Doohan positive despite Briatore pressure

Doohan competed in his first F1 sprint weekend at the Shanghai International Circuit a week after failing to reach the end of the first lap at his home grand prix and although he failed to threaten the points-paying positions, the Australian was able to reach the chequered flag in both sprint and main race.

While mistakes were made - notably a penalty for contact with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto in the sprint - Doohan was notably closer to the pace set by team-mate Pierre Gasly across the weekend, showing improvement was being made.

Doohan's place in F1 has already been put under pressure following comments from Flavio Briatore ahead of the season, with that only added to by the arrival of Franco Colapinto as a reserve driver.

Doohan: "A lot of positives"

But addressing his performance in China, Doohan told media: "I think for me there's a lot of positives.

We haven't had that result quite yet to really show it, but the inner circle understands that and I think that's what's most important. The guys are super happy in the team. For sure, Flavio, Oli [Oakes, team principal], Luca [de Meo, Alpine CEO], our backers, they're going to be wanting points. When the car's going to get there, we're going to have to make sure that we're on it to ensure that we can maximise that.

F1 has a weekend off before the Japanese Grand Prix kicks off a triple-header with Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and Doohan has pointed to the importance of the gap to find improvements.

"But for now, we're going to have to keep working, keep our heads down and hopefully Suzuka is But for now, we're going to have to keep working, keep our heads down and hopefully Suzuka is a better track for us."

This article was written in collaboration with Esteban den Toom.