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Jack Doohan Gets Alpine Seat Over Mick Schumacher, Leak Reveals
Esteban Ocon’s Alpine successor has been finalized. After the French team announced they’ll part ways with Ocon in 2025, their reserve driver, Jack Doohan, was the favorite to replace the disgraced Frenchman. However, Alpine’s WEC driver and Michael Schumacher’s son Mick had an outside chance to upset the 21-year-old. Soon, both of them were thrown into the backseat as Carlos Sainz entered the contention. But the Ferrari driver announcing his multi-year Williams contract has finally settled the dust at Alpine.
As per auto motor & sport Sweden, Alpine has already released an internal press release announcing Jack Doohan as Pierre Gasly’s teammate for 2025. Not only should that make him 2025’s third rookie driver, alongside Haas’ Oliver Bearman, and Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli (yet to be confirmed), but also the third Australian, alongside McLaren’s Oscar Piasti and VCARB’s Daniel Ricciardo, whose contract is yet to be renewed.
After the Esteban Ocon exit announcement, Doohan had started mentally prepping to debut next year. Though he was wary of F1’s ‘uncertain’ nature, “My dream is to be on the grid, my dream is to be in Formula 1,” he emphasized for the Alpine bosses to hear. However, Mick Schumacher too was as determined as ever to mark his return to the pinnacle of motorsport. “F1 has always been a dream and it will always remain the dream,” the German said in January this year.
Though Schumacher has 2 years of F1 experience driving for Haas, and double reserve driver duties for McLaren and Mercedes currently, Doohan edged him out. Fate is a weird thing. Michael Schumacher was the one who gave the young Australian his first go-kart. Never in a million years would he have anticipated that this gift to a 3-year-old Doohan would culminate in knocking down his son’s F1 comeback.
From family friends to F1 rivals – The Jack Doohan & Mick Schumacher story
There are quite some uncanny coincidences in the Jack Doohan- Mick Schumacher crossover. Their fathers, Mick Doohan and Michael Schumacher, went from being neighbors in Monaco to very close friends in the 90s. While Mick Doohan conquered the MotoGP world with five consecutive titles from 1994 to 98, Michael did him one better in F1 with 7 championships.
Doohan Jr., however, found the 4-wheelers more bewitching than what his father raced. Fortuitously, the best F1 racer was a common visitor in the Doohan household in Australia. No prizes for guessing that the 7-time champion became Jack Doohan’s idol. “Given everything he has accomplished and his whole mentality, he is someone whom I look up to massively,” Jack said about uncle Michael during his F3 days.
These weren’t the only stars aligning that led Doohan towards his F1 dream. Alpine’s new Team Principal Oliver Oakes also has an old connection with Doohan. In 2019, the Aussie drove for Oakes’ F3 team, Hitech Grand Prix, and ended as the runner-up in the championship. This story seems like the fairytale that fellow Aussie Daniel Ricciardo wants right now but it’s his compatriot making it big. Well, on some level, Jack might have felt odd competing for the 2025 seat against his father’s namesake. But lets just add to that the list of coincidences. Are you excited to see another fresh face from Down Under in F1?
A former Ferrari engineer has criticised the decision to bring in Lewis Hamilton and thinks the Brit’s presence will mean “a lot of potential for drama”.
At the age of 40, seven-time Formula 1 champion Hamilton will form a formidable driver partnership with Charles Leclerc. His big switch comes at the expense of Carlos Sainz, who has performed well for the Italian squad but who was axed so they had room for their blockbuster new signing.
But not everyone of a Ferrari persuasion is convinced that it will go well. Ernest Knoors, who spent many years as an engineer at Maranello, specialising in power units, worries that Hamilton’s presence could do more harm than good for a team that is finding its groove under Frederic Vasseur.
“A big name like Hamilton also brings a lot of politics and if politics within Ferrari are not managed well, then there is a lot of potential for drama,” he told Formule1.nl. “Hamilton has the tendency that if things do not work out, he turns his whole car upside down and starts experimenting.
“Ferrari believes very much in the big personalities and will follow him. But Hamilton is just someone you have to guide a little bit and not give the freedom to rebuild the whole car, because then it will go completely wrong. So I do not know if it is such a smart move, but of course it is nice for the sport.”
News of Hamilton’s planned move broke on February 1, coinciding with football’s Transfer Deadline Day. That the back pages of many newspapers were dominated by the decision of Hamilton to swap Mercedes for Ferrari was testament to the magnitude of the announcement.
Sainz was not surprised as he had been informed by his team of the plan ahead of it being made public. But the Spaniard responded well with two victories to date this season and five further appearances on the podium, on the way to what looks likely to be a fifth-placed finish in the championship – two spots and 54 points ahead of Hamilton.
Sainz has signed for Williams next year and, after several years of running at the front of the grid, will focus on his new challenge of helping restore one of the grid’s most historic teams to its former glory. But Knoors believes he should have been kept on by Ferrari instead.
The Dutchman added: “I see Lewis Hamilton’s arrival at Ferrari more as a PR move. With all due respect, Hamilton is not going to take that Ferrari from P6 to P1. He will get the most out of it, but what Ferrari has to do is make that car faster. And if you make that car faster, you can easily drive at the front with the current line-up.
“Besides, as a team you have to look further on the horizon. If Hamilton becomes champion in the coming years, he and Ferrari will become immortal. But if you want to build a team with talent for the next five years, are you going to build on Hamilton? No, because he will really be finished after two or three years. That is why I would have kept the very strong line-up that Ferrari has now.”
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Chase Elliott had a front-row seat for one of NASCAR’s most bizarre moments of the 2024 Cup Series season. At the start of Stage 2, the pace car dove onto pit road in front of Elliott; however, it was a tad too late. The pace car made contact with the sand barrels at the entry of pit road and caused a red flag for cleanup.
Initially, there was some speculation on the NBC Sports broadcast, even from the No. 9 team, that Elliott made contact with the pace car. Fortunately, the pace car didn’t slide across the No. 9 car’s nose, but it undoubtedly provided one of NASCAR’s craziest red flag moments in recent memory.
Below, you can listen to Elliott and the No. 9 team react to the pace car crashing into the sand barrels on pit road at Phoenix during Championship Weekend!
Reflecting on the recent retirement of 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr., Earnhardt didn’t mince words about the toll NASCAR takes on its drivers. Speaking candidly, the two-time Daytona 500 winner admitted that the pressure to perform every week left him feeling miserable for most of his racing career—a sentiment he believes is shared by many of his peers.
“Right or wrong, racing made me a miserable person 90% of the time,” Earnhardt confessed. “And him too. I mean, ask Kyle Busch, ask anybody—unless you’re winning, you’re not happy.”
For these elite drivers, the sport is a relentless grind. A podium finish might bring temporary relief, but anything short of victory is often a source of frustration. The immense effort poured into preparation and execution rarely feels like it pays off unless the checkered flag is theirs.
Earnhardt highlighted the mental toll of falling short, explaining how the relentless focus on winning can overshadow the joy of simply competing. Even a solid performance feels hollow compared to the euphoria of a win.
“Unless you’re winning, you’re not happy at all,” he said. “You’re okay with a good run, but for the most part, all the effort it takes just to run good—it doesn’t weigh out.”
For drivers, the stakes are sky-high every week. Sponsors, fans, and teams demand nothing less than excellence, leaving little room for error or personal satisfaction in anything less than a dominant performance.
Earnhardt also shared insights into his friendship with Martin Truex Jr., who recently announced his retirement. While the two often spend time hunting together during NASCAR’s off-season, Earnhardt noted that the stress of racing even creeps into their leisure activities.
“When I’m with him during hunting season, it’s always in the back of his mind,” Earnhardt said. “It’s that stressful part of the year when he’s as miserable as he’s going to be.”
Now, with Truex stepping away from the track, Earnhardt looks forward to seeing a lighter, happier version of his long-time friend. Without the weight of weekly competition hanging over him, Truex might finally be able to relax and enjoy the outdoor lifestyle he cherishes.
“It’ll be fun to see him loosen up,” Earnhardt added.
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