Alpine’s 2025 season was already off to a nightmare start, now it’s turning into a full-blown crisis. In a move that’s both ruthless and revealing, the team appears poised to drop rookie Jack Doohan after just seven races into the year. Reports from multiple sources, including BBC Sport and The Race, confirm that Doohan has been informed of his imminent replacement, with the change potentially taking place before the next Grand Prix.
This is no ordinary lineup shuffle. It’s a symptom of a deeper rot inside Enstone, one that’s being noticed not just by pundits, but by the F1 community at large.
Doohan Never Had a Real Shot
On paper, Alpine might argue the move is performance-based. But let’s be honest: no rookie could thrive in the current A524. The car is, by most standards, a backmarkerm, the slowest Renault-powered machine in recent memory. Even an experienced driver would struggle to drag it into the points, let alone a rookie finding his footing in Formula 1.
Evaluating a driver like Doohan in this context feels fundamentally flawed. He’s not underperforming a top-10 car, he’s trying to survive in a chassis that doesn’t belong anywhere near the midfield fight. If anything, the rookie has shown flashes of racecraft that deserved more than seven races to mature. Instead, he’s being used as the fall guy in a team unraveling at every level.
A Cryptic Clue from Paul Aron
Fueling the speculation further is a not-so-subtle Instagram post from Paul Aron, the F2 championship leader and a ex-member of the Mercedes junior program, featuring Alpine’s pink-and-blue aesthetic. It sent social media into a frenzy and, frankly, couldn’t have been timed better (or worse, depending on your perspective).
If Aron is indeed Alpine’s next move, the team risks repeating history. They’ve already mishandled Oscar Piastri’s transition, lost him to McLaren, and now seem poised to do the same with Doohan. Bringing in another young driver without fixing the core of the team, the car, the culture, the continuity, is a recipe for another shattered career arc. Alpine has developed plenty of talent. What they haven’t done is protect it.
Franco Colapinto: The Dark Horse in Alpine’s Deck
But there’s another name that can’t be overlooked: Franco Colapinto. The Argentine driver is currently one of Alpine’s official reserve drivers, a late 2024 acquisition poached from the Williams program. Colapinto isn’t just a benchwarmer; he’s considered one of the most exciting prospects outside of F1, with impressive pace and fan appeal.
His inclusion in the reserve lineup felt strategic at the time, a hedge against Doohan’s readiness and a signal that Alpine was stacking its options. And now, with Doohan reportedly out and Aron’s debut still uncertain, Colapinto’s stock may be rising fast behind the scenes.
There’s also a geopolitical and commercial angle here. Colapinto has strong backing from Latin American sponsors and a sizable fanbase, things Alpine might desperately need as the team struggles for positive press. Promoting him could kill two birds with one stone: inject fresh talent into the car and re-energize the brand’s visibility.
That said, plugging Colapinto into this chaos, could be a good direction given his show of speed in the uncompetitive Williams in 2024. However, like Aron, he’d be entering a team with no clear technical direction, little driver support infrastructure, and a car incapable of delivering results. Talent alone isn’t enough. Alpine has already shown it can squander that too.
Schumacher in the Mix? Or PR Over Performance?
There’s also the possibility of Mick Schumacher stepping into the seat. Already racing for Alpine in WEC and backed by the ever-present Toto Wolff, Schumacher offers F1 experience and a marketable name, two things the team sorely lacks right now. But from a performance perspective, it’s hard to see this as a step forward. It feels more like a brand-safe stopgap, a move designed to stabilize headlines, not lap times.
And this is the core of the problem: Alpine keeps swapping parts hoping the machine will suddenly start working. But unless that machine includes leadership with vision and technical direction, they’re just rearranging deck chairs on a ship already taking on water.
The Real Issue Is Cultural, Not Tactical
This isn’t about one driver. It’s about a team stuck in a cycle of short-term panic and long-term confusion. Since 2022, Alpine has hemorrhaged talent at every level: Piastri outmaneuvered them contractually, key technical leaders have walked, and even Pierre Gasly, the current team lead, looks visibly disillusioned.
There’s no evidence of a clear performance strategy. No sense that development is moving in a coherent direction. Even within the driver academy, the message seems to be: build them up, burn them out. The moment results don’t come immediately, the team moves on. That’s not Formula 1, that’s instability masquerading as accountability.
And now, dropping Doohan mid-season only amplifies that dysfunction. It’s not a fix. It’s a distraction.
Where Alpine Goes From Here
If Paul Aron is confirmed, it may be the boldest, and riskiest, move yet. Throwing an F2 rookie into the fire of F1 should only be done when a team can offer stability and mentorship. Alpine offers neither. If Mick Schumacher or Franco Colapinto is the pick instead, it’s a safer option, but also a telling one: the team needs a reset, not a gamble.
But in truth, no driver is going to solve what’s wrong at Alpine. The issues go far deeper than the cockpit. The car is underdeveloped. The engine underpowered. The leadership vision unclear. Until those foundational problems are addressed, driver swaps will continue to look like crisis management, not strategic moves.
It’s no longer enough to ask who drives the car. The better question is: who’s really driving this team?