The demons of the past seem to have returned for Alpine as they are once again going through a tumultuous time. In 2023, they shocked the F1 community by announcing the departure of several key personnel, including team principal Otmar Szafnauer.
Their hope was that these changes will help the team rediscover their form. However, with Alpine having another difficult start to this year’s campaign — scoring just seven points after the first six races — they have confirmed that team principal Oliver Oakes has resigned.
Until Alpine sign someone to replace Oakes, executive advisor Flavio Briatore will take over the Briton’s duties. However, that is not the only major change expected ahead of the next race in Imola.
Credible reports have claimed that Franco Colapinto will replace Jack Doohan from the Emilia Romagna GP weekend. If these reports are true, it would be brutal for Doohan as he has had just six races to showcase his potential.
However, Pitstop podcast’s co-host Fabio Bocca does not believe it would be too harsh for Alpine to sack Doohan. “I don’t think it is sad because, like I said before, they should be driving to survive,” Bocca said.
He believes that with the kind of money teams invest in F1 to achieve success, Doohan definitely needed to do more. The Australian has definitely struggled so far this season as he has failed to score any points. Moreover, he has already had two retirements this season — in Australia and then last weekend in Miami.
With Doohan having been so poor, Bocca added that the 22-year-old was also on the receiving end of Oakes’ wrath. “Apparently, he’s (Doohan’s) walked into the paddock [and] Oliver Oakes just unleashed hell in front of everyone in the Alpine hospitality in the paddock. Not even in private. Like he did it in front of everyone,” Bocca revealed.
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This happened after Doohan was left unhappy with his race engineer after his Q1 exit. The team sent Doohan and his teammate, Pierre Gasly, out of the garage at the same time, leading to chaos in the pit lane, which compromised the Australian’s run. As a result, Doohan was eventually eliminated after Q1 and ended up qualifying only P17.
Now, with all the reports that have emerged, it seems that it is only a matter of time before Doohan gets the sack.
