Doohan Sr. criticises Alpine after son's replacement crashes

Jack Doohan's father has taken a thinly-veiled shot at Alpine after the young Australian lost his Formula 1 race seat.

Franco Colapinto, the highly-rated rookie backed by major corporate support from Argentina, stepped in to replace Doohan at the Enstone-based team — but is having a nightmare team debut at Imola.

During qualifying, the 21-year-old ignored his engineer's instruction to "creep out" of the garage after a red flag, instead rushing to the pitlane exit and earning a grid penalty.

But the bigger blow came moments later, when Colapinto suffered a heavy crash that ended his session.

"I was getting closer and closer to Gasly," Colapinto said afterwards. "I felt good. It's a very different car to what I'm used to."

Doohan, now Alpine's official reserve, was caught by the world television feed shortly after the crash, unable to suppress a smile.

Also present at Imola is his father Mick Doohan — a multiple world champion in motorcycle racing — who didn't hide his disappointment with the team's recent decisions.

When asked about his son losing the race seat after just six Grands Prix, Mick told DAZN: "It's disappointing to see how things have turned out.

"On paper, he looked quite good. But anyway, this is Formula 1. And it seems that Alpine is a customer team now," he added, hinting at speculation Colapinto's sponsors brought more funding to the table.

Soon after Colapinto's promotion was announced, the elder Doohan shared a story on social media comparing Jack's 2025 stats favourably to those of teammate Pierre Gasly.

"It wasn't my story," he clarified. "It was someone else's story, I just re-posted it. I was just making a point."

As for whether his son has spoken to Colapinto during the Imola weekend, Mick replied: "I have no idea. He's a grown man so I don't know who he's been speaking with."