{"id":34102,"date":"2025-09-21T00:54:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T00:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/34102\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T00:54:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T00:54:07","slug":"f1-news-alpine-shuts-door-on-doohan-for-2026-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/34102\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 news: Alpine shuts door on Doohan for 2026 return"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Alpine
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA chance of a return to the 2026 grid with Alpine seems gone for Jack Doohan. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n

Doohan started the 2025 season alongside Pierre Gasly but was dropped after just six rounds<\/a>, making way for Colapinto at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

The Argentine has yet to score a point since taking over, leaving Alpine with a headache over who should partner Gasly in 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite Colapinto\u2019s struggles, Briatore has made it clear the choice will be a straight fight between the 22-year-old and reserve driver Aron.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s between Franco and Paul,\u201d he told The Race.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaul is a very nice guy, a very quick driver as well. And I need to understand what is the best for the team, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision ends speculation that Alpine could look externally, with names such as Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda or a standout Formula 2 rookie floated in recent months.<\/p>\n

Briatore said there were no viable options beyond the team\u2019s current line-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see any other possibility,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see other ones, but we don\u2019t feel it [anything special] \u2013 because the good guys go \u2018boom\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doohan\u2019s omission marks a sharp fall in fortunes for the Australian, who entered 2025 as Alpine\u2019s best-placed junior before being sidelined in favour of Colapinto.<\/p>\n

Briatore had previously admitted the Argentine may have been promoted too early, conceding in the Netherlands last month<\/a>: \u201cI\u2019m not happy when I look at the result. What is important is the result. Is really not, not what I expected from Colapinto.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, recent signs of progress from Colapinto appear to have restored confidence, while Aron has bolstered his case with solid free practice outings, most recently at Monza.<\/p>\n

For Briatore, the decision will come down to which of the two shows the strongest long-term potential, with the Italian insisting he has no personal ties influencing the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy only interest is to try to take in the team the best driver available and do the best job with us.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is as simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A chance of a return to the 2026 grid with Alpine seems gone for Jack Doohan. Image: XPB…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[25629,32012,111,139,69,216,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-34102","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-alpine","9":"tag-jack-doohan","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-slot3","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}