Jack Doohan is delighted with his “fantastic experience” of making his FP1 debut for Alpine at 2022 Mexico City Grand Prix.
Having originally planned to run Oscar Piastri in two Free Practice One sessions as their rookie FP1 driver prior to his controversial switch to McLaren for next season, Alpine instead decided to hand Academy member – Jack Doohan his FP1 debut at Mexico City GP.
Doohan successfully seized the opportunity with positive running until anorrmalties in his power unit meant an early finish to the session, with the Aussie ultimately 19th fastest overall after having only ran the hard tyre in the session.
“It was a fantastic experience to drive in Free Practice 1 today,” commented Doohan as he thanked Alpine for giving him the chance to participate in a FP1 session, following their decision to deny his compatriot – Piastri any meaningful time in their current car.
Reflecting on his FP1 debut in F1 amidst reliability issues limiting his running, Doohan commented: “I put in a lot of preparation for today including working with the engineers at Enstone and at the circuit as well as driving on the simulator.
“We had more running planned but, unfortunately, we had to stop early due to a small issue on the car. These things happen in motorsport, but to drive 13 laps here on a Grand Prix weekend was an incredible experience and something I’ll remember forever.”
Doohan will remain trackside with the team as he looks to develop his learning of which he is excited about, whilst adding that he hopes that Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso can deliver top-ten finishes this weekend.
Alpine Sporting Director, Alan Permane added that Doohan produced “a great job” on a tricky track to make his F1 debut, as he iterated that Doohan had given “a good account of himself” with his “sensible” performance in steadily building his speed across each lap and provided “some good feeback.”
Ocon meanwhile has previously been in Doohan’s position of running only in FP1 – having first done so at Abu Dhabi for Lotus in 2014 season, before making four FP1 outings in Spain, Great Britain, Germany and Hungary in 2016 for Renault prior to joining Manor for second half of that season.
The Frenchman therefore had high praise for Doohan’s performance as he said: “I’ve been in his position before, so well done to him on doing his first session.”
Doohan will again participate in FP1 for Alpine at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where he will take Alonso’s car for the opening session ahead of the Spaniard’s final race for Alpine prior to his move to Aston Martin in 2023.
Abu Dhabi will also see Doohan participate in the final round of 2022 F2 season, where he currently is battling Logan Sargeant to finish third overall in the drivers’ standings.
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