In what would be his last F1 weekend as an active driver for Alpine for now at least, Jack Doohan experienced a weekend of ups and downs at the Miami GP.
Doohan experienced a difficult start to the Miami GP weekend qualifying, qualifying last for the sprint race after the team let him out at the back at the queue, and finished the sprint race just ahead of the penalized current Champion Max Verstappen.
Despite the lackluster sprint session results, the young Australian had a strong showing in Qualifying for the main event.
The Alpine Driver qualified P14 for the Miami GP, beating his teammate Pierre Gasly for the first time this season.
Starting from P14 on the grid, Doohan’s race came to a quick end when he collided with the Racing Bull of Liam Lawson on the opening lap.
The incident ended both drivers’ races.
When asked about the incident in the print pen for the F1 Miami GP, Doohan noted that he could not provide details as he had not had the chance to watch the replay.
“Yeah, to be honest, I haven’t had access to the replay.
“So, I don’t know too much. But it seemed that I was squeezed into Turn 1.
“Yeah, nowhere really to go, and unavoidable contact and damage.
“So, disappointing.
“But not much I could do.”
After the contact with Lawson, Doohan attempted to drive his Alpine back to the pits.
However, the damage was too extensive, and the 22-year-old had to stop on track, which resulted in a VSC period.
“Yeah, so you know the damage. But the puncture was quite a lot.
“It was also digging into, I don’t even know what it’s called, the front left gurney or whatever.
“It’s supposed to help us for racing closer, and the damage was too much.
“We don’t obviously want to put damage under the track or debris.
“It was quite the journey to get back here.
“So, I don’t want to be repeating this one again.”
Despite being dissatisfied with the early end to what looked like a promising race for the young Australian, Doohan didn’t want to cast any blame for the incident, though he noted that there wasn’t much he could have done to avoid it.
“You know, it’s hard to say when you’re in that position, obviously.
“In the moment, yeah, you’re disappointed and you’re mad. But you never know.
“He could have had a car on his outside, squeezing him.
“I don’t want to put any blame in any direction.
“Obviously, it didn’t end well for me, which is disappointing.
“I’ll have to also reflect and see if there’s anything that I can do differently.
“But at this current point, I don’t think there was much.”
The Australian started the race on the medium compound tyre, whereas surrounding competitors started on the hard tyre.
This strategy was opposite to that of Doohan’s Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly, who started the Miami GP from the pit lane on the hards.
Doohan noted that his strategy, running medium-hard, was likely the ideal strategy for the race.
Unfortunately, the crash on lap one prevented the Australian from benefiting from the softer compound.
“Yes, you know, Pierre started from the pit lane, the best chance that he could be.
“He was running the hard, going long, and potentially either being helped out by some rain or by a safety car, where the medium hard seemed to be the optimal strategy heading into the race.”
