Even since Flavio Briatore returned to Alpine last season, his mind has been fully geared toward raising the team's standard and driving them toward the top again.
Part of that process was determining who Pierre Gasly’s teammate would be in 2025. After surveying the options and having interest in names such as Carlos Sainz Jr. and Franco Colapinto, Jack Doohan was seemingly the chosen one.
One main issue for Briatore is that he did not want Doohan. Rumors have circulated since the end of 2024 that Doohan will be replaced early on. The recent release of the seventh season of Netflix’s ‘Drive to Survive’ shows a meeting taking place between Briatore and Doohan, where the former claimed “to control” the latter.
Alpine have lined their replacement options up quite nicely, given the fact that they have four reserve drivers to choose from: Franco Colapinto, Paul Aron, Ryo Hirakawa, and Kush Maini. Odds are the Argentinian driver is the first choice, as Alpine paid quite a large sum to take him off Williams’ hands.
Liam Lawson’s replacement could make Doohan’s come sooner
Red Bull are known for quickly replacing struggling drivers during the season. However, they seemed to have distanced themselves away from that identity, given how patient they were with Sergio Perez.
Throughout 2024, Red Bull were very hopeful about Liam Lawson, essentially grooming him for the seat alongside Max Verstappen for 2025. Despite Yuki Tsunoda’s superior performance when compared to his teammates, the Kiwi driver was chosen as the Mexican driver’s replacement.
However, things went extremely poorly for Lawson to open this season, to the point where the world was not particularly shocked to hear that Tsunoda would be promoted to Lawson's seat ahead of this week’s Japanese Grand Prix. Yet even with pressure mounting on Lawson, not many could have expected a change this soon into the season.
That change could influence Alpine as well, especially given the attention surrounding Doohan potentially being replaced. When Briatore sees another team make such a drastic decision this early for the sake of their success, chances are it will make him more comfortable making a similar decision himself.