Jacques Villeneuve expresses sympathy for 'desperate' Jack Doohan after huge accident

Jacques Villeneuve has expressed some sympathy for "desperate" Jack Doohan following his huge accident in Japanese Grand Prix practice.

Having sat out FP1 at Suzuka for Ryo Hirakawa, Doohan crashed heavily at Turn 1 on his second push lap, impacting the barriers at 185mph and destroying the Alpine.

Doohan gingerly climbed from the car and was taken to the medical centre for mandatory checks, receiving a clean bill of health as speculation around his future mounts.

The Australian's position has been undermined by Alpine signing Franco Colapinto from Williams as a third and reserve driver, with executive advisor Flavio Briatore upping the pressure on the rookie driver, who crashed out in Australia before finishing out of the points in China. 

Reflecting on the situation, 1997 world champion Villeneuve explained how the circumstances were not helping Doohan to deliver on track.

"The problem is that he's known from before the first race that he would probably not finish this season, and he's been put under tremendous pressure by Flavio [Briatore], with Colapinto there in the wings," Villeneuve explained on Sky Sports F1. 

"The writing was on the wall, and his driving has been one of desperation, having to prove that he is better than Gasly so they should keep him when he's already been told that: 'Look, you do a few races' but then you'll probably be replaced.'

"You can see it in his driving, it is not comfortable, it is really not comfortable and when the driver is in that situation, even psychologically, the driving will not be natural and small mistakes will start happening.

"It looked aggressive and was just a tiny bit too much [wide], and it would have been okay in normal conditions with the tyres warm and without a tailwind but the team might see in the data that maybe the suspension failed.

"That is something we cannot really see now, but it looked very aggressive and the way it pivoted was very surprising."