Jack Doohan "understands" why Alpine chose to go with Pierre Gasly over him for to replace Fernando Alonso in 2023. The seat became available after Alonso elected to make a switch to Aston Martin, with Oscar Piastri set to be his replacement. However, following a lengthy contract dispute, Piastri will now race with rivals McLaren, which meant a seat had been available at the team. Despite looking at their Alpine Academy talent pool, the team felt it was better to go with the experienced Gasly as they continue to move further up the field. "I completely understand on the decision to take Pierre, he has a lot of experience and I'm sure it will bring great things to the team," Doohan told media, including RacingNews365.com . "Hopefully they can have a really successful season next year. Regardless, I wasn't going to be in that position with it, or not happening anyway. "Wherever I would have ended up was going to be a bonus, I would have loved to have been in the seat. But who knows, you know, everything happens for a reason, maybe now I'll be more ready than ever, when that time comes. "It's good to know that I do have the support from the team to know that I can be branched out if that weren't the case, and if the opportunity came available."
Doohan sent a DM to Laurent Rossi on Instagram about 2023 seat
After the news that Piastri was not going to be driving with the team came through, Doohan revealed that he sent a direct message (DM) to Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi about the seat as he didn't have his phone number. "The night that all that news obviously broke, I didn't have the Laurent's number or anything, so I actually sent him a DM on Instagram," Doohan explained. "[It was] basically this huge, big, long paragraph saying why I think I could be a candidate going forward. He replied at like 3am, I was in bed, I think he was in the US or somewhere, with his number at the bottom and [said] that we chat in the coming days. "I spoke to Otmar the following night briefly and every day I was kind of trying to speak to whoever I could in all parts of the F1 team and in all parts of the structure through the academy. "It was an opportunity and even if it was a farfetched one, at least now with the seat obviously going to Pierre, I know that I'm not sitting here thinking 'I wish I pushed a little bit more.' "For a solid six weeks, I was doing absolutely everything I could to try and secure myself in a seat."
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