Australian son-of-a-gun Jack Doohan\u2019s Formula 1 career appears to be hanging by a thread after being snubbed by Haas again.<\/p>\n
Doohan signed on as a reserve driver at the American-owned team after losing his spot at Alpine six races into the 2025 season.<\/p>\n
But despite giving up other racing commitments to focus on Haas, he has not been given a chance in the seat vacated by sacked Frenchman Esteban Ocon.<\/p>\n
He was overlooked for Japan\u2019s Ryo Hirakawa in Mexico City as clouds stormed above Ocon and won\u2019t get a drive in Brazil either, with Haas to race hometown hero Rafael Camara, who was set to take the seat full-time in 2027 anyway.<\/p>\n
After giving up a spot in the European Le Mans Series program with LMP2 Nielsen Racing, the Australian, who is the son of Australian MotoGP champion Mick Doohan, is set to join another LMP2 team, AF Corse, in the Asian Le Mans Series in time for the opening round.<\/p>\n
Doohan has previously opened up about his drama-filled time at Alpine, which saw him make his debut in 2024 but forced him to race for his future almost from the start at the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park the next season.<\/p>\n
There were reports that the midfield strugglers had offered big contracts to young talents they rated higher than Doohan, and speculation that the Aussie was being forced out was rife.<\/p>\n
The pressure became so intense that, at one point during the 2025 season, Doohan and his family were given bodyguards after threats from fans.<\/p>\n
Ocon\u2019s, who also raced for Alpine, abrupt sacking came after an altercation with Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu.<\/p>\n
He was suddenly dropped ahead of qualifying for last weekend\u2019s Mexico City Grand Prix following the argument.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have now notified Esteban Ocon that he will not return to a race seat with TGR Haas F1 Team this season,\u201d Komatsu said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch decisions are never made lightly, as was the case in Mexico City – but then, as now, we feel this is firmly in the best interest of the team moving forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe conversations that ultimately unfolded between the team and Esteban remain an internal matter, and we will continue to respect the private nature of closed-door situations.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking ahead, we\u2019ve chosen Rafael Camara to drive alongside Ollie Bearman at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving excelled in his TPC outing in August, we know Rafa\u2019s capabilities, and we\u2019re looking forward to welcoming him into the team this weekend and working with him through his Formula 1 debut, driving the VF-26 in Brazil.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian son-of-a-gun Jack Doohan\u2019s Formula 1 career appears to be hanging by a thread after being snubbed by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":952132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,588,85],"class_list":["post-952131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952131","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=952131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/952132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=952131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=952131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=952131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}