Alpine announced Jack Doohan as Esteban Ocon’s replacement for 2025 earlier this year. With six months still left for his maiden F1 season, the Australian driver has already decided on an intro pose, which would make him popular among the F1 community, and also please Alpine’s sponsors.
Doohan appeared on a recent episode of ‘The Fast and the Curious’ podcast, where host Greg James asked if he had ever imagined himself in the opening credits of F1. When Doohan replied that he hadn’t thought about it until James brought it up, the host started humming F1’s opening theme and said, “Let’s workshop it.”
A truly surreal feeling to secure my future with @AlpineRacing as a @f1 Driver for 2025. A dream come true, I can’t thank the team enough for this opportunity pic.twitter.com/s4ngC7aPW5
— Jack Doohan (@jackdoohan33) August 23, 2024
James also reminded Doohan that he could be one of the first drivers on the intro since he will be a rookie. “So what’s the face and what’s the. What your hands doing?”
“I think to be honest, I’m just gonna, arms crossed. I’ll make sure that I have my Moser watch on so that we can get some great advertisement for our amazing sponsor,” the Aussie replied.
Moser, a Swiss luxury watchmaker, started sponsoring Alpine Motorsports in 2024. It became the French outfit’s first-ever official time-piece partner, and Doohan is a huge fan of its watches, as he admitted on the podcast.
It’s likely why he wants to show it off to the world, though it’s unlikely since the opening credits belong to F1, not Alpine. Currently, Rolex is the sport’s official timekeeper, but starting in 2025, TAG Heuer will take over. Displaying any other watch during F1’s opening credits may not be permitted.
As a result, Doohan would need to come up with a different kind of intro pose. For inspiration, he could look to the current driver lineup.
Iconic intro poses from the current F1 grid
Doohan admitted that he never paid a lot of attention to the poses of drivers during the sport’s opening credits. “Work, to be honest. I can’t remember the last time I’ve watched the intro and had a look at the pose.”
However, current F1 drivers put some thought into it, at least some of them. George Russell’s iconic t-pose for instance, became so popular that he turned it into a winning celebration. The way he put his head down and kept his hands outstretched was almost comical, but he owned up to it.
“It became iconic, didn’t it, when he owned it, when he realized that everyone was laughing,” James added.
The T pose is back. pic.twitter.com/D9LrtSX27p
— George Russell (@GeorgeRussell63) June 8, 2024
On the contrary, Charles Leclerc’s ‘sorrowful expression‘ pose became a hit in a different way. Whenever Ferrari would mess up a strategy or Leclerc would make a mistake, fans would bring it up on social media.
Most of the other drivers, however, went for simpler and more subtle poses. Daniel Ricciardo would just smile — a classic expression for the Honey Badger. The likes of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, meanwhile, would just make a serious face.
