Jack Doohan saw his first home race in Formula 1 end in the Albert Park wall on the opening lap.

And, with the Aussie racing under the cloud of speculation over his long-term Alpine future, that shunt was something Doohan “doesn’t need at the moment”, ex-F1 racer turned Sky F1 pundit Martin Brundle pointed out.

Jack Doohan in danger? ‘Doesn’t need that with all the talk of Colapinto’

Ever since Alpine made the move to bring in Franco Colapinto from Williams as an F1 2025 reserve – following his impressive arrival on the F1 scene with Williams last season – Alpine’s rookie Doohan has found himself facing talk that he may not see out the season.

Both Alpine executive advisor Flavio Briatore and team principal Oliver Oakes have failed to offer any such assurances.

But in Melbourne, Doohan had the chance to hush that talk, a solid qualifying display on home soil setting him up nicely indeed.

However, the conditions changed for race day as wind and rain set in, as Doohan found himself among the trio of drivers crashing out early on.

Fellow rookie Isack Hadjar at Racing Bulls did not make it past the formation lap before wrecking his rear wing against the wall, and on Lap 1, Doohan got all out of shape through the first sector on the greasy track, sending him into the wall and out.

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“Yeah, he’ll have dropped that in the traction zone, it will have swapped ends, he was maybe even just shifting gear,” Brundle assessed on Sky F1 commentary duties.

“All these things you’ve got to learn, you’ve got to learn them the hard way unfortunately.

“And that is very bad news for Jack Doohan. He doesn’t need that at the moment with all the talk of Colapinto getting in that car.

“Jack needed a nice, solid day today. He’s certainly driven nicely in the dry this weekend.”

The conditions proved tricky for seasoned veterans as well, with last year’s Australian GP winner Carlos Sainz crashing his Williams coming out of the final turn under Safety Car conditions.

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