Doohan adds to rich Australian F1 history

Jack Doohan will become the 19th Australian to race in the Formula 1 world championship when he lines up in Melbourne for the opening round of the 2025 season.

He will join Pierre Gasly in what is essentially the Renault factory team, competing under one its boutique brand, Alpine.

His promotion comes after a two-year stint as reserve driver for the Enstone operation, having been part of its junior programme.

Doohan’s promotion makes him the latest in a list of Australians to have competed at the top level of world motorsport, a history that stretches back to 1952.

He is also the second member of the family to race at the pinnacle of their respective fields, following in the footsteps of his father, five-time motorcycling world champion, Mick.

It also continues the uninterrupted run of Australians on the F1 grid which stretches back to Mark Webber’s debut in 2002.

Further, it creates the potential for three Australians on the grid next season alongside Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo.

The first Australian to compete in Formula 1 was Tony Gaze.

A fighter pilot during World War II, Gaze made three race appearances at the wheel of an HWM in 1952 (he failed to qualify for the Italian Grand Prix).

Australia’s second grand prix driver remains our most successful.

Jack Brabham debuted in 1955 and won three world titles before his retirement at the end of the 1970 season.

He won two championships driving or Cooper before a third at the wheel of the Ron Tauranac-designed Brabham, making him the only driver to have won the championship at the wheel of a car bearing his own name.

Also competing during the 1950s and 60s were Paul England, Ken Kavanagh (though he never started a race), Frank Gardner and Paul Hawkins (who famously crashed into the Monaco harbour).

Aside from Brabham, Australia’s only other world champion is Alan Jones; AJ won the title for Williams in 1980.

He was also our second F1 race winner, taking a total of 12 grand prix wins in a career that spanned from 1975 until 1986.

After a purple patch through the 1970s that also saw Tim Schenken, David Walker, Vern Schuppan, Larry Perkins, Warwick Brown, and Brian McGuire, there was a lull through the 1980s.

It was finally broken by the Brabham brothers, Gary and David, who both debuted in 1990.

The former had only two starts, while the latter had a spell with Simtek in 1994, where he was team-mate to the late Roland Ratzenberger.

Another eight years past before Webber made his debut with Minardi, his career boasting over 200 grands prix and nine victories.

He came within a whisker of the championship in 2010 before leaving F1 for World Endurance Championship success at the end of 2013.

As he did, he handed his seat at Red Bull Racing to another Aussie, a young Daniel Ricciardo who’d made his F1 debut with HRT in 2011.

Joining Ricciardo on the grid for 2023 was Oscar Piastri, the young Melburnian who took his seat at McLaren following a stellar junior career.

Though without a contract for 2025, should Ricciardo remain on the grid next season it would mark the first time since the 1976United States Grand Prix that three Aussies have featured on the grid; Alan Jones, Larry Perkins, and Warwick Brown.

Of the Australians to have competed in the world championship, five have enjoyed race wins while, as a nation, we boast a combined four world championships.

Australians in Formula 1