00:05Jack Doohan's 2026 season-opening Australian Grand Prix weekend is set to be worlds away
00:11from a year ago when he was lining up with Alpine for just his second F1 start
00:17and doing lots of pre-event media, including a fun and informal catch-up for the cameras
00:22with local Australian rules football club, Carlton.
00:27It's amazing to meet a lot of the boys teaching us really their craft and honestly it's been a great
00:33experience.
00:33I'm super happy to be here and to come into your world.
00:38Just two months and six starts later, seven overall, and Alpine replaced him with Franco Colapinto,
00:45flush with backers from his native Argentina that he parlayed into a 2026 extension.
00:52To be able to come to this great news for everyone, to have another year an Argentinian representing the country
01:00in F1
01:01is something that we should all be very, very proud of and I'm very grateful to all the Argentinians for
01:07the support.
01:08But yeah, now let's get to work and let's have a great 2026 together.
01:15For Doohan, though, things got much worse later that year when he tried out a super formula car in Japan
01:21and crashed three times in two days at Suzuka and at the same Degna corners.
01:28Fast forward to 2026 and Doohan has since been handed a reserve drive lifeline by US team Haas,
01:35which he will need to maximize for an F1 return.
01:39But while he won't qualify as an inexperienced driver for FP1 seat time,
01:44private tests for Haas and a likely European Le Mans series drive for a shot at the Le Mans 24
01:49hours
01:50will keep him sharp.
01:54Given his last drive before those seven starts with Alpine in F1 was F2,
01:59where he finished third in 2023 with three wins,
02:03meaning getting back on track in 2026 is crucial.
02:11Doohan's F1 career is hanging by a thread, but it's not over yet.
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