F1
Jack Doohan takes stock of his first full day in F1
© Florent Gooden / DPPI
Without necessarily wanting to be, Jack Doohan was one of the most followed drivers of this Friday's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. If he participated in the first free practice session like many young drivers like Isack Hadjar at Red Bull or Arthur Leclerc at Ferrari, the Aussie did not, however, give up his place at the end of it.
So, he found himself chaining with the EL2 since it was planned since last Monday that he would replace Esteban Ocon, expected at Haas next year, starting this weekend at Yas Marina. Something new for him who had until now been limited to his role as a reserve and a few appearances in EL1 during the year.
Smoothly paced and performance yet to be found
Jack Doohan's Friday was thus placed under the sign of learning, leaving pure performance practically aside. The future holder ofAlpine did not therefore seek to establish a real time but rather to take its bearings in view of the next deadlines and especially the 2025 season.
The 19th times of the two sessions confirm this trend, especially since the Australian recovered Esteban Ocon's car, which was still not equipped with the team's latest developments. It was therefore calmly that he completed his 51 laps of the day with a best time of 1'24''961, just over 4 tenths of the internal reference of Pierre Gasly.
Now it's time to analyze all the data collected to benefit from it and continue its rise in power for the rest of the weekend.
« It was above all a great experience in the car in Abu Dhabi on a very busy day., he summarized. There is a lot to understand and learn and it was good to do a lot of laps over the two sessions.
FP2 was obviously uncharted territory for me! I was just trying to get more power and my first few laps in this session weren’t the cleanest, but that’s what testing is for. There’s room for improvement for the team ahead of FP3 and I’m looking forward to debriefing with the engineers to find those improvements. My goal is to get more comfortable with each lap and continue to get closer to the level I’m aiming for. »
Gonzalo Forbes
In charge of promotion formulas (F2, F3, FRECA, F4...). Carried by the grace of Franco Colapinto.
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vincent moyet
06/12/2024 at 10:58 a.m.
Let's imagine that Il Magnifico has in mind to discredit Doohan to replace him with Colapinto for example. He would not go about it any other way than by entrusting him with the calf previously reserved for Ocon...
Yves-Henri RANDIER
06/12/2024 at 07:38 a.m.
If he could not break anything during the weekend, it could not harm him because the temptation could be great to overdrive a little to compensate for the lack of performance of the chassis "made in Enstone"