Jack Doohan handed immediate F1 return blow

Former F1 driver Karun Chandhok has dealt Jack Doohan's chances of returning to the grid an immediate blow, by noting that he has not been on the radar of any team. 

Doohan was promoted at Alpine to a full-time seat for 2025 following the exit of Esteban Ocon; however, he has already been replaced after just six races. 

Franco Colapinto has been given the next five races to prove what he can do, before Alpine will conduct a further evaluation of the team's second seat alongside Pierre Gasly. 

However, Chandhok does not race Doohan's chances of returning to the grid very highly, with no other team being keen on signing the Australian.

"I think it's going to be tough for him to land a seat somewhere else, to be honest," Chandhok said on Sky F1's podcast. "He came into the Alpine seat really, because they lost Ocon.

"I think they didn't really have any other established drivers. I suppose Bottas was sort of loosely in contention, but they decided to promote from within, because they are in a rebuilding period, right? 

"So they decided to go promote from within. I don't think Jack was on the radar of any other team before that. So I can't see if that is something that's going to change going forward. 

"And the thing is, with Cadillac coming in, there's obviously a lot of rumblings about the driver market, but I'm not hearing Jack being at the top of anyone's list."

In Chandhok's eyes, Doohan needs Colapinto to struggle during his five-race stint, with Alpine being the only realistic option he has to return to a race seat in F1.

"So really, I think his best option is if Colapinto struggles, and they go off and give Jack a bunch of testing and give him a chance to improve a bit more, and who knows whether he comes back," added Chandhok.

"Because it is odd, isn't it, a five-race deal. To publicly announce a five-race deal, that's quite something. That's not exactly a vote of confidence to the driver."