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Formula 1

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Formula 1, Alpine-Renault and Jack Doohan: From his 22nd Birthday to first day back at work this week in Enstone

by Sports Benches

This week was a huge week for Alpine-Renault’s No.7 Jack Doohan from celebrating his 22nd birthday the other day to turning up straight at work aka pre-season duty for his first seat fit in Enstone with a new-look hair cut. 

I guess he will want to go a bit more faster then who would want to stick what worked well him in the past – probably to match his personal best on raw pace through one lap, especially when it comes to a full race weekend which is very important for Jack.

Then there’s him stopping by at the office with the man currently running the show that knows about the history of Enstone all too well even though he’s not really Team Principal these days – Flavio Briatore.

Looking forward to the new car reveal soon (A525 chassis) + pre-season testing while Jack is on it working hard every day & always be in the points soon with Pierre.

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Motorsport

Australian Superbike Championship: January 2025 Interview with Max Stauffer in the Pirelli Superbike category as the new member of the Yamaha squad

by Sports Benches

I am delighted to have Max Stauffer onboard who spent a few minutes on the phone earlier today having recently joined the Yamaha squad over the off-season alongside the series veteran and 3 x champion Mike Jones ahead of the upcoming ASBK season that will begin as part of the Australian World Superbikes round support bill next month at Phillip Island in Victoria.

We talked about his season from last year when he first stepped up into the Premier Class (Pirelli Superbike category) along with his on-track expectations for the new year of 2025 including some four-wheel crossover talk such as Supercars and Formula 1 like Jack Doohan’s step up into the big time at Alpine-Renault plus many more with his recovery, etc.

SB: First of all, you had some good Top 10 finishes last season including a few occasional podiums. What have you learned last season in the premier ASBK class, which kind of rounds you had & didn’t had success with that would make a huge difference, and how you’re able to pivot towards the front runners in 2025?

MS: Yeah, well 2024 was overall not a bad season for me. Unfortunately, it was injured a lot throughout the year in which I think some injuries might have hindered some performances. I was quite faster at the Queensland tracks that turned out to be really good for me, especially in Morgan Park Raceway – a track that I’ve struggled on on the smaller bike. It should be fast and competitive there, although I was injured on a big bike was quite a big relief. Focusing on 2025, I’ve gotta work on my consistency during races and if I can work that out, then I think I’ll be there to fight for the front row. The raw speed seems to be quite good as I seem to be pretty fast at one lap but I just need to try working on limiting the crashes and be a little bit more consistent throughout the year and throughout the races.

SB: Before you stepped into the premier class, what was the one thing you missed the most as a rider but also still keeping tabs as a spectator when it comes to the ASBK’s list of support categories? Even when World Superbikes & Supercars come over?

MS: One thing I missed is probably not really understanding how to manage a tyre when it’s easy in the smaller classes such as tyre life at the end of the races. That was probably the biggest thing when I stepped up into the premier class was just to managing the tyre and working out when to be fast in the race which was challenging & it didn’t really come too easy for me. But having the support categories there looking back, you can see that I probably could have worked on those things a little bit earlier still. And it’s great to have the World Superbikes out there because when you’re a support category to them, you can watch and learn so much just from what they’re doing by implementing it into your own weekend, so you can try and adapt in order to learn a little bit quicker as well as speeding up the process a bit more.

SB: When the World SBK Australian Round returns at Phillip Island next month, which world class riders you would like to meet in-person?

MS: Not in particular. I think all the World Superbike riders are quite cool – I’m just a big fan of all of them, really. I’m just excited to be in the paddock and sort of just be a part of the atmosphere and the atmosphere in the paddock and throughout the whole weekend, which is quite massive & cool to be part of and also a whole lot different compared to a traditional ASBK meeting. It will be cool to see Toprak (Razgatlıoğlu – reigning riders’ champion for the BMW Motorrad team) do well around Phillip Island and of course, it will be good to see Johnny Rea on the Yamaha be up front as well.

SB: Any Supercars driver you’re looking forward to see later in the year as well (at Ipswich’s Queensland Raceway as part of the support bill in early August)?

MS: The Supercars is a championship that I followed a lot & I’ve always been a bit of a fan of the Red Bull team. Not necessarily keen on meeting or talk to them but it’ll be nice to see the Red Bull team do well on it & just in general, be actually nice if I sort of be getting into the Supercars a bit more & start following the Championship a bit more closely than I do.

SB: How much do keep in touch with some riders who are now living in Europe? Also wondering if you’d be at least keen to race a the Australian MotoGP support race like the Moto 2/3 someday or have any other one-off rides lined up?

MS: I do keep in touch with the few of the riders overseas like Harry [Harrison] Voight in particular. We’re quite good mates & pretty much throughout the season, we message message each other a lot and talk about anything to do with bikes, really – Bikes and training. It’s pretty good that it’s nice to have a relationship with people over there because you always sort of kept in the loop as such and you sort of know what’s going on a little bit. But, yeah, it will be definitely be cool to do a Moto2 wildcard one day – whether that opportunity comes up, I don’t know. But for now, I don’t have really have anything else lined up at the moment as I’m just focusing on doing the best job I can for Yamaha in this year’s Australian Superbike Championship.

SB: Any race tracks would you like to race overseas like Silverstone in the UK for example?

MS: So I’ve written Assen TT (a track located in the Netherlands) before, that was a cool track. A track I would like to ride now would be Jerez which was a bucket list one – I’ve written there now. I’ve always sort of liked Valencia (Circuit Ricardo Tormo), Silverstone would be cool with a track that has a lot of corners but I think any of the European tracks are pretty awesome to be quite honest with you. They’re all so fast and flowing which is a lot different to the traditional Australian tracks, so to go over there and experience all those tracks and layouts and what not would be a fantastic experience nonetheless.

SB. Thoughts on Jack Doohan’s debut Formula 1 last month at Abu Dhabi for Alpine-Renault who is the son of motorcycle legend Mick Doohan with his home Grand Prix coming up in March at Albert Park? Any messages you would like to say to Jack? Also wondering if perusing a career with four wheels would be make sense from a safety point of view? Or why not be better off sticking with two wheels just for the thrill for it?

MS: Yeah, it’s pretty awesome that there’s another Aussie in the Formula One paddock where the Aussies seems to be quite strong. At the moment, it seems they have a strong presence anyway in the paddock with Oscar’s [Piastri – McLaren-Mercedes] doing quite well. And it’s pretty cool to see Jack [Doohan] in there now; so hopefully, he can sort of burst onto the scene and have a good year. It all comes together for him, in particular with his home round, if he could turn up & be straight on the pace by having a good race in front of his home fan base.

But yeah, Im I’m not really sure about the safety aspect of four wheels where they go as just as fast really. I’ve never really been that interested in cars as for me, it’s always been bikes and two wheels – that’s just what I like. But I know there’s plenty of other people think the opposite who just enjoy driving a car more than what they do riding a bike. So yeah, I’m not too sure about any of that as I’ve never driven a car competitively & I can’t really comment on that that too well.

SB: I wish we could see some more two and four wheel crossovers often from John Surtees to Valentino Rossi and even Casey Stoner too?

MS: Yeah, there’s definitely been a lot of great motorbike riders that have sort of made the switch which is something I’ve never really thought about. I suppose I’ve always just thought about trying to be as good as motorbike riders as possible. But one day, it’d be nice to definitely give it a go like jumping in a V8 Supercar or whatever race car and have a scoot around in order to sort of understand and appreciate more what it takes to be good in that field.

SB: Also wondering if you’re into Tennis? Especially at this time of January at the Australian Open with Alex De Minaur coming off on his career best performance to date lately other than being eliminated in the Quarter-Final the other day by Jannik Sinner? Your favourite bike & four-wheel car also? – it can be an everyday road legal or a racing-spec chassis. And like how Tennis players go off to recover after a long few hours match, how’s your own recovery holding up from race to race & season to season?

MS: I don’t really follow the Tennis that much. But my favourite sort of motor vehicle would definitely gotta be the [Yamaha] R1 for road use & for racing use – it’s just so versatile and its strengths are so strong.

For me overall, this is probably one of the best bikes out there that I’ve ridden anyway – definitely my favourite. And in terms of recovery, I just try and do a lot of stretching and eat the right foods and when I am resting, I just rest – not keep up and keep doing stuff. So just rest and let the body heal by coming out the next day to try and be better.

SB: Better than taking part in a five-set Tennis match?

MS: Yeah, for sure.

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Other Sports

Tennis x Sports Crossover at the 2025 Australian Open: Super Rugby, All Blacks & Wallabies preview along with Netball in New Zealand and Jack Doohan under pressure for only the first six races in Formula 1 at Alpine-Renault

by Sports Benches

And last but not least, how about we give a shoutout to two Wallabies stars Harry Wilson (Queensland Reds) and Max Jorgensen (NSW Waratahs), who were both in attendance at Melbourne Park this weekend to cheer on Alex De Minaur.

Yet, the Demon did win after all to play in the 4th round for the 4th straight year of his AO men’s singles career.

It was also nice seeing Harry and Max lend over that Wallabies green and gold jersey to Alex and look at him go! – How good! 

Rugby Union

We first have a jam-pack year of Rugby ahead of us with the 11-team Super Rugby competition set to start in a month’s time before the British and Irish Lions arrive at our own backyard during winter. Plus, there’s Club Rugby at the same, the Rugby Championship & Bledisloe Cup in August-September, and we finish off the year in Europe v the North’s best sides on earth.

First of all, it’s been a bitter blow not seeing Melbourne field a Rugby team anymore in the Rebels when they are a big sporting city due to financial problems. But with lots of people playing AFL (Aussie Rules) and even NRL (Rugby League), it seems there’s no room for Rugby to succeed in that place unfortunately.

Now we are down to four teams with the Western Force still around & as we all know the ACT Brumbies would love to finally play in a Grand Final. However, we would need the Tahs, Reds or even Force to be playing in the semis either way in order for the Wallabies to succeed & that includes the Brumbies. It’s never been a better time to try taking that advantage now, especially with Joseph Suaalii onboard from the Sydney Roosters (NRL) to the Waratahs. 

Other than that, the NZ teams will still be dominating for the most part along with a new-look Crusaders, even though the All Blacks had their bad times last season when it comes to the Springboks and France.

Netball

If Rugby isn’t big enough for NZ, why not Netball when they also have a huge year ahead? 

The Silver Ferns will be stopping by in Sydney soon to spend nine days there as part of their training camp including a Practice Match v the NSW Swifts featuring the Ferns former star shooter (for now) Grace Nweke on Sunday, February 2.

They will also have a slightly different ANZ Premiership season amongst half of the six teams having brand new coaches (Mainland Tactix, Southern Steel and Northern Stars) between May-July including Finals with a two-round home-and-away format across 10-12 weeks rather than playing three times last year.

Yes, the Ferns haven’t organised any matches lined-up yet for the second half season but we are still expected to see the Taini Jamison Trophy series back regardless of opponent. Although England have won it last year but the good news is that they will be able to defend the Constellation Cup v the Aussie Diamonds following their 3-1 series win back in late October.

And shoutout to former Silver Fern and current GWS Giants (Western Sydney) player Gina Crampton who plays at Wing Attack and was also in attendance from the stands for Alex De Minaur’s game yesterday – sure she still has plenty to offer at age 33, especially playing against the best in Super Netball.

Formula 1

What else? Rugby & Netball isn’t the only sport who mix and matches well with Tennis.

I also wish Alpine-Renault’s Jack Doohan from Formula 1 was there to see Alex also because they do look like each other with both of them having a smiley face personality. Surely, Jack can get some tips on defying those odds from Alex when there’s a bunch of reverse drivers waiting in his wings under pressure including Franco Colapinto. Alex did beat another Argentine actually yesterday too in Francisco Cerundolo; hopefully, this will cheer Jack up in a bid to keep his seat over the first six odd races of the season.

Although I can understand Jack is more aligned with Ayrna Sabalenka because she visited his team’s garage in his unexpected F1 debut last month at Abu Dhabi & Jack came back in return for Ayrna when she played a match a few weeks ago at the Brisbane International.

Post-Notes

Can’t believe there’s a whole lot of other athletes watching for fun there rather than looking to go toe-to-toe with the pro Tennis players & see who’s better? 

Time will tell.

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Motorsport

Thoughts on Flavio Briatore finally securing Franco Colpainto onboard but initially as reserve driver that puts Jack Doohan under all sorts of pressure at Alpine-Renault

by Sports Benches

As far as it concerns Jack Doohan, it seems Alpine has finally snapped up Argentine Franco Colapinto but only as a reserve driver for now – probably on loan from Williams I guess that covers just 2025 rather than a permanent deal. Update: It seems he’s onboard on a multi-year deal then, so that means he’s under Alpine now rather than Williams unless Williams inserted some clause in his contact if and when Carlos Sainz Jr. or Alex Albon leaves at some point.

He was under the radar of Flavio Briatore for some time who was impressed by his driving ability when he was unexpectedly a replacement driver for Logan Sargeant at Williams late last season – despite the fact he crashed out during the last 2-3 races of the year that cost them additional money for repairs. At the same time though, Alpine has already sorted out a replacement for Esteban Ocon which was Jack Doohan over Mick Schumacher. But then once the Colapinto hype has begun over scoring points, Flavio thinks he has other ideas to keep him in F1 at his team.

In case you missed it, Flavio likes having someone who has raw pace & can score points, as Colapinto is the one he thinks can form a formidable part for his Alpine F1 team’s masterplan. That means, we will need to get behind Jack 100% so he can score as many Top 7-8 points as possible for the first few years of the new year, especially with the home Australian race being his first shift around the corner.

If not, he could be sacked right on the spot unfortunately after the Miami Grand Prix as per rookie contract clause. Flavio wouldn’t mind making wholesale changes midway during the season when one isn’t doing so well, even though he’s only the team’s executive advisor (a la Director of Football role) to Renault’s boss Luca De Meo rather than being Team Principal.

15th on debut isn’t bad for Jack to be honest at Abu Dhabi having been thrown into the deep end after Esteban Ocon decided to sit out the season finale in order to begin his next ride with Haas early for pre-season testing. But again, he has to be a good match to Pierre Gasly who has been doing the heavy lifting as their No.1 driver as of late, especially with the upgrades working well in their favour. 

Now Jack may not have the same capabilities as his compatriot Oscar Piastri but he has scored points and podiums before at junior formula level.

There’s absolutely no reason why he cannot be able to make the most out of his time at the highest level when there’s only 20 odd spots fighting for competition and Jack being the only guy not doing well knowing he might not make it to full season with Franco ready to return to Formula 1 through the gifted help of Briatore by taking over Doohan’s seat if things don’t work out after the first odd races.

So his full support is very, very crucial in the hope of scoring Top 10s almost every race and if he can do that, then there shouldn’t be anymore pressure throwing against Jack & we could see the very best of him by the time Alpine becomes a customer team to Mercedes in 2026.

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Motorsport

Formula 1: A new year with the home Australian GP next up for Jack Doohan to deliver results in a bid to keep his ride after a year of testing/track work at Alpine-Renault

by Sports Benches

The first day of the new year (2025) also sees the first start season for Alpine’s new driver Jack Doohan from the Gold Coast in Queensland. He does look a bit like Alex De Minaur from Tennis by the way albeit with a much younger age difference than him and also has the natural Grand Prix roots that stems from his dad’s legendary two-wheel motorcycle career in Mick. 

He’s coming off a huge 2024 on the reserves for the most part where he’s been clocking hundreds and thousands of track work on top of his unexpected season-ending debut at Abu Dhabi last month and now it’s up to Jack to deliver right from the word go ahead of his home Grand Prix in Melbourne (Albert Park) come March. 

At the moment, he’s under the watchful eye of Flavio Briatore, even though he isn’t the Team Principal nowadays. However, he is still tasked to turn around Alpine’s fortunes at this same Enstone place he held several times before through Benetton in the 90s and Renault for most of the 2000s, and yet he’s not taking any prisoners for any excuse or emotion if Jack or even Pierre does not deliver at least the first few races of 2025. 

There’s a reason why Flavio has been sniffing around Franco Colapinto despite him crashing out the last few races of 2024 when he was thrown into the deep end unexpectedly for the axed Logan Sargeant at the time & scored a few points on offer with Alex Albon at Williams. 

But let’s hope that isn’t the case as it’s a long time coming for Jack who is the first Alpine F1 Team Academy driver to race for them following a sound Formula 2 & 3 career at junior level. With that being said, scoring Top 7-10 finishes would be a great start then work his way towards being Top 3-5 over time – even with a Mercedes engine if he does stay after this season.

That’s all we want from the 21-year-old who will do whatever it takes to forge a successful long-term relationship with Alpine’s Team Enstone, having seen Enstone witness Renault’s stunning 2005-06 championship campaign led by Spaniard & still racing Fernando Alonso. Keep an eye out for him with testing next month before it’s lights out and the way he goes in a bid to build on his 15th-placed debut finish by turning into a pattern of Top 10 points like Gasly did through the 2nd half of 2024. Best of luck to Jack & his new No.7 race number that looks so good on his A525 Alpine-Renault chassis.

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Motorsport

Thoughts on Jack Doohan finishing 15th on debut with Pierre Gasly’s another amazing finish led to Alpine ‘s incredible 6th place in the Constuctors’ Standings

by Sports Benches

First of all, it’s been a whole new learning curve weekend for one of our Aussie drivers Jack Doohan who was unexpectedly been handed a Formula 1 debut for Alpine-Renault at Abu Dhabi.

Yes, he may have ran towards the bottom end of the fastest lap times over the first two days in both practice and qualifying, even though he was on pace with his team-mate Pierre Gasly at one time during the Final Practice hour early Saturday. 

For those fans who weren’t impressed with him so far, this is his first few steps into the deep end & remember, he doesn’t have the best racing record unlike others who have won series titles prior to F1.

Especially when there were rumours floating around Jack being replaced by Franco Colapinto from Argentina just because he did a brilliant job when he came on unexpectedly for the underwhelming Logan Sargeant at Williams a few months ago while he also has deeper pockets his own sponsorship funding. 

Plus, he hasn’t been that good over a series of crashes as of late anyway – so why risk all of this when you got Doohan who is the first Alpine Academy driver to now race an Alpine Renault in F1? No matter what happens, he will always be grateful for that moment as we’ll see what happens after a few races in early 2025 with his performances since Jack only has a one year contract.

But at least, he was able to bring his car home all in one piece despite being a lap down in 15th. Surely there will be more to come from Jack ahead of his home race at Albert Park in Melbourne come March 2025 and let’s hope he will be able to score points over the next of his few races from here in order to keep his seat.

For now, shoutout to new team-mate Pierre Gasly on another amazing finish in 7th 10th in Drivers’ Points to remember after a long 20 + races to close it out this year off the back of his excellent start.

Okay, he might not be able to catch up with the front runners as the race goes on but hey, that was at least enough to hold off Haas for 6th in the Constructors’ Championship. Glad to hear Alpine is gonna get that huge hey day money they wanted after their Brazilian double-podium jackpot from one month ago.

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Motorsport

Final Thoughts on Jack Doohan’s first full weekend Formula 1 debut for Alpine-Renault before the start of the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix’s Friday Practice Sessions

by Sports Benches

In a few hours time, Jack Doohan will make his first full weekend Formula 1 debut for Alpine-Renault at Abu Dhabi.

Yes, there has been pressure around him for some time including off-track while he does not have a championship with him from lower levels of motorsport.

But let’s hope he makes the most out of it having won races and delivered podiums before as soon as he drives off his AS24 chassis from pit lane.

A Top 7-10 race finish would be the bare minimum for a start that should help Jack keep on going through to next season and hopefully the season after that – that’s what we all want from the debutant.

We wish Jack the best of luck!

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Motorsport

Thoughts on Alpine back to 6th in the Constructors’ Championship following Pierre Gasly’s Top 5 run in 5th at Qatar

by Sports Benches

Who would’ve thought Alpine unlikely to finish 6th in the Constructors’ Championship after their huge Brazilian double podium jackpot a few weeks ago?

Thanks to the upgrades being done on Pierre Gasly’s race car, this was made possible, especially on the dry after he had a brilliant drive to pull off his car home in 5th place. 

Now Alpine has re-taken 6th in the teams’ spots over Haas by a five-point gap and as long as they hang in there by the finish line for next weekend’s finale at Abu Dhabi, then surely that would mean so much when it comes to the $$$ & everything. 

Sure, wish they could keep their own engines that is expected to end in one year’s time but at least, more can be used to make Alpine be more competitive.

And off the back of Esteban Ocon’s recent frustrations with the team lately, he may as well leave Alpine a bit early now to join his new team Haas right away for post-season testing ahead of the 2025 season.

That would open the door for our Aussie Jack Doohan to make his Formula 1 race debut in an Alpine not too long from now rather than March 2025 at Albert Park in Melbourne. First of all, it’s great seeing another Aussie on the grid which is things you love to see. Yes, his racing record may not be the most glamorous but has scored podiums and race wins before. Sure, he will look at 7th-10th placed finishes for a start and go from there alongside Pierre.

For now, another brilliant show from Alpine this time on the dry under the lights from Losail International Circuit in Qatar.

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Motorsport

Formula 1 News: Thoughts on Damon Hill leaving Sky Sports F1 after 13 years following the end of this season

by Sports Benches

Just heard the news about 1996 World Champion Damon Hill who is set to leave Sky Sports F1 at season’s end. He has been there providing punditry from day one since the network’s first foray into Formula 1 back in 2012 after BBC were no longer able hold full rights at the time that ended decades worth of live full season coverage on British free-to-air television.

But the TV landscape of live sport has changed ever since anyway with Sky holding and still has full season rights while the BBC initially carried half of the live packages over the next couple of years before Channel 4 took over the free-to-air several years later. 

Now as of the 2019 and 2024 contract extension deals by Sky, Channel 4 still has the local free-to-air rights until at least 2026 but can only air the British race live and everything else being highlights.

This is much like the model we have here with our Formula 1 coverage where all races are currently behind the paywall on Fox Sports/Kayo (although every practice/ qualifying of all other races including race highlights are free-to-view on Kayo Freebies) & the annual Australian race live via free-to-air on Network 10. This is despite 10 still having a great relationship with F1 that way goes back to 2003 off the Nine Network despite cutting back awful lots of coverage over time – this goes from full season coverage to half season live coverage to then the Australian race live + highlights and now just the Aus race live.

Speaking of 10, Damon Hill was actually part of their comprehensive Australian Grand Prix on-air presentation over the last two years at Albert Park – including race day commentary alongside Richard Craill and journalist Tom Clarkson. 

This was when Australian F1 legend Mark Webber no longer able to devote time on 10 when he had to be there for current Aussie F1 driver Oscar Piastri who currently drives McLaren-Mercedes as his agent while Channel 4 paid him more than well enough to be part of their commentary/punditry team at times throughout the year. Don’t know if his exit from Sky was his decision or by the network themselves but it looks like 10 will have to find another new analyst to replace Hill going into 2025 since he will want to slow things down back in the UK.

We could either see Jolyon Palmer or maybe James Hinchcliffe onboard since they are from F1 TV. Maybe Jenson Button since he now calls the US home these days in California and it wouldn’t be too much of an issue for him to fly over to Melbourne for 10 as long as he doesn’t have anything else with going on. If not, maybe Anthony Davidson or even Karun Chandhok as outside picks if they would be willing to go there in-person?

As we know by now, Sky sometimes pick studio hub locations at selected Grand Prix events in London when the current F1 calendar year is so jam packed & not all races will be on-site going forward considering the cost of travel, hotel accommodation, production setup, etc.

But again, just playing around with speculation as still too early to tell ahead of the next Australian race who will be opening the next Formula 1 campaign in March 2025.

And let’s hope Jack Doohan will still be able to make it towards the grid on time as a full-time Alpine-Renault driver on debut amid rumours of him being dumped before he could even touch a Formula 1 car for the rising Argentine Franco Colapinto, who has been making an immediate impact, since he unexpectedly replaced the crash-prone Logan Sargeant very recently at Williams. For now, we wish Damon Hill the best of luck with his next chapter in 2025.

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Motorsport

Thoughts on Jack Doohan might not be making his Formula 1 debut for Alpine next year as they’re after Argentine driver Franco Colapinto from Williams

by Sports Benches

I’ve seen Alpine making enough mistakes already but this might not be the last one just yet as they’re sreportedly on the lookout for a bit more established driver ahead of next season. Now wait for it but Alpine is after Argentine Franco Colapinto to replace the already announced rookie Jack Doohan to partner Pierre Gasly.

First of all, great job to Franco on what has been a stunning immediate impact since he recently replaced the underperforming Logan Sargeant 1-2 months ago for Williams. As we all know though, Williams are currently stuck with three good drivers with two cars going into next year unless one of them goes out. 

So far way before the eventual axing of Sargeant, Carlos Sainz Jr. has already signed there for a multi-year contract from Ferrari while Alex Albion also extended his deal there earlier this year.

And also the last remaining F1 seat over at Sauber which would soon be under Audi’s works team for 2026 has just been taken yesterday by Brazilian Gabriel Borteleto – which will effective end the long-running career of Valtteri Bottas from Finland.

Likewise with the engine, they don’t look to be so serious when it comes to their driver academy program – having fumbled this over and over again like it was two years ago with now McLaren driver Oscar Piastri. It would be a bit of surprise if Doohan does not get the chance to make his Formula 1 debut just because they saw a better driver than him in Franco Colapinto. Also, if they want him right now, then they would need to pay $20 million to get him out from Williams – that’s a lot of money there without them thinking where they want to go from here.

Again, they should improve their car first and most importantly their engine – even if they do use Mercedes engines at some point. But despite their huge Brazilian Grand Prix lucky break from last weekend where both cars finished 2nd & 3rd, here we go again to see Alpine make yet another big change in none other than Franco instead of Jack – if that turns out to be true.

Hoping I’m wrong though that appears to have so little legs & also hoping that Franco will end up within the Red Bull teams too rather than having to sit out for one year – either at the main squad to replace Sergio Perez or even at the sister Visa CashApp RB squad alongside Kiwi Liam Lawson will do it, with Yuki Tusnoda getting the chance at their senior squad with the current 3 x champ (soon to be four if he can hold off McLaren’s Lando Norris in the coming weeks) Max Verstappen.

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