Dropped Alpine Formula 1 driver Jack Doohan was racing with a gun to his head from the start of the season and has been treated unfairly, reckon two of his fellow rookies.
Doohan has been replaced at Alpine by Franco Colapinto on what the team officially says is a five-race deal before a fresh evaluation ahead of the British Grand Prix in July.
Late last year, when Alpine executive advisor Flavio Briatore was showing an interest in bringing Colapinto in as a driver option, it was claimed that the team had an option in Doohan’s contract to replace him after six races.
A change at some point felt inevitable when Colapinto arrived at the team as a test and reserve driver in January - as he had already been set to perform that role at Williams, which admitted Colapinto had been allowed to go to Alpine to chase a race seat as early as this year.
Hadjar, who is in his debut season for Racing Bulls and has witnessed an even more harsh driver change this season with his now team-mate Liam Lawson demoted from Red Bull Racing after just two races, said he sympathised with Doohan.
“Even before the season it smelled a bit bad,” said Hadjar.
“He entered the season with a lot of pressure, expectations. So not a really good environment - and it feels quite unfair, because six races in, he didn't have much time to show anything, and it's not like he has a rocketship as well.
“A bit harsh.”
Asked by The Race how different it has been for him in the Red Bull environment, Hadjar replied: “Yeah, I didn't have a gun to my head before starting the season! It's definitely helping.
“I have good support here, since day one. It was definitely helping.”
Alpine gave Doohan qualified support for the first few races, stopping short of ever guaranteeing he would be in the car all season.
The messaging from the team after round four in Bahrain was that he was safe until the summer, only for Doohan to be replaced two races later.
He started the season with good underlying pace but failed to score a point in large part due to Alpine struggling in the midfield, although Doohan also had several incidents of his own including two race-ending first lap-crashes.
Despite that supposed brief assurance of his position, it is understood that a move to oust Doohan after the Miami Grand Prix was set in motion early in the season, which may have rendered his on-track performances largely irrelevant anyway.
Doohan’s situation has elicited further sympathy in the F1 paddock. Another rookie, Haas driver Ollie Bearman, said it is “very difficult in that situation to have that pressure weighing over your head already from race one” and criticised "this trend of kicking people out straight away".
“I can only imagine it was a horrible situation and I feel like his treatment was very unfair,” said Bearman.
“And coming from his position, being a rookie myself, it's very difficult, especially the first quarter of the season, we've gone to - I think - four out of six tracks have been new for us as rookies, we've had two sprint events - which are even more difficult for us as rookies.
“And before you even get to the European season, where there are the tracks he knows, he's already thrown out of the car.
“So, incredibly harsh, in my opinion.”
Hadjar said he could understand a team like Red Bull lacking patience as an aggressive driver change “makes sense maybe in a top team”, but added: “Otherwise, if you want a rookie to have experience, you need to give him races. Otherwise he can't race.”
It is unclear if Doohan will return to an Alpine race seat, although he has been kept on as its priority reserve driver and his original multi-year contract is still understood to be in place.
So, if Colapinto underperforms against Pierre Gasly, and/or the mooted financial backing that Briatore is interested in attracting from Latin America does not materialise, changing drivers back could be possible. Especially as Alpine has framed the move publicly as an assessment to ensure it has the best line-up possible for next season.
Alex Albon, who got back into F1 after spending a year on the sidelines when he was dropped by Red Bull at the end of 2020, said he felt sorry for Doohan - who “deserved a bit more time”.
“I know Jack is a hard worker, I've seen the work that he was putting in last year in the simulator and doing a good job with the test programme,” said Albon.
“He's very committed as an individual, I don't think he needs any more motivation than he has.
“More than anything it's just to dig his heels in, get stuck in and try to prove yourself. It's always really difficult, I know that position of 'trying to prove yourself but you're not driving the car'.
“I don't know what programme Alpine have given him in these next five races, but I'm sure he's already going to be doing as much as he can to help the team to progress.
“Proving yourself without driving is a very difficult and mentally tough position to be in. But I think he has it in him.”
Gasly was circumspect in his response when asked whether Doohan had been given a fair chance by Alpine.
"What I'm going to say is I got on very well with Jack, [he's] a very nice guy, quick driver," said Gasly.
"Obviously a rookie in Formula 1, which is tough, especially in a very strong field, this year with a lot of quick guys and it hasn't been the easiest way into Formula 1 and on my side as a team-mate and, also friend, I tried to support as much as I could on and off the track.
"I don't really have much more to say. The decision is from the team.
"We have a lot of drivers as a team and feel the need to assess the performance of Franco, who's done very well last year and that's obviously the reason why also he was brought in to have this possibility.
"But on my side, I like Jack, I like Franco. I think we worked well with Jack and that's pretty much it."
Like Doohan, Gasly was also dropped mid-season in his first and only year at Red Bull in 2019, albeit was demoted from the senior team to the Toro Rosso junior team rather than a reserve role.
Asked what advice he'd give Doohan, Gasly added: "Focus your mind on the things that matter.
"There'll be a lot of noise, there'll be a lot of negative energy surrounding him. But as a driver and as an athlete, you've just got to put that aside and just focus on your business.
"I had the chance to be at the wheel every other weekend [after being dropped by Red Bull] and to show my speed. On his side, the work will be at the simulator and a couple of...whenever he'll be [in], he'll have a chance to be behind the wheel.
"I think it's mentally not easy, but you've just got to keep strong."
