Alpine’s poor performance throughout the 2024 season has put them on the back foot in the Formula 1 driver’s market.
More than half of this year’s drivers have confirmed where they’ll be driving next year despite only being nine race weekends into the current campaign.
A report from the German outlet Auto Motor und Sport has shared what Alpine team principal Bruno Famin is thinking when it comes to next year’s line-up.
It was confirmed after a controversial Monaco Grand Prix that Esteban Ocon would not be extended his time with the team after five seasons and a magnificent victory in Hungary in 2021.
That means Alpine will need to hire at least one new driver for 2025 with Pierre Gasly’s future still up in the air.
AMuS is now reporting that reserve driver Jack Doohan is the favourite to take Ocon’s seat in 2025.
It would be a huge step up for the young Australian who has spent this season on the sidelines, doing everything he can to help the team behind the scenes.
READ MORE: Who is Alpine reserve driver Jack Doohan? Everything you need to know
Jack Doohan is the favourite to take Esteban Ocon’s Alpine seat in 2025
Described as a ‘complete’ driver by his former F2 boss Andy Roche, Jack Doohan thought he was going to make his first appearance in Formula 1 in Canada.
Alpine had confirmed Ocon was leaving and it made sense to hand Doohan his car in FP1 to immediately start collecting data on the 21-year-old.
Unfortunately, the weather limited Doohan to just a handful of laps and a practice start and instead, he’s been trying to impress those at Alpine in private tests.
While any experience in an F1 car is going to help Doohan, he’s only allowed to test the 2022 Alpine and older models which were more competitive in their respective seasons than the current car.
Doohan has been consistently fast throughout his junior career but never blew his opponents away like other drivers such as Oscar Piastri and George Russell.
With previous F2 champions such as Felipe Drugovich and Theo Pourchaire still waiting for their chance to step up, Doohan being the favourite for the Alpine seat to replace Ocon in 2025 may be a case of being in the right place at the right time.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Alpine F1 Team from team principal to lineage
Jack Doohan has to take advantage of 2025 Alpine opportunity
The report from AMuS suggests that Alpine are keen to hand Doohan as much testing time as possible before making a call on his future.
He could ‘get to know’ many tracks during the final third of the season which suggests Alpine are in no rush to decide who will be in their second seat in 2025.
However, despite not completing any meaningful running in Canada, Doohan is ‘currently the favourite’ to replace Ocon next year, which shows just where Alpine are in the pecking order that several current F1 drivers who might be out of a seat aren’t pushing harder to join them.
There’s even been a recent suggestion that Pierre Gasly might consider his options elsewhere, even though Alpine want to offer Gasly a long-term new deal.
Esteban Ocon hasn’t announced where he’ll be racing next year, but he’s expected to be one of the next two drivers to confirm his 2025 plans.
He’s invested years of his career into helping Alpine improve and will hope he’s making the right call by moving on now, although he may not have had a huge amount of choice in making that call on his future.
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