Alpine reveals cause of Jack Doohan’s scary Japanese GP practice crash

Alpine says Jack Doohan’s horrific high-speed Formula 1 crash in second practice for the Japanese Grand Prix was down to driver error and not a technical problem.

Team principal Oliver Oakes has revealed Doohan’s failure to close the DRS on time led to him losing control of the car and smashing into barriers at the exit of Turn 1.

Having missed the opening practice session, the Australian was completing his first miles around the Suzuka circuit when he suddenly ran wide at the opening right-hander at 185mph and brought out the red flags.

The nature of the crash, as well as the heavy impact, led to speculation that a mechanical issue may have been at the root of the issue.

It was also suggested that other factors might have been at play, with wind in particular catching out several drivers on Friday afternoon.

Alpine explain why Jack Doohan crashed at F1 Japanese Grand Prix

However, after receiving the wrecked car from the FIA and conducting a full analysis, Alpine has concluded that the crash was caused by a mistake on Doohan’s part.

The rear wing gets automatically shut when the driver hits the brake after a DRS zone. But since Turn 1 is taken nearly flat-out, the DRS must be manually disabled by the driver.

“We are all relieved to see Jack walk away from his incident in Free Practice 2 and glad to see he is OK after his precautionary checks,” said Oakes.

“It was a misjudgement of not closing the DRS into Turn 1. It is something to learn from and I know Jack and the team will be ready for tomorrow.

“His crew will work hard to have the car prepared after the damage. From a performance point of view today, there are some things for us to work on.

“Pierre had a good run in Free Practice 2, which bodes well for tomorrow, as did Ryo, who did a great job to run through the programme this morning. We tried some set-up options between cars and we have a good direction to go in ahead of Qualifying.”

The incident means F1 rookie Doohan heads into Saturday with limited preparations.

He was already forced to sit out FP1 as Alpine brought in reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa to complete mandatory rookie driver running.

It’s unclear if Alpine is rebuilding the car around a new chassis after the collision.

“First of all, I am OK after the incident,” said Doohan. “It was a heavy one, something that caught me by surprise, and I will learn from it. 

“I know the team has a lot of work ahead to repair the car going into tomorrow, so thanks in advance to them for their efforts.

“My focus is on tomorrow where we will have Free Practice 3 to get ready for Qualifying.”

Doohan, who is under pressure to retain his seat at Alpine, finished 13th in the Chinese GP last month after retiring from a rain-affected season opener in Australia.