Doohan fully focused on F1 – rejected IndyCar offer

Alpine reserve Jack Doohan says he rejected multiple opportunities to race beyond the realm of F1 in 2024, including a chance to compete in IndyCar, as he remains steadfast in his commitment to F1.

Doohan concluded his 2023 campaign in F2 on the podium, the Aussie clocking in third in the feeder series behind Theo Pourchaire and Frederik Vesti.

However, after three seasons in the junior category, Doohan won’t be returning for a fourth year.

The 20-year-old has also rejected offers from a broad range of teams in other championships as he feels that his interests will be better served by devoted his time to his reserve and testing role in F1 with Alpine.

“At the moment, I don’t have anything set to race,” he confirmed, quoted by Speedcafe. “Had quite a lot of options and in all sub formulas, and inside formulas other than Formula 1.

“So not that the opportunities were shy – Super Formula, IndyCar, Hypercar, whatever it was – I was very fortunate to have those options.

“However, at this point in time, I feel it’s crucial that I focus only on Formula 1, which is heavily provided by Alpine that I’m able to stay within a car.”

• Read also: Doohan won’t return to F2 in 2024, but F1 ‘still the goal’

Beyond embedding with Alpine on race weekends, Doohan will continue to test previous-spec machinery, which means that he’ll get a chance to sample the Enstone squad’s A522 ground-effect car at some point next year.

“It’s very valuable,” Doohan said. “Testing recently has been in the ’21 cars, so we know that ’21 to ’23, it’s been quite a step and quite a lot of differences – starting off with the massive tyres and a little bit heavier, more downforce.

“But at least the ’22 to ’24 characteristics will be there, will be some similarities. It will be in a semi-similar sort of weight ratio, also on 18-inch tyres.

“It’s just about getting myself really into some race weekend formats to make sure that if I do have to hop in the car and do have to step in, that I can make sure that I do the job in the best possible way.”

Doohan said that his extensive test programme with Alpine was a crucial factor in convincing him to turn down alternative options.

“If I wasn’t going to have this extensive programme, then for sure I would need seat time, and that would be venturing out somewhere else,” Doohan noted.

“But being able to have that seat time in a Formula 1 machine and then be at the track here doing some work, I think that’s going to position myself in the best possible way to land a seat in ’25.”

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