Jack Doohan says he discovered he was being offered an F1 seat with Alpine while he was driving home from an average dinner in Spa.
The Australian, who joined Alpine’s driver development programme in 2022, says he cannot remember who he even spoke to at the team, such was his excitement.
“I was coming back from a quite mediocre dinner in a small little restaurant in Spa on the Monday night, before my testing the following day,” he said.
“I got a call on the way home, back to the hotel, my father [Mick Doohan] was next to me, my performance coach [Sergi Garcia] was behind me, and I got the news that I’ll be racing next year, I’ll be the driver.
“Obviously, I hadn’t signed at that point until a couple of days later, so I was super happy, but it means nothing till pen is put to paper. But that was the first moment that I knew that it was happening.”
When asked who made the call and was on the other end of the line, Doohan added: “I can’t even remember, I was just overjoyed to be having that phone call!”
Doohan has had to bide his time while seeing seats dry up across the F1 grid and says he sought advice from his dad as he weighed up his career options.
Jack Doohan, Alpine F1 Team
Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images
When asked how much of an influence he has had, Doohan replied: “I think just guiding me on a mental perspective, how I’m conducting myself.
“It was some difficult times knowing that at points my future was obviously outside of my control. There were points of waiting making sure I was positioning myself in the right way. He had a very rich experience of that himself and in what he did, he did it very successfully many times.
“So I was being a sponge, really just trying to soak in all the information that I could get. But he also knew it was a very important time for me, an important time for me to learn things on my own as well. So he was really doing a perfect mix of making me find my feet myself, but also pitching in what he had to.”
He will continue his role as Alpine’s reserve driver for the remainder of the 2024 season having previously taken part in the Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) events in the A522 Formula 1 car.
He arrived at the Dutch GP after an intensive session running in the team’s simulator and says he would welcome any time behind the wheel in extra FP1 sessions on track.
“The TPC stuff does an exceptional job in preparing me, albeit it’s not a 2024 car, it is a ’22 car, just…
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