Formula 1 has always been a barrel of broken glass, spiders and snakes and knowing who is going to bite you and how much venom is going to be released is part of the skill base you require to survive.
F1 is a high-stakes balancing act between sport and politics and with off-track developments in recent years you can now add theatre to that list – but what’s unfolded at Alpine this season has pushed that balance off a cliff.
While many might have moved on from Jack Doohan’s early-season dismissal from Alpine, it is probably an apt time to re-open the wounds with his replacement Franco Colapinto now having failed to finish with a point after his eighth race, three more than his originally announced ‘rotational’ agreement.
You can now add to that his overnight incident where he basically wrote off his A525 after crashing heavily in the early laps of what was supposed to be a two-day Pirelli tyre test at Hungaroring.
Doohan has shown tremendous class with the way he has taken his treatment on the chin this season and maintained a dignified silence, waiting for something to be rescued from the train wreck.
Doohan’s mid-season dismissal after just six races, followed by Colapinto’s faltering efforts has turned Alpine from a proud Renault-backed institution into a joke.
And behind it all – the unmistakable fingerprints of Flavio Briatore.
Let’s start with the numbers. Six races. That’s all Doohan was given to prove his worth in a car that, frankly, had no business fighting anywhere near the top 10.
Lets not forget Doohan earned his position with some impressive performances in F2 and F3 and despite doing what has traditionally been required to earn his ‘chance’, the rumours started about the kid being on borrowed time before the season even started.
Imagine heading into your first season, let alone your first home GP, with the added weight of knowing there was a replacement driver standing at the door with an alleged bag of cash and team management allegedly prepared to take it.
There is no doubt that Doohan had a couple of moments he would rather forget, as the majority of rookies do, but he hustled it hard, scrapped for every position and delivered flashes of speed that had local fans at least hopeful of another competitive Australian in the making.
Sure, the results column showed zero points, but those who understand the sport saw promise and a driver dragging an underperforming Alpine beyond its limits.
Then after the Miami GP came the guillotine. Doohan was out. Colapinto was in, the team declaring the move necessary to “boost performance.” – for FIVE races according to the team’s media release at the time.
Flavio Briatore, Executive Advisor: “Having reviewed the opening races of the season, we have come to the decision to put Franco in the car alongside Pierre for the next five races.
“With the field being so closely matched this year, and with a competitive car, which the team has drastically improved in the past 12 months, we are in a position where we see the need to rotate our line-up.
“We also know the 2026 season will be an important one for the team and having a complete and fair assessment of the drivers this season is the right thing to do in order to maximise our ambitions next year.
“We continue to support Jack at the team, as he has acted in a very professional manner in his role as a race driver so far this season. The next five races will give us an opportunity to try something different and after this time period we will assess our options.”
But now, eight races on, not five, Alpine’s big upgrade has failed to deliver a single point.
Sure a tally that matches Doohan’s six race stint, but with a glaring difference – Colapinto came into the seat with nine 2024 starts under this belt, more simulator time and more test laps in the car, where the team had an opportunity to prepare for his driving style.
Doohan on the other hand, has several personnel changes in his own garage within his six-race stint, which anyone at any level of the sport, will tell you is far from ideal.
In a sport where opportunities are rare and careers are made or broken in moments, Doohan was given less than a quarter of a season before being benched.
For a little perspective, there are many drivers who have had more than 30 F1 starts without scoring a point, including Italian Luca Badoer who had 50.
As an extension of that, Nico Hulkenburg made his F1 debut in 2010, but never collected a podium appearance until this year’s British Grand Prix – 239 starts later!
The message to young drivers couldn’t be clearer from this Alpine mess: talent isn’t enough when politics and cash run the show.
Now, I can hear many of you saying, “but that’s the way it has always been” and no doubt there have been plenty of questionable deals in the past, but this drama has dragged the sport back years.
And that brings us to Briatore, the man orchestrating this chaos. Officially, he’s Alpine’s executive advisor. Unofficially, he’s the de facto team boss, making the calls and shaping the narrative.
There is no doubt that Briatore has made some amazing moves with drivers in the past when you consider Michael Schumacher at Benetton and Fernando Alonso at Renault, but he also comes with piles of baggage – Crashgate anyone?
It is a tough business and patience and persistence are the two primary ingredients you need to survive. The last thing you need is people, seemingly in your own camp, making it more difficult.
Don’t forget that Doohan is a product of Alpine junior driver development program, which makes all this even harder to digest . What is the point of such a program if a talented and loyal driver who has produced the goods and proven his worth in the F2 and F3 ranks simply becomes a pawn in the end game?
While this has all been unfolding, Renault’s once-proud heritage is seemingly being dragged south by the day.
In a month where Aston Martin reportedly sold its 4.6 percent stake in Lawrence Stroll’s F1 team for $US146 million, valuing the team at more than $US3 billion, you have to wonder how much the value of the Renault squad has fallen during this saga?
Renault’s F1 heritage once stood for engineering excellence and fierce competition. The recent performance of the team could be described as nothing less than second rate.
Doohan deserved better. Alpine’s fans deserved better. Formula 1 deserved better, but heading into the summer break you have to wonder if we have even seen the end of this disaster.
Alpine seemingly took the cash and were hoping like hell that Colapinto would produce at least something a tick better than Doohan, so the move could be justified.
The truth is that it has been a disaster and has been embarrassing for all the stakeholders and damaged the career of a young talent who has been diplomatic through the entire process hoping that some sort of common sense will prevail.
And before all the crazed/passionate Argentinian fans get on their keyboards, let me make this clear – this is not a Colapinto bashing, it is just simply bringing to light what has been a shameful situation for a sport that has grown in so many areas in recent years.
It is time for this whole deal to be set right and for the team to be true to their word about their rotation system and save some face by putting Doohan back in the car when the season resumes with the Dutch Grand Prix on August 29-31.
Surely, someone at Renault is asking a question?
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