Outside Line: Shameful FIA, F1, GPDA watch as scumbags at Alpine destroy Doohan
F1 NewsFriday, 04 April 2025 at 13:19
I'm astounded. I am dismayed. After witnessing Jack Doohan crash during Free Practice 2 for the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, the writing was on the wall. I wrote about it. I was ignored.
That was then. Now I'm seething. I'm beyond angry. But I’m relieved that Doohan is uninjured—albeit highly shaken—after one of the most preventable incidents that struck a nail in the coffin of his Formula 1 career.
Why? Simply because the scumbags who run Alpine have decreed he is not good enough, even before he's had a proper chance to prove himself. All because they have young Franco Colapinto waiting in the wings.
I take no pride, disgust actually, in pointing out that I told the story here. I warned the FIA and Formula 1. I neglected to include the GPDA and George Russell in that warning—shame on me—because they too have a huge, indelible stain on their conscience for allowing their colleague to go out without an FP1 session at Suzuka. I am no sage or soothsayer. It was simple logic that this was going to happen as reported>>>
Do they not remember that Suzuka is the 'grave' of the last Formula 1 driver to die here? What is going on? Are we in some comfort zone of perceived safety in Formula 1 where we think mortality has disappeared from the sport?
Absolutely not. The crashes we see today would have killed many a driver two decades ago. The Halo has saved lives. But motorsport remains dangerous. Motorsport is still deadly. And drivers will die racing—thankfully less often—but that possibility has never left. I hate to be the guy to remind those who forgot or who do not know all this. Think Formula 1 is friggin Netflix!
Formula 1 and the FIA should make FP1 mandatory for rookies immediately
Doohan’s crash was a big one. It looked like a driver error to me, but I’m not going into that. This isn’t about the rookie's capabilities or errors. Doohan is the victim here. Whether we believe he deserves that drive or not. That's irrelevant. But on the weekend, at Suzuka, his fourth GP start, when he is in it why throw him under the bus too?
Doohan deserved better. He deserved FP1 for his own good and the team's own good. I don’t care what excuse the scumbag Alpine team has as an excuse. Fire him before or after, but don't 'castrate' him as they so blatantly did. Some things are cardinal, inexcusable.
Furthermore - fast-asleep to anything that's not making tons of money - Formula 1 and the FIA, should make amends for this cock-up by
immediately writing rules that prevent teams from making rookies sit out FP1. An exception could be to sit out Bahrain maybe which they know how to do because of of F1 preseason testing there.
But a rule must be implemented with immediate effect. Especially in this era, where these Formula 1 cars are edgy, aggressive, and brutally difficult to drive. Not helped by criminally short pre-season F1 testing, with the Young Guns victims as Formula 2 is increasingly irrelevant as a step up into Formula 1.
Why was Pierre Gasly silent? He’s an elder statesman. He should’ve known better. He should have put his foot down and said, “No way can we send Jack out here cold.”
Rookie F1 drivers need as much track time as possible. Doohan proved that.
Why did they even need to run Ryo Hirokawa in FP1? Marketing over safety! Seriously? It's beyond stupid, it's audacious. It’s incompetent. It’s malicious. It’s everything rolled into one. [<<<< FIA & F!: WTF?]
And the scumbag-in-chief at Alpine is Flavio Briatore. Until I’m told otherwise, I believe he runs the show. He calls the shots. And therefore, this is on him. If it is not him, then he should no better and not condone this crime.
The only delight I take from this is that his team will have to pay for the damage caused by their stupidity. Karma is a bitch. And Briatore will always be a target of its wrath for all the malice he has created in his life and in our sport. It's like making Al Capone a bank manager.
So I say to the FIA, to F1, to the GPDA: hang your heads in shame. You have all contributed to, and perpetrated—inadvertently or not—what I believe is the planned destruction of Doohan, to get Colapinto into the Alpine sh!tbox.
This is about the safety of every single Formula 1 driver on the grid. The integrity of our sport and the well-being of our drivers. And while the FIA obsesses over nipple rings, jewellery, and swear words, they’ve dropped the ball—by turning a blind eye to this.
Ben Sulayem the racer? Where are you when your 'sons' need protection?
Mohammed Ben Sulayem likes to brag how he is a racer, I don;t dount that. But then the Chief of this sport should know better and act immediately. Everyone in that FIA organisation who claims they have racing in their blood—hang your head in shame.
And this weekend isn’t over. The Doohan dilemma remains. That FP1 session you denied him has already
To those of you who think this is just an angry tirade against Briatore—it’s not. In fact, when he was brought in to bail out Luca de Meo’s destruction of Renault F1 Team, I thought it was a good idea. I genuinely couldn’t think of anyone better for the job.
But now that the dust has settled, and the honeymoon is over—you know what? The guy hasn’t changed. He’s exactly the same. Formula 1's Scumbag in Chief retains the title.
Weren’t Alpine under scrutiny for doing something illegal within months of his return? Or suddenly running a dodgy car last weekend in China? You could say this is all a coincidence… but there are just too many coincidences under Briatore’s watch to be trusted.
Why is Briatore even allowed near a Formula 1 track?
I have already listed Briatore's flirtations with crime and the other side of the law in a previous Outside Line. Be warned I am being very selective and omitting a can of worms I have no desire to explore.
The Formula 1 cheating allegations back to the Benneton days when they ran illegal traction control software. When they nearly killed Jos Verstappen when cheating the fuel nozzle on the rigs. We are lucky Max is even around.
Commanding Nelson Piquet Junior to crash his car so Renault could win with Fernando Alonso! Premeditated by Briatore and fellow scumbag scoundrel Pat Symonds, who is also floating around the piranha sewer that is the modern F1 paddock. Those F1 crimes are bad enough.
Did Formula 1 do due diligence on the scumbag-in-chief? How does anyone really get to know who this man is anyway? A quick Google search is a good start. Or better yet—use ChatGPT or any of the AI aggregators out there. Try 'Deep Search' option. Do English and Italian sources. It's dark.
In closing: Back to Doohan and Suzuka. Call me morbid, a misguided prophet of doom but my inner voice keeps saying: Never forget Jules Bianchi!
Footnote: If any of the abovementioned want to reach out about this matter you have my number, you have my email. To the Alpine scumbags involved with the Jack decision, first prize Flavio: If you have the time it would be great to have you on our 2 Soft Compounds podcast I do with Rick Houghton. Unplugged and uncensored.
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