Doohan’s F1 dream “started to feel real” on Friday in Abu Dhabi

Jack Doohan’s Formula 1 dream “started to feel real” after completing the unchartered territory of FP2 in Abu Dhabi, with the Australian “taking steps forward” on his first day with Alpine.

Free Practice 1 is a session Doohan knows all too well having partaken in the opening hour of running on multiple occasions as a rookie with Alpine, however, in Abu Dhabi, FP1 was not the end of Doohan’s F1 running, with the Australian continuing with his debut weekend through to FP2.

The opening hour saw Doohan surrounded by some familiar faces as six rookie drivers replaced his new peers for their final mandated rookie sessions.

Wasting no time at all, the #61 began his Formula 1 debut with a time of 1:28.678s.

That initial lap left the Australian at the midway point of the grid for the opening half of the session, 1.2 seconds slower than Lewis Hamilton’s benchmark pace on the medium compound.

Doohan then retreated to the pitlane for a significant amount of time, allowing the competition to get the jump on his as they started their soft tyre runs.

The Australian emerged from the pitlane to lay down his first soft tyre run of the weekend, recording a lap time of 1:26.304s, boosting him to P14.

Gradually to the second slowest ranking in the final five minutes, Doohan remained in P19 through to the chequered flag and ended the first practice session 1.9 seconds behind the benchmark.

“You know, it’s obviously a new experience for me this year, especially here, so for me, I’m just trying to get it closer and closer to where I want to be,” the Australian said.

“I have time before qualifying tomorrow so I’m just taking steps forward and each time I’m in the car, each lap, I look forward to keeping that progression.”

Doohan added: “I think we made a good step from FP1 to FP2 and, still then, I had a little bit of a messier run on my first run on the medium in FP2,” he said.

“So I didn’t, let’s say, go full beans for the soft tyre run because I wanted to, you know, have a baseline and have a clean lap before tomorrow so it’s good to know that there’s some steps to be made before FP3.

“But, I’ll get to digest all that soon with the guys.”

Jack Doohan during FP1 at the Abu Dhabi GP. Image: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images.

The second session saw Doohan pushing his A524 harder, with the Australian locking up on multiple occasions and he came to grips with his new car’s capabilities.

The #61 was among the first haul of drivers to lay down some rubber on the Yas Marina Circuit, setting a time of 1:26.434s which ultimately placed him in last place, however, that was expected due to his long-run focus.

Into Turn 6, the Australian locked up under braking as he continued to learn the ins and outs of the medium compound tyre, seeing him return to the pitlane shortly after.

With 30 minutes on the clock, Doohan followed his peers back on track to conduct some semi-representative qualifying simulations on the soft compound tyre.

Not targeting a miracle this weekend, Doohan’s lap left him as the slowest of all red-marked runners, 1.4 seconds off the lead pace and four-tenths behind his teammate before he locked up again at Turn 16.

He headed back to his garage, reverting to the medium compound yet again and running on the C4 for the remaining 10 minutes of the session. 

The Australian ended the second hour of practice in P19, with only the damaged car of Franco Colapinto behind him.

“New territory in FP2 so it started to feel real when I was driving in the session that I haven’t done before,” Doohan said. 

“But yeah, great day, just progression throughout the whole day.

“Taking steps forward, just getting closer and closer, so yeah, just really happy and thankful to the whole team for today’s work.”

Looking ahead to Qualifying, the Australian said it’s “very hard to say [what’s possible]”, adding that is especially true from his opinion “because I know I still have, obviously, a lot of work to do”.

“I look to keep extracting and working towards my balance that I want and connecting that with the team,” he said.

“They’ve been with another driver for the past five years so, as you can understand, it’s a lot to adapt just in one day, to really transition all things over as we (Doohan and Esteban Ocon) have quite different driving styles.

“But yeah, I just look to get closer and try to support Pierre [Gasly] as much as possible.

“Be as close to him as I can so that we can have a great race on Sunday.” 

The final practice session of the season will take place at 21:30 AEDT, giving the newest addition to the grid just one more hour before the lap times start to count in Qualifying.

Image: LAT Images

2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Schedule: 

Friday, December 6:

FP1: 20:30 – 21:30

Saturday, December 7:

FP2: 00:00 – 01:00

FP3: 21:30 – 22:30

Sunday, December 8:

Qualifying: 01:00 – 02:00

Monday, December 9:

Race: 00:00

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