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Motorsport

Formula 1 News Pre-Season Day 3 2025: Jack Doohan now knows what to do after he was 12th fastest with Pierre Gasly always Top 5-10 on the final day for Alpine-Renault

by Sports Benches

2025 Pre-Season testing now over after three good days for the Alpine guys #7 Jack Doohan and #10 Pierre Gasly in Bahrain where Pierre was always on track in between the Top 5-10 (no problem with that Renault engine there) and Jack making the most out of these difficult situations even with mixed conditions so he can manage practice and qualifying better with traffic around him next time that can translate into good race results.

He had to go through that when he was thrown into the deep end on his unexpected debut at Abu Dhabi back in December – imagine what could’ve happened if he started a bit further up the grid and finish more like closer to Top 10.

Gotta say being 12th fastest on top of 5th if it’s just the AM session ain’t bad to finish off Friday and the whole three-day’s worth of work thanks to his crew behind the scenes. Now he knows what to do as soon he’s back in that A525 in a few weeks time at Albert Park in Melbourne – his home Grand Prix track, how special is that to begin the new season!

Sure he will keep his head focused with confidence both for his Aussie and race fans as well as the few hundred staff working with Jack at Alpine for Team Enstone and Viry-Chatillon.

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Motorsport

Formula 1 News Pre-Season Day 2 2025: Jack Doohan proved to be quick through one lap after he was 8th fastest just ahead of his Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly

by Sports Benches

Looks like Jack Doohan has been improving on what has been a top Day 2’s work of pre-season testing for Alpine-Renault & he was 8th fastest of 1.30.368 after 80 laps just ahead of team-mate Pierre – just 1.0s behind Carlos Sainz Jr. who topped the charts at Williams also with a Mercedes engine.

When there was rain earlier in the day coupled other than an odd slip up or two through at some corners, Jack did indeed made the most out of his afternoon/evening shift. And yes, he can be so damn good to post a decent enough time through one lap for sure – just have a look back at his junior career in Formula 2 and 3.

You might think they’ve promoted him to a race seat just because the team has no other option & then later Franco pops up out of nowhere but at the end of the day, he’s more than ready to make his seat his own with as long as he gets good race results under his No.7 A525 since there’s only 20 cars out fighting Top 7-10 points.

Let’s hope Jack can stay that way going into the third and final day’s pre-season work tomorrow.

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Motorsport

Formula 1 News Pre-Season Day 1 2025: All about getting used to the Alpine-Renault A525 setup with Jack Doohan not bad and Pierre Gasly setting a top-half run once again

by Sports Benches

Okay, it’s only Day 1 of pre-season testing out of 3 in Bahrain but safe to say it’s an encouraging first few steps so far for Jack Doohan who wasn’t bad in the morning shift of 1.31.841 that puts him 14th out of the 20 cars running out on track. 

At least he’s evaluating what’s his best setup for the A525 chassis so far as if he’s back to school to start the new year at a new higher grade that will help him get a better idea when he will be running the afternoon session for Day 2 of 3 tomorrow. 

Remember come qualifying and race day when others crash out or unable to go mechanically & he’s still on, things could go his way after all – don’t forget that.

And there’s always the more experienced Pierre getting the best out of that Renault engine once again and he was 6th fastest of 1.31.353 – goes to show he does mean business when running up front like we saw at the final few races of last season.

Lots more to come on Day 2 tomorrow with Pierre in the morning & Jack back in the afternoon/evening.

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Motorsport

Final thoughts ahead of Alpine’s first pre-season shakedown of 2025 with Jack Doohan and Pierre Gasly alongside special mention of the Renault R5 Turbo 3E 

by Sports Benches

Pre season about to start not too long from now (at the time of writing but just already underway) in Bahrain with Jack up first to find his best lap times possible and Pierre will also have his turn to hopefully see himself on par with at least some of the front-running/Top 4 teams later today.

It’s about time now for Jack right from the word go as soon as he leaves his work garage and pit lane under this all-new No.7 Alpine-Renault A525 chassis.

Also nice to see the Renault R5 Turbo 3E (their flagship hatchback model twinning with the sporty Alpine A290) branding instead of the E-Tech one from the last few years.

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Motorsport

Formula One news: Thoughts on the new Alpine A525 chassis this morning with Jack Doohan and Pierre Gasly 

by Sports Benches

Here it is…the Alpine A525.

Looks a whole lot pink as always thanks to title sponsor BWT that mix and matches well with the iconic French racing blue.

Gonna miss BP/Castrol as well as the Renault E-Tech branding even though it will be the last year they will be using their own Renault engines but let’s get behind Jack as he’s got a lot to prove over the next few weeks and months especially when his next race (Aus GP) will be on home soil come Sunday, March 16 at Albert Park.

No matter what happens I’m sure Jack will be a great team-mate with the more experienced Pierre Gasly – seems they get along pretty well on paper. As said, all he has to do is back up with some solid Top 7-10 results right from the word go including his lap times in practice & qualifying (needs to happen ASAP or else…) and sure he will be able stick around long enough from here at Team Enstone (whole lot iconic there). 

He’s the first driver to come through their own academy which is something we should be proud of but still long way to go towards proving everyone wrong if he was to survive and keep his seat after 5-6 races – up to Jack to make things right now in this A525.

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Motorsport

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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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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MiscellaneousMotorsport

Thoughts on Nissan set to split up from Renault and join forces with Honda including subsidiary Mitsubishi Motors

by Sports Benches

In recent times, Nissan needed a new lease of life by looking for a divorce from long-time partner Renault, whom they’ve been partners together for 25 years now that dates back to 1999. Yes, they are at a new low as said above & if things don’t change over the next 12-14 months then this may be the end of this well-known Japanese car company that produces the Godzilla GT-R, especially without Carlos Ghosn when he left a few years ago due to these allegations that gone against him. 

There’s one car company though ready to save their day and that is Honda as looks like it’s a huge chance to start Nissan’s new chapter with them at some stage by buying the rest of Renault’s 15% stake and so would Mitsubishi Motors to form a new three-way pact together where Nissan holds some of their shares as well. 

Pretty sure Mitsubishi wouldn’t want to stay with Renault when most of the stuff they do together nowadays only came from rebadged models like the Kangoo commercial van, Clio hatchback and Captur compact SUV — while Mitsubishi uses Nissan’s X-Trail platform for their flagship Outlander SUV model albeit with a completely different design shape. 

First of all, Nissan can go and so can Mitsubishi as they’d be a great fit under Honda. Now at this time, it’s unlikely that Mitsubishi would want to go back to making these fantastic sports cars considering customer demand into making tons of SUVs and pick-up trucks like the Eclipse Coupe, GT3000 sports car and of course, the Lancer Evolution sedan. 

You never know what could happen when the time is right that makes financial sense as saw the revival of Honda Prelude two-door compact coupe the other day to rival the Toyota 86. I mean, Mitsubishi can get the Eclipse coupe back under Honda’s watch but again, that’s wishful thinking unless they feel they like they are at a steady ground to roll back something unique to their rally roots. At the end of the day though, it’s all about what’s best for Nissan as well as the Japanese automotive industry including the people working there to design & make cars for customers to buy & use for the road.

And for Renault, they are free to pursue what’s best post-Nissan and Mitsubishi.

It would be cool if they team up with Chrysler’s raft of brands away from Peugeot & Citroen backed Stellantis like Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram to form under one alliance -and have them work together on some cool high-performance & even electric sedans, pick-up trucks, coupes and SUVs.

Not only that, the Chrysler Group can take advantage of the Alpine F1 Team by taking over Renault’s existing Viry Motorsport plant by making engines again under SRT Hellcat – as don’t think Renault would want to use the Nissan money on its own to reverse their difficult decision of not shutting down the Formula 1 engine program at Viry-Chatillon.

That way, Chrysler can cover most of the costs in order to create a top-notch works engine as it’s a shame that Renault will no longer make their own engines unfortunately by using Mercedes customer engines after next year. But again, you never know what could happen when Renault finally splits from Nissan at some stage – and who knows if Renault would want to help Dodge go back into NASCAR someday and maybe IndyCar too on top of NHRA Drag Racing as long as it makes perfect sense.

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