Jack Doohan handed Red Bull comparison: 'If he does that, he doesn’t have to worry'

Jack Doohan must deliver points in order to save his Alpine seat, according to former F1 driver Johnny Herbert.

The Briton claimed the 22-year-old "doesn't have to worry" if he can contribute results alongside Pierre Gasly.

Herbert feels Doohan's start to the season "hasn't been bad", despite a couple of high-profile crashes and failing to open his points account in F1.

Aside from his team-mate's disqualification in China, outside of their one retirement each, Doohan's best finish of P13 is equal to Gasly's worst.

The Frenchman picked up Team Enstone's only points of the campaign so far in Bahrain, with a superb drive to seventh. Whilst Doohan flirted with a points finish in Sakhir, he ultimately came home empty-handed.

After seemingly surviving the heavily speculated five-round deadline to impress the top brass at Alpine, the Australian is not out of the woods just yet, especially given Franco Colapinto is waiting in the wings.

Herbert highlighted how each team in the F1 paddock wants the best possible drivers in their two cars, meaning Doohan must prove he is a better option than the Argentine - and anyone else available.

"I know the market’s probably a little bit fixed for the next year or two, or for some of them quite a lot more, if you go McLaren, for example," he said. 

"But you need to try and grab the best drivers that you can at a certain time."

A touch of the Red Bull

To explain the task at hand for Doohan, Herbert leaned on his own experience from when he raced for Benetton, one of Alpine's previous guises and where Flavio Briatore was team principal at the time.

He used it to draw a comparison with the recent situation at Red Bull, where Sergio Perez was fired for failing to adequately contribute to the Milton Keynes squad's ill-fated constructors' championship defence last term.

"Going back to Red Bull, and even my time at Benetton, it was always about the constructors’ championship as well," the three-time grand prix winner explained. "So you’ve got to have the right drivers there. 

"It’s been Max [Verstappen] all on his own, effectively, although Sergio [Perez] probably has done, he did do a good job, it just wasn’t good enough for what Red Bull, again, [with the] expectations that they have.

"So it’s going to be down to having a driver there that can give them that, give them those results.

"And with Jack, that’s exactly what he’s got to do. If he does that, he doesn’t have to worry."