Ocon Criticizes Alpine’s Driver Shuffle After Doohan Demotion
In a surprising move just six races into the 2025 Formula 1 season, Alpine Racing has announced the demotion of Jack Doohan back to reserve driver status. This decision follows a challenging start to the season for the Australian, who was promoted to a full-time race seat at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last year.
Despite expectations, Doohan struggled to score points, failing to match the pace set by experienced teammate Pierre Gasly. Alpine has replaced him with Franco Colapinto, igniting debate over the team’s management practices and driver strategies.
Esteban Ocon, a former Alpine driver, expressed his disappointment with the decision while speaking to Canal+ at Imola. “From Jack’s standpoint, over five races, I think he showed decent speed… he deserves at least to show a little bit more,” Ocon stated. He highlighted the potential risks of such a quick demotion: “You ruin a driver’s career when you do something like that.” Ocon believes Doohan has the talent to return to F1 in the future.
Alpine has faced scrutiny in recent years due to frequent changes in its driver lineup and senior management. Ocon admitted this instability is not new, emphasizing, “There are few seats in F1… Franco deserves to be in F1 too, for sure, but that’s not the right way to do it.”
The implications of these changes for Alpine and its driver development program remain to be seen as the season progresses.
