Doohan crashes out: “I’ll have plenty more [home races] in the future”

It was an extremely sour ending to Jack Doohan’s first-ever home race as the rookie quickly became one of three drivers to crash out before completing the first lap of a wet and wild Australian Grand Prix.

Starting from 15th on the grid, Doohan pulled onto the grid in high spirits despite the threat of the clouds above raining on his parade.

When the clock struck three o’clock, the grid rolled off the line to commence the formation lap, however, the start was quickly aborted when Isack Hadjar dropped his RB into the wall at the first corner, becoming the first for four rookies to eventually DNF.

“To be honest, I don’t seem to have really been affected by this whole ‘home race’ stuff,” he said.

“I’ve been very tunnel-visioned and focusing.

“It feels like any other race to me — I will have plenty more in the future to enjoy — and yeah, just bounce back from this one.”

Resetting for a second formation lap 15 minutes later, the Australian put his visor down with hopes of scoring points on home soil, however, his day took a turn for the worst.

Launching as the five lights went out for the first time in 2025, the Australian had a clean run through the opening sequence of corners.

His cold tyres and lack of traction let him down as he came through the first sector, and as a result, Doohan was sent spinning into the solid concrete barriers, spraying carbon fibre across the circuit as his Alpine crumbled beyond recovery.

“I didn’t really understand what happened, to be honest, until I got back,” Doohan admitted.

“Just looking at it — whether it was the white line, the inters not up to temperature — just seemed as I up-shifted to fourth, I lost the car.

“So, yeah, lesson learned, I’ll make sure that I spend some time with the boys to make sure that I do understand so that it doesn’t happen again.”

Public knowledge of the heavy expectations that weighed on the 22-year-old’s shoulders saw the home crowd shattered for the rookie whose dad, MotoGP legend Mick Doohan, shared the sentiment, shaking his head as he watched on from the Alpine garage.

Battling McLarens and Ferraris, Doohan’s teammate just lost out on the final points-scoring position, making it a tough ending to a positive weekend for the French team.

The crew will be able to put the season opener behind them in just a few days when F1 touches down in China for the first sprint event on the calendar, and the first of Doohan’s Formula 1 career. 

“We have a race weekend already, next week in Shanghai, so we’re going to regroup, keep our heads high,” he said.

“We’ve had a strong package this weekend, very strong yesterday afternoon so we need to keep strong and bounce back next weekend.”

Free Practice for the Chinese Grand Prix will kick off at 2:30 PM on March 21.

Image: BWT Alpine Formula 1 Team

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