Silent goodbye: Doohan’s Alpine chapter winds down as Haas–Toyota reserve role beckons for 2026
Jack Doohan appears to have drawn a line under his Alpine stint with a wordless photo dump that felt like a handshake and a door quietly closing.
The Australian posted a gallery of hug-heavy shots with Alpine staff, plus a snap of the contract that made him a 2025 race driver. No caption, no fanfare — just a neat timeline of a short, bruising first act in Formula 1. It landed like a farewell, and it tracks with the paddock noise around his next move.
Doohan’s F1 story has been fast and jagged. He made his debut at the 2024 finale in Abu Dhabi, then started the opening six rounds of 2025 for Alpine. The points never came, and in May the team made a mid-season call: Franco Colapinto in, Doohan back to the sidelines as reserve. Since then, he’s been in the garage and on the sim, the less glamorous half of the job.
The bigger picture, though, points him toward America’s only F1 outfit — and a Toyota-flavoured future. As previously reported, Doohan is in the frame to become Haas’s reserve driver for 2026, a year that already promises upheaval as new regulations arrive and the team’s partnership with Toyota kicks up a gear.
Toyota returned to F1 activity in late 2024 as a technical partner to Haas, and that relationship is set to expand for 2026, when the team will compete as TGR (Toyota Gazoo Racing) Haas F1 Team. For Doohan, the dots connect neatly: a reserve seat linked to a factory powerhouse, and a racing programme that keeps him sharp.
That programme is expected to be Super Formula in Japan, where Doohan has already dipped a toe with a post-season test at Suzuka earlier this month. It wasn’t pretty — three offs at the Degner curves on a day heavy with setup experimentation — and it followed an FP2 shunt at Suzuka back in April when a DRS mistake sent him into the barriers at Turn 1. But Super Formula remains a ruthless, rewarding school, and the word is his return would come with Toyota support. If the Haas role lands, Doohan would combine Japan with F1 duties, likely backing up race drivers Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon in 2026.
As for that Instagram post, it did the rounds quickly. The Australian Grand Prix’s official account chimed in with a heart and a flag. Alpine, for now, is keeping its powder dry. There’s nothing malicious in the silence — this is how these things go when careers pivot mid-season and the next contract lives in the future tense.
If this is the end of Doohan’s Alpine tenure, it closes a chapter that promised more than it delivered but still got him on the grid. He’ll know better than anyone that opportunities in this business rarely arrive in straight lines. A year of long-haul flights, high-corner speed and late nights in the simulator isn’t the headline he imagined. It might be exactly the one he needs.
Haas–Toyota is an intriguing landing spot. The technical partnership offers a modern, high-level ecosystem for a developing driver: cutting-edge facilities, pointed objectives, and a chassis-and-aero project built for the rules reset. A reserve role there, coupled with race miles in Super Formula, would give Doohan a clear runway into 2026 — and a reason to keep the helmet close to the pit wall when chances inevitably appear.
In the end, his post probably said enough. A few embraces, a signed page, no words. The sport moves, and he’s moving with it.
