Marko sides with Briatore over endangered Jack Doohan

Mar.13 (GMM) Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko thinks his Alpine counterpart Flavio Briatore is serious about ejecting Jack Doohan from his race seat sooner rather than later.

Rookie Doohan has touched down for his first home race in Australia amid a sea of negative speculation. The headline in Melbourne’s Age newspaper believes the “brutal reality” is that Franco Colapinto is poised to replace him.

In his latest interview, with the specialist portal f1-insider.com, Briatore did not shy away from the intensifying rumours about Doohan and Colapinto.

“Everyone is looking for talent,” he said. “Only then can you win the world championship, because the driver makes the difference.

“So I’m looking for fast drivers who can win races,” the Italian explained. “In the end, the stopwatch decides – tick, tock, tick, tock. My responsibility is to find the best.

“But I’m not a killer,” Briatore insists.

Alpine team boss Oliver Oakes has done little to curb the speculation, declaring that Doohan “should be given a few races before being assessed”.

“I’m relaxed. Let’s let Jack start first,” he added.

The notoriously tough-on-drivers Red Bull advisor Marko, meanwhile, appears to side with Briatore on the issue of Doohan, calling fellow rookie Gabriel Bortoleto a “B-level driver” and Doohan a “C-level driver”.

“I don’t think he’ll complete the season,” the 81-year-old told Servus TV.

Meanwhile, reigning F2 champion Bortoleto touched down in Melbourne and was immediately faced with Marko’s denigration.

“I saw what he said,” the Brazilian, who is managed by Fernando Alonso, said at Albert Park. “I think Helmut brought a lot of talent to Formula 1, but he also brought in drivers who didn’t have the necessary talent.

“So sometimes he was right, sometimes he was wrong. But there’s certainly nothing I can say in the press now that will change his mind. Only the results on the track count.”