Jack Doohan's father sends cryptic message after Alpine driver swap

Motorcycle racing legend Mick Doohan, the father of Jack, has taken to social media following his son's Alpine demotion. 

It was announced on Wednesday morning by the Enstone-based team that it would swap Doohan and Franco Colapinto from next weekend's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. 

Colapinto has been given five races to prove his worth, before a further evaluation over the second Alpine seat will take place ahead of the British Grand Prix.

Doohan has returned to being the outfit's lead test and reserve driver, filling the role which Colapinto held for the opening six rounds. 

It was a difficult six rounds for the Australian driver, who suffered two crash-based retirements in Australia and Miami. He also failed to score a point, although Pierre Gasly has only scored six.

Following Doohan's demotion, his father has taken to social media by posting two Instagram stories, showing the results of Gasly and his son so far this season. 

The 22-year-old was never significantly slower than Gasly, with the duo having claimed similar results and often only been separated by a couple of positions. 

This article continues below the social media posts.

Doohan vs. Gasly

Given Doohan's inexperience compared to Gasly, the Australian driver has not made an awful start to his F1 career. 

Both Doohan and Gasly have either failed to finish or not been included in the classification for two races, with the pair often being separated by only a few positions. 

Alpine's car has shown promise at times; however, it has also been a car which has struggled to escape Q1 at certain grands prix. 

Doohan has been roughly just over three-tenths of a second slower than his team-mate, a similar margin to George Russell over Kimi Antonelli. 

In the opening six rounds, Doohan out-qualified Gasly once in grand prix qualifying and once in sprint qualifying. However, Gasly had the better of Doohan in both sprint races. 

It is a similar story in the grands prix, with Doohan having only technically finished ahead of Gasly in China and Saudi Arabia. 

In China, Gasly had finished ahead but was disqualified, whilst he crashed in Saudi Arabia.

View the pair's grand prix head-to-head results below!