What had been hinted at in recent weeks has now been confirmed by the Formula 1 team Alpine: Jack Doohan will be promoted to regular driver in the 2025 Formula 1 season and will be Pierre Gasly’s teammate for the French team. This is bad news for Mick Schumacher.
The 21-year-old Australian will make his Formula 1 debut at his home race in Melbourne next year. Doohan is currently taking a break from racing in 2024. He left Formula 2 after two years and is working as a test and reserve driver for Alpine this year, for whom he was also allowed to take part in Friday practice sessions in Montreal and Silverstone.
This also reduces the chances of Mick Schumacher returning to Formula 1. The German, who drives for Alpine in the WEC World Endurance Championship, had hopes of getting into the cockpit and had a test day in the A522 from the 2022 season together with Doohan in Le Castellet at the beginning of July.
Some people saw this as a shootout between the two drivers, but Alpine did not disclose the times. The team boss at the time, Bruno Famin, only said that the test had gone well for both drivers.
Formula 1: Several test and Friday races for Jack Dohan
The appointment of new team boss Oliver Oakes may have ultimately been a plus point for Doohan, who drove for his Hitech team in the Asian Formula 3 in 2019 and finished runner-up with five wins from 15 races.
This was followed by a move to the (regular) FIA Formula 3, in which he also became runner-up in 2021, before moving up to Formula 2, where he finished third in 2023. Since then, he has been involved in a number of tests and Friday races at Alpine. And in 2025 he will now be taking part in the regular Formula 1 cockpit.
Doohan is the first junior to make it directly from the academy to Formula 1 since Renault’s comeback in 2016. Oscar Piastri and Guanyu Zhou were also once among the French team’s junior drivers, but they left the program before their promotions and made it into the premier class with Alfa Romeo and McLaren without Alpine.
Doohan himself was admitted to the academy in 2022 after the Australian had previously been part of Red Bull’s squad.
Source: www.sport.de
