Why Doohan picked Alpine's F1 academy over Red Bull’s

Doohan joined Red Bull’s junior programme in 2017 while still in karting before making the step up to single-seaters.

Jack - the son of five-time Motorcycle champion Mick Doohan - decided to switch to the Alpine academy as he tackles Formula 2 with Virtuosi this season.

Seven of the current F1 grid have been in Red Bull’s junior team - Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, Pierre Gasly, Yuki Tsunoda and Alex Albon.

Despite Red Bull’s impressive track record of nurturing young talent to F1, Doohan explained the key reasons behind his switch to Alpine.

“Just the layout of the program and what it’s going to do for me to become a better driver,” he said. “Obviously Red Bull had that, but if it was the same I wouldn’t have moved. I don’t want to touch on that too much, but there was just a really good path for me to actually become a better driver regardless of the end goal, to learn as much as possible and get valuable time that you can’t get anywhere else and that I hadn’t been getting.

“It’s coming to a point where it’s make-or-break in Formula 2 and there’s nothing really to go back on, so I had to make the decision what I wanted to do to become a better driver, and Alpine was that.

“In my limited time with the program already I’m enjoying that a lot and I honestly can’t wait to continue to build and build the relationships, because I’m obviously still a very fresh face and everyone else is a fresh face for me too, but at the moment everyone’s amazing and I’m enjoying being here a lot.”

While the Alpine academy hasn’t directly promoted one of its drivers into its own team, Guanyu Zhou has made the step up to F1 with Alfa Romeo, while Christian Lundgaard has secured an IndyCar seat for this season.

However, despite winning the F3 and F2 titles in spectacular fashion, Oscar Piastri was unable to secure a drive for this season with a year on the sidelines likely.

With Esteban Ocon on a long-term deal and Fernando Alonso likely to decide his own future dependent on Alpine’s form in 2022, there could be no F1 opportunities for the likes of Piastri, Doohan or other new signing, Olli Caldwell.

F1 remains Doohan’s main target but improving himself as a driver is a key factor in his decision to sign for Alpine.

“F1 is obviously the ultimate goal but I think the Alpine program for me - spending obviously the last few years with Red Bull, which was good, but in the short time that I’ve worked with Alpine I think they’re a program that regardless of the end goal of Formula 1 aim to make you into a better driver by teaching you more,” Doohan explained.

“From F1 tests to working with the team to being able to speak to the engineers, you’ve got all this information you can take that’s available with you to go forward and ultimately help you become a better driver and F1 ready. At the end of the season, if you’ve done a good job, Oscar will get his opportunity but if you’ve won a championship or come close to then it’s not just Alpine but other F1 teams are going to be looking at you as well.

“They’re giving us the opportunity to then progress forward and be able to become a professional at what we do. I think that’s the main part of it, becoming a better driver going forward, whether in F1 or like Christian in IndyCar and Zhou as well went to Alfa Romeo.

“I think there’s a lot of people that say ‘Yeah but they haven’t had someone promote into the Formula 1 team’, but everyone that’s been in Formula 2 or their program, you can’t diss them that they aren’t a good driver or they haven’t grown while they’ve been here.”

Even with Piastri waiting in the wings, Doohan doesn’t see his fellow countryman as direct competition.

“At the moment I am going to learn everything I can and take Oscar as someone hopefully that I can get some information off as he came in as a rookie into a top team last year and did an exceptional job, dominated the championship,” he added. “For now, I don’t think it would be the right thing to do to try and compete against myself with Oscar.

“Obviously, we both want to get into Formula 1 and hopefully at the end of this year if things go right I will be but for now I need to learn as much as possible so it wouldn’t be right, not to create enemies but obviously one-up myself to someone that’s well-respected in the academy and with the F1 team.

“Going forward, I think I’ve just got to use all the resources that I have possible and that being Oscar’s being one of them.”