Mick Doohan: Jack did it right

Alpine Academy student Jack Doohan made his Formula 1 debut on Friday, but so far only in training: in the first session he was allowed to drive Esteban Ocon’s car.

The 19-year-old racer was out of luck, power plant issues prevented him from completing training, but overall he passed it pretty confidently. His father, the famous Australian motorcycle racer Mick Duane, who won the world championship five times in a row in the 90s, is happy for his son.

“Jack has accomplished one of the most important tasks and I am very happy for him,” said Duane Sr. on Sky Sports. – All young racers dream of this, and today I was especially happy, because I have followed my son’s success since the time he was involved in karting.

I had a lot of fun, enjoyed the moment and hopefully the day will come when Jack can drive a Formula 1 car every weekend. In general, he does not like to lose, and this is already one of the good qualities that a racer needs. It manifested itself in him from childhood, whatever he was doing, playing football or anything else.

After all, I am only his father, and so I prefer not to meddle in my son’s affairs, except that I can advise you to take every task seriously, keep calm and avoid mistakes. In my opinion he did a good job, although due to a small problem the team decided to return the car to the garage, but that’s okay.

But I think Jack did a good job in the first practice, although the track condition was far from the best. I think he will have another training session in Abu Dhabi, and then we will see how things develop and what he will do next year.

For now, our focus is on pursuing a career in Formula 2. If there is an interesting option we will consider it, but for now it is F2, and Jack is also looking for the role of reserve driver in Formula 1. However, it all depends on Alpine.”