![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\nJack Doohan had done everything right.<\/p>\n
He\u2019d won races and challenged for championships in Formula 3 and Formula 2, establishing his Formula 1 potential.<\/p>\n
He\u2019d accepted his Alpine team\u2019s request to sit on the sidelines in 2024 as a dedicated reserve driver, turning down offers to race elsewhere.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He\u2019d done the work to convince the team that he was the man to replace Esteban Ocon in 2025, and he was compelling enough to warrant a shock debut in the final race of the 2024 season when Ocon was dismissed one race early.<\/p>\n
Fox Sports, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every practice, qualifying session and race in the 2026 FIA Formula One World Championship\u2122 LIVE in 4K. New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n There, in the twilight of Abu Dhabi\u2019s Yas Marina, Doohan stepped onto the grid for the first time as a Formula 1 grand prix driver, the culmination of his short lifetime\u2019s work.<\/p>\n But five months and seven races later, it was all taken away.<\/p>\n Alpine had had its head turned Franco Colapinto\u2019s impressive stand-in appearances at Williams in 2024 \u2014 and his potential to bring big-money sponsorship wherever he raced \u2014 and lobbied to borrow him for 2025.<\/p>\n He was announced as a reserve driver, but it quickly became clear that the expectation from Colapinto\u2019s camp \u2014 and from the Williams team to which he remains tied \u2014 was that he would be in Doohan\u2019s seat sooner or later.<\/p>\n Sooner, it turned out \u2014 it took just six races for those expectations to become reality, and Doohan was turfed from the grid via press release after the Miami Grand Prix, his dream shattered.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was obviously strange times,\u201d Doohan tells the Fox Sports Pit Talk podcast. \u201cIt was a weird 12 months of achieving that dream, having a three-year contract \u2014 you\u2019re never secure.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re still an employee at the end of the day, even as a race driver. You\u2019re still under contract. But I thought was in a strong position, even with the noise that was going around and the press.<\/p>\n \u201cI was head down and trying to do my job, although it does affect you in some ways, especially as it goes on.<\/p>\n \u201cI was quite content and then it was quite a shock to the system.\u201d<\/p>\n PIT TALK EXCLUSIVE: We chat with Jack Doohan on his route back to Formula 1 as Haas reserve driver | Listen to <\/a>Pit Talk<\/a> | Watch Pit Talk on YouTube ><\/a><\/p>\n What came next, though, was even more difficult.<\/p>\n Alpine announced Colapinto would undertake a five-race trial, after which the team would make an assessment on who should keep the seat \u2014 though de facto principal Flavio Briatore told the media shortly afterwards that the Argentine would have the seat indefinitely.<\/p>\n Behind the scenes Doohan was drip-fed hope. Some reports suggested he was given a dollar figure to raise as sponsorship for a shot at getting back behind the wheel even as Colapinto struggled to match Gasly.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a little bit of a difficult path, but there was in some ways, without going in too deep into it, always a bit of a carrot,\u201d Doohan alludes. \u201cI was presented with opportunities of new possibilities in increments, so it never felt like it [a comeback] was so far away \u2014 at least that\u2019s how it was at the start.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was more around Zandvoort time \u2014 so the end of the summer break, August \u2014 when I realised I wasn\u2019t going to be hopping back in the car for that season and really had to see where the next steps were going to take me.\u201d<\/p>\n Selfless Lando sacrifices race for Oscar | 00:59<\/p>\n THE NEXT STEPS<\/p>\n Doohan, the son of five-time 500cc motorcycle champion Mick, was gradually sidelined into irrelevance at Alpine, with his track testing program canned and his simulator duties scrapped from June. Even so, it took him until January this year to extricate himself from his contract and begin to plan his future.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a little bit of tough times,\u201d says the 23-year-old. \u201cWhen you get positioned in that place in mid-February, there obviously aren\u2019t many things available to go and race \u2014 usually September the year prior is late.<\/p>\n \u201cThings kick off April, May for things for the next season, so to be in that season in February is a little tricky.\u201d<\/p>\n The first order of business was to keep his foot in the door to the Formula 1 paddock, and in short order he was confirmed as one of Haas\u2019s reserve drivers for 2025.<\/p>\n It was a shrewd move, with Haas offering the Aussie a double chance of getting back onto the grid.<\/p>\n Oliver Bearman is a Ferrari junior driver racing on loan. He\u2019s almost certain to be Lewis Hamilton\u2019s replacement when the seven-time champion calls it quits.<\/p>\n Though Hamilton\u2019s greatly improved form this year has in turn greatly diminished the likelihood of Bearman leaving Haas at the end of this season, an opportunity still exists to unseat Ocon.<\/p>\n The Frenchman is on thin ice at Haas, and though rumours of tension between team and driver have been overblown \u2014 and angrily denied by both parties \u2014 it\u2019s clear Ocon hasn\u2019t lived up to his billing as the steady-handed senior driver.<\/p>\n He was beaten by rookie Bearman last year, and the gap between them appears to have widened so far in 2026.<\/p>\n Should Ocon, who is out of contract, be sent packing, Doohan would be well positioned to lobby for himself as his replacement.<\/p>\n But by his own admission, Doohan\u2019s desire is different in 2026.<\/p>\n Formula 1 is still his goal, but whereas there was a certain young-driver desperation to prove himself during his year on the bench in 2024, this year there\u2019s a calmness in knowing that he can influence only so much of what happens next.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s certainly a little bit different,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to explain, but I\u2019m not, let\u2019s say, trying to force anything.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously it\u2019s a slightly different position to what I have been before, where it was obviously pre [having] race experience and you\u2019re in that junior driver category and you\u2019re really preaching and trying to get that opportunity.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are opportunities that will come into my control that, in order to be in my control, are a little bit outside my control, if that makes sense.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just focusing exactly on what\u2019s in my control, which is doing my best when I\u2019m trackside, opportunities inside the car when they come, and apart from that, I\u2019m not really over-analysing the outside noise that covers so much of what we do.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I managed to get back into a car, that would be amazing, but I know there are a lot more things than normal that are playing as a factor.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not locking too down. I think there is a good opportunity, but I\u2019m not in the same place [as last year] where it\u2019s the be-all and end-all.\u201d<\/p>\n ‘Something is going to explode!’ | 00:55<\/p>\n \u2018SHOW WHAT I CAN DO\u2019<\/p>\n Though Doohan\u2019s time in the F1 wilderness was occupied by trying to maintain a firm connection to the paddock, he was also busy ensuring he didn\u2019t spend a third consecutive season mostly on the sidelines, having entered just seven races over 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s quite important in the job title, certainly \u2014 being a racing driver and then actually racing!\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n \u201cOtherwise you\u2019re just simply a reserve driver. You can\u2019t classify yourself as a racing driver if you\u2019re not racing.\u201d<\/p>\n Doohan had initially been lining up a seat in Japan\u2019s Super Formula, which has become a go-to destination for drivers on the fringes of F1 given the performance of the cars and the level of competition. Both Pierre Gasly and Liam Lawson used the series a final stepping stone to Formula 1.<\/p>\n That deal collapsed, however, following a messy three-day testing program with Kondo Racing that saw him crash three times at the second Degner corner.<\/p>\n Reports suggest car issues played a role in those wrecks, though engineering-level disagreements are said to have ultimately scuppered the deal.<\/p>\n That testing program appears to have coincided with an offer to race in the World Endurance Championship, with Planet F1 reporting the interested team was Ferrari with a place in its hypercar program. It\u2019s unclear how far talks progressed, but the Scuderia announced its factory driver line-up in early December, while its AF Corse partner confirming its drivers in late January.<\/p>\n The clock was already ticking by the time Doohan signed his Haas deal, but the Australian found a home with British European Le Mans Series team Nielsen Racing, with a contract announced in April, on the eve of the first race.<\/p>\n As part of the deal, Doohan has also entered this weekend\u2019s 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMP2 class, giving an iconic Australian racing name a place in one of the world\u2019s biggest motor races.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously it was an awesome opportunity just to jump in a car so late notice and last minute,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a completely different style of racing and environment as a whole.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m super excited for Le Mans \u2014 an awesome race and a lot of experience to come from that.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a welcome and high-profile outlet for Doohan, who is finally getting the chance to establish himself at a senior level as a racing driver.<\/p>\n But he\u2019s also approaching it clear-eyed about the cut-throat nature of top-level motorsport after last year\u2019s career setback.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just also good to have possibilities going forward,\u201d he says. \u201cNothing\u2019s ever a given.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously my main goal is still to end up back here in Formula 1, but it\u2019s great to have opportunities and a place to show what I can do in a race car.\u201d<\/p>\n A year after his F1 dream turned into a nightmare, Doohan might finally be able to let his driving do the talking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jack Doohan had done everything right. He\u2019d won races and challenged for championships in Formula 3 and Formula…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[944,349793,1724,64,63,689,353779,353777,13275,353776,135324,9239,324032,82605,353773,22304,115453,10367,3875,158236,2105,841,21739,309614,353778,2045,941,28322,34866,33115,353775,1737,647,3412,806,353781,805,235327,803,804,677,2333,353784,353782,13833,16180,353774,128125,59978,353788,353785,85,353780,99282,181941,353783,353787,660,12000,353786],"class_list":["post-730887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-abu-dhabi","tag-aid-teammate","tag-asia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-car-issues","tag-career-setback","tag-charles-leclerc","tag-dedicated-reserve-driver","tag-dollar-figure","tag-eastern-asia","tag-endurance-racing","tag-engine-problems","tag-engineering-level-disagreements","tag-esteban-ocon","tag-five-race-trial","tag-flavio-briatore","tag-george-russell","tag-getting-back","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-grand-prix","tag-grand-prix-driver","tag-grand-prix-grid","tag-impressive-stand-in-appearances","tag-jack-doohan","tag-japan","tag-job-title","tag-joe-portlock","tag-junior-driver","tag-junior-driver-category","tag-lando-norris","tag-melbourne","tag-mick","tag-motor","tag-motor-races","tag-motor-sports","tag-motorcycle-champion","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-oceania","tag-oscar-piastri","tag-pit-talk-exclusive","tag-plotting-course","tag-press-release","tag-race-car","tag-race-driver","tag-racing-driver","tag-reserve-driver","tag-seven-time-champion-calls","tag-simulator-duties","tag-sports","tag-steady-handed-senior-driver","tag-team-game","tag-testing-program","tag-things-kick","tag-track-testing-program","tag-victoria","tag-western-asia","tag-young-driver-desperation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}