Doohan 'certainly' facing in-season 2025 axe – driver

Feb.17 (GMM) One former driver is anticipating an early end to Jack Doohan’s brand new Formula 1 career in 2025.

With Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon locking out the Williams race lineup for now, and the team needing money more than another driver, boss James Vowles agreed to a reported five-year ‘loan’ of Franco Colapinto to Alpine.

Vowles has hinted several times that a key part of the deal is the possibility that the promising driver could be back on the grid as early as 2025.

“There’s a period of time where I expect him to be racing for Alpine,” Vowles is quoted as saying. “The reason we did this is that I really want him to be racing again.

“For me, Alpine represented the best opportunity for Franco to be a race driver for 2026 and perhaps as early as 2025. That is what was important to me – to give him a good opportunity to have the option to race in the sport, which is what he deserves.

“Alpine is the best chance he has without being with us.”

There is no doubt that if Colapinto, 21, does step into the race cockpit, it will be at the expense of 22-year-old Australian rookie Doohan.

“I don’t want to say that it’s an attack on Jack,” Vowles said. “I hope Jack does well, but ultimately Franco is my driver and I want him to get back on the grid after a while.”

As for whether the loan to Flavio Briatore-advised Alpine really is for a full five years, Vowles answered: “The timeframe is not set in stone, where I can look you in the eye and say that. But I can say that he will return to Williams at some point.

“The most important thing is that he will be an Alpine driver for a number of years.”

Many experts and journalists believe Doohan is only being guaranteed a handful of races to prove himself at the very beginning of the 2025 season.

“We’ll see if Jack Doohan starts the year,” Roberto Merhi, who raced for Marussia in 2015, told Spanish radio Cadena Cope.

“But I think he will certainly not be there after five races.”