed his strong disgust: “This is not acceptable. It is not acceptable. You have to make sure you are ready”.
While his track engineer asked him for forgiveness, Doohan continued to complain about the error. “If you are going to send it behind me, you have to make sure you are ready, or before me. I can’t go out and then have to leave because he’s going to find me. It’s a joke”He said aggressively. His partner Gasly, finally, was eliminated in the SQ2 and will start the Sprint in the 13th place.
The corridor did not hide his anger even when he got off the car. While the official transmission showed him walking to the area of the corralito where the interviews with the press are conducted, the oceanic was gesturing enraged along with an Alpine member.
Another of the problems Doohan had and that harmed him when opening the return is that he lost time when he had to get out of his box. The Australian did not calculate well and ran out of rank to turn on the Pits line. As not to collide with the wall, he had to stop completely and expect Alpine’s mechanics to push the car to reorder in the row.
This result can be a hard blow for Doohan’s aspirations in Formula 1, since it faced the sixth day of the maxim with the pressure of realizing a good performance. This was evident after the strong warnings by Flavio Briatore, executive advisor, in the prelude to the classification. “The pressure is of no use. Do you want to be in Formula 1? You will always have pressure. Therefore, when they tell me that a pilot has pressure because there is another pilot who could take his place, that should be a motivation to do it well“It was one of the phrases launched by the Italian manager.
These statements collide with the sayings of Australian himself in the days prior to Miami GP, because he had assured that he had no pressure problems and that he did not give importance to the external noise of the equipment. “I think it is only circumstantial, I do not think there is a goal towards me, it is simply how the situation develops and I do not take it as something personal, I do not take anything personal. I simply, I think this is our sport, this is my current moment and I will benefit from it more than anything else“, argument.
To this, he added: “In spite of everything, even in difficult times, I never felt affected. I had a good group of people around me, and the team also supported me a lot, so I never had it or felt it in the back of my mind. Of course there will always be noise, but I was more focused on being as quickly as possible in the car than on an external. I think, since this issue has been circulating so long, By the time the season began, perhaps it was already immune to him; If I had started a couple of days before Melbourne, I would have affected me more”.
In this way, Doohan is obliged to perform an outstanding performance for the main race of Sunday. It is worth noting that the 22 -year -old pilot could never get into Q3 throughout his seven presentations at the maximum and did not add points. The best result he achieved was in the China GP, where it ended in 13th place, with the exception that he uploaded three places for the disqualification of other pilots. Instead, in Bahrain There was much of the competition within the first ten positions, although its performance declined significantly about the end and ended fourteenth.
Precisely, in him Sakhir International Circuit, This is where Gasly finished seventh and added the only six points that Alpine has In the 2025 season. There he had a transcendental role Franco frankntotowho as a reserve pilot worked from the simulator at the headquarters of Rod to get an ideal tuning of the monocasco A525.
“Franco is part of our team of simulator pilots and, so far, is doing a good job. Definitely, It is useful when on Friday many track data are obtained And try to polish the car for the next day, ”said David Sánchez, technical director of Team Galo, in statements to the site Motorsport In the previous Miami GP.
The French engineer who joined Alpine in May last year added: “The simulator support is very important before the race weekend, during the weekend and in the correlation after the event. You have to try to anticipate the conditions, wind and track temperature, and in that case, having an experienced pilot is undoubtedly a great help. ”
