Media certain – Colapinto replacing Doohan at Imola

May 6 (GMM) A growing number of highly-authoritative international media sources are claiming that Jack Doohan has contested his final Formula 1 race for now.

The list suggesting the Australian rookie has been told he will be replaced by Franco Colapinto at Imola next time out is truly impressive.

Those publications include L’Equipe (France), Bild and RTL (Germany), the BBC (UK), Ole (Argentina), De Telegraaf (The Netherlands) and more.

The news had already shifted into a higher gear prior to Miami, when the president of Colapinto’s major sponsor YPF – the Argentine state-owned oil company – let slip in a hot-mic moment that the 21-year-old would be racing “in Imola”.

However, before the Miami GP on Sunday, Alpine’s powerful advisor Flavio Briatore said of Colapinto: “He’s our reserve driver. Reserve, reserve, reserve.”

At the same time, though, rumours were also swirling that Briatore was in the process of negotiating a tripling of the money already flowing into Alpine’s coffers by Colapinto’s multiple backers.

“The unfortunate Doohan, under pressure, never made himself untouchable,” said L’Equipe correspondent Frederic Ferret. “He accumulated racing incidents, like the one on Sunday, giving extra power to this new way of managing F1 drivers, like disposable handkerchiefs, without ever giving them time to acclimatise.”