'I'm lucky' - Gabriel Bortoleto fires Alpine shot after Jack Doohan demotion

Gabriel Bortoleto has deemed that he is "lucky" to have a supportive team behind him not applying unnecessary pressure, following Jack Doohan's demotion at Alpine. 

It was announced ahead of this weekend's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix that Doohan had been replaced by Franco Colapinto, following the opening six rounds. 

Colapinto has been given five races to prove himself to Alpine, before the Enstone-based outfit will conduct a further evaluation ahead of the British Grand Prix. 

As a result, Stake F1's Bortoleto will not be the only South American driver on the grid, at least for the next five grands prix.

The young Brazilian has stressed there is no rivalry with the Argentinian, although is looking forward to future battles.

"There is no rivalry between me and Franco," insisted Bortoleto, speaking to select media, including RacingNews365. "There never has been. 

"We raced against each other in the past, but to be honest, we actually never fought for a championship. He is a great driver. He has shown this in Formula 1, in the few races that he did, and in Formula 2 and Formula 3, winning races. 

"But we never had this thing of fighting for a championship like, for example, I had with Hadjar last year. So that I call rivalry. But yeah, looking forward, maybe in Formula 1, we can start something nice and enjoyable. 

"And I'm happy to see him in Formula 1, another South American and obviously a shame for Jack, he didn't have many races, but yeah, that's the sport we do."

Alpine put Doohan 'under pressure'

Colapinto and Doohan swapping roles has marked the second driver change of the season, following Red Bull's switch of Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda.

Doohan's seat at Alpine was questioned before the campaign had even begun, following the arrival of Colapinto as the team's third and reserve driver. 

It was speculated that Alpine had handed the Australian a six-race contract, something former team boss Oliver Oakes had denied, insisting he was safe until at least the summer break.

The French outfit has received criticism for its treatment of Doohan, with Bortoleto noting that Stake would never put him in a similar position.

When asked how he would have approached only having six races to prove himself, Bortoleto explained: "It wouldn't be different than what I had to be honest. It's not that I was not giving the maximum.

"I'm sure if you have, let's say, a contract or whatever, that people tell you that you only have six races, obviously it gets you a bit under pressure, and it's a bit different. You can make more mistakes because you're always trying to prove yourself and try to do a better job. 

"But at the end of the day, the best thing to do is always try to extract the maximum from your car. We know that Formula 1 you cannot take a car like he had, for example, and put it on pole, it's impossible, but I think he was doing actually a decent job. 

"He had some incidents, but he was doing a good job in qualifying and in some races. So, yeah, it's not my case. I'm lucky, I have a very good team behind me that doesn't put this type of pressure [on me]. 

"They made it very clear what they want to see from me and our future project that is already happening right now, what are our future goals and they are very clear for me."