F1 News
Bar raised for Doohan's debut by youngsters? 'I'm confident'
Jack Doohan is set to make his full-time Formula 1 debut earlier than expected, after it was announced that Esteban Ocon will not drive at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. While many youngsters made impressive debuts this season, the Australian does not want to get carried away.
The 2024 season began with two Australians on the grid, and will finish the same way. Now however, instead of Daniel Ricciardo, Oscar Piastri's fellow Aussie on the grid will be Jack Doohan.
Many youngsters including Oliver Bearman and Franco Colapinto could impress early in the competition this year. The British driver scored points on his first attempt, while the Argentinian managed to do that his second weekend. For Doohan, he does not want to set that as a mark for Abu Dhabi just yet. This season so far, the driver only got to drive a couple of laps at a weekend in the rainy FP1 session in Canada.
"Maybe from others but for myself no. I'm just going to look forward to the weekend and enjoy it and I'm confident in my own abilities. I'm just looking forward to getting comfortable with the car, comfortable with the team and have the 2025 season to enjoy as well. So this is just an opportunity to get a feel of it," Doohan told GPblog among others.
Doohan will also be compared to the experienced Pierre Gasly, who has been scoring important points for Alpine, and recently is a regular in the final sessions of qualifying. "I'm looking forward to learning a lot from Pierre. He obviously has many years of experience now in Formula 1 and is a very well-respected driver, a race winner, podium finisher. So I have so much to learn from him, a lot that I've been trying to learn by overlooking him and watching him over the past two years. But yeah, grateful to be placed next to him and I look forward to working well together".
Racing runs in the family of the Australian drive. Jack is the son of Mick Doohan, who has five titles in the 1990s in the 500cc motorcycling category (the series then renamed MotoGP). "He was actually going to be coming for my FP1. He was going to be flying in this morning. He's just more happy that he wasn't just watching me once on track and getting to watch me all weekend. We sat this morning, had breakfast together, which was super nice because I hadn't seen him since around Baku time. He's really excited for me as well. So it's a super special moment," the driver concluded.
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