The young Australian made his F1 debut in Abu Dhabi at the end of last season.
He was named as team-mate to Pierre Gasly for 2025 last August though speculation has swirled that he’s poised to be replaced by Franco Colapinto at the first opportunity.
Colapinto switched from Williams to Alpine over the off-season and is one of four reserve drivers for the Enstone squad.
He is a high-profile arrival, one thought to have cost a significant amount of money.
With him has come commercial backing courtesy of Mercado Libre, and a huge South American fanbase.
Speculation that he will replace Doohan in short order has been fuelled by non-committal answers from both Oakes and executive advisor Flavio Briatore over the Aussie’s future.
It’s a point Oakes himself acknowledged, having previously branded the media “keyboard warriors” for reporting the story.
In Melbourne, he admitted that the team had played a part in heaping the pressure on Doohan, but also revealed the pair had discussed the matter on a couple of occasions.
“Back in Abu Dhabi, I did, just a little bit,” he said of conversations with Doohan over speculation regarding his future.
“But also in Bahrain, we spent a bit of time talking about it.
“There’d obviously been quite a big winter, he’d been at Enstone and stuff.
“It’s different when you’re at the factory and you’re doing sim and just getting on with it there, it’s not really the right time.
“During the test it was quite nice to sort of, he’s in the car half a day, he’s half a day out of it, so you can really spend time at the track.”
Those conversations went well, from Oakes’ perspective, with Doohan showing remarkable resilience in the face of intense media interest.
Ahead of the F1 75 season launch in London, the 22-year-old dispatched questions over his future with ease, before the team’s media staff shut down that line of questioning.
In Australia, he was again asked about his future in light of Colapinto, and handled himself well.
He backed that up with an impressive performance on track during Friday practice in Albert Park and was unlucky on Saturday when a spin for Lewis Hamilton likely cost him a berth in Qualifying 3.
A mistake on the opening lap in the race was in many ways an unjust reward for what had been a strong weekend, though highlighted the fact he is still a rookie – not that he was alone as four of the six rookies failed to see the chequered flag in Melbourne.
His reaction to both crashing out of the race, and to media questioning, has impressed Oakes.
“I can’t stick up for him all the time,” Oakes said.
“He’s got to do his talking on track and I think he’s done that.
“He’d already though, from my point of view, just been absolutely proper in the team with how he handled that [speculation].
“He never was sulking or moping, he got on with it. He’s worked really hard over the winter.
“All of that goes together to delivering the result that he did.
“The only bit I’d say in F1 is that it’s hero to zero quite quickly, and you’ve got to just keep performing and keep doing what you’re doing.
“But he knows that, and you can see that in how he goes about his business.”
While the team has done much to destabilise Doohan, it has simultaneously done much to boost him.
He was afforded significant time at the wheel of previous spec F1 cars over the past two seasons making him familiar with the machinery before climbing into the car in Abu Dhabi for his first race.
Even that was a useful endeavour in Oakes’ eyes and eased the pressure in Melbourne last weekend.
“Abu Dhabi perhaps helped him get rid of some butterflies,” Oakes reasoned.
“A few of the rookies you can see in that high-pressure situation got caught out [in qualifying].
“Jack performed pretty well, but I was also thinking how much of that is because he’s experienced it, almost, I don’t know, six, eight weeks before.
“[The Australian GP] weekend will just help him go up another level as well because he’s done that, he’s gone through it.
“Maybe I shouldn’t say it, but [he should] give himself a pat on the back: ‘I can do this’, and you believe in yourself a little bit.
“I’ve actually always felt he’s capable of doing what he’s done,” the Alpine boss added.
“It was done before I joined the team, but all of the mileage had done in the TPC testing, [he’s] been performing well.
“I was slightly surprised how he conducted himself, given its his home race, there’s a lot of attention on you.
“We didn’t necessarily have an easy build-up to the weekend in terms of getting the car balance, so I think how he handled all of that, and then when it came to the sort of high-pressure moment and qualifying…
“He delivered a good lap, he didn’t put a foot wrong.
“From that side, I was more proud of him than surprised.”
Doohan now heads to China looking to build on what was an overwhelmingly positive weekend in Melbourne.
It has done much to ease speculation regarding Colapinto, but the pressure does remain.
His challenge now is to continuing to deliver on track while blocking out the noise.
“He just does seem to keep his head down and block things out and get on with it,” Oakes said.
“F1 isn’t it isn’t just about being quick, you’ve got to be able to handle the pressure, and you’ve got to be able to quickly move on from any mistakes as well.
“China will be a little bit difficult as well for the rookies, it’s not a track that necessarily they have tested at.
“I don’t know if that’s the case down the grid, but I think obviously after there it’s Bahrain and that stuff also gets a bit easier.”
Discussion about this post