Jack Doohan isn’t done yet: Alpine door for 2026 not fully closed despite Briatore’s framing
Jack Doohan’s Alpine story might still have another chapter. Despite Flavio Briatore publicly pitching Alpine’s 2026 race-seat decision as a straight shootout between Franco Colapinto and Paul Aron, the Australian hasn’t been scrubbed off the whiteboard just yet.
Doohan began 2025 alongside Pierre Gasly after a tidy debut in Abu Dhabi last season, but a point-less six-race opening stint and a bruising Miami weekend saw Alpine pull the lever. Colapinto stepped in from Imola, the team leaning on his momentum from a strong run with Williams last year and the backing that helps keep the lights on in Enstone. The results? The A525 has proved a stubborn, low-ceiling proposition, and Colapinto’s tally after 11 starts still reads zero.
That’s the awkward backdrop to Briatore’s recent comments in Baku, where Alpine’s executive adviser framed the 2026 decision as Colapinto vs. Aron, in-house and in focus. Yet those close to the situation insist Doohan remains a slim but present option if Alpine decide they want a reset with a driver who knows the car, the people, and the political weather.
It’s notable that Doohan — who is managed by Briatore — never vanished from the scene. Since being parked back in the reserve role, he’s been glued to Alpine’s weekends, back in the garage and on the briefings, and remains first reserve if either race driver is sidelined. The team stressed at the time of the switch that Doohan “remains an integral part” of the operation. Privately, the 22-year-old has kept the tone steady: long-term goals, maximum effort, no bridges burned.
What complicates the picture is Aron. The 21-year-old Estonian has been quietly accruing meaningful F1 mileage with a series of FP1 runs this year, including an unusual arrangement that placed him in Sauber machinery at Silverstone and Budapest before Alpine dropped him into the A525 at Monza earlier this month. He ended that session 20th, half a second off Gasly — not headline stuff, but enough data for the team’s spreadsheets.
There’s also the money. Colapinto brings it, and that matters in a cost-cap world where development timetables and simulator upgrades have their own price tags. But performance still rules the roost. If the Argentine can’t turn the corner before the season closes, Alpine’s 2026 calculus will look very different, especially with a new ruleset looming and the need for a driver pairing that can animate a fresh project.
Doohan, for his part, already flirted with a 2026 landing spot elsewhere. Cadillac’s incoming team held talks with the Doohan camp around the British Grand Prix — a conversation led, in part, by his father, five-time 500cc world champion Mick Doohan. In the end, Cadillac went big-name: Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas. The reserve slot there remains unannounced, but it’s unclear whether Doohan is still in that frame.
Strip away the noise and Alpine’s choices are, indeed, internal — at least for now. Colapinto brings backing and marketability; Aron offers youth, clean data and a rising profile; Doohan adds familiarity and a sense that, on a better day with a better car, there’s more to come than his six-race 2025 snapshot suggests. Briatore’s framing might be pragmatic, but F1 history is full of “straight choices” that turned into triangles.
What will decide it? The last third of this season. If Colapinto finally snares points and strings together Q2s, he firms up. If Aron lights up another FP1 or two and looks immediately comfortable, he pushes to the front. And if Alpine’s driver market winds shift — an injury here, a surprise exit there — Doohan’s proximity and preparedness become more than a footnote.
For a team that’s spent too long explaining the car rather than exploiting it, getting the 2026 pairing right matters. Alpine can’t afford sentiment, nor can it afford another reset a year into the new rules. Doohan isn’t the favorite today — that much is clear. But as the paddock has learned time and again, “not the favorite” isn’t the same as “no chance.” In this business, being in the room can be half the battle. And Doohan is still very much in it.
